Universal Quadruple Feature Packs (Comedy/Family/Romantic Comedy/Thriller DVD Sets)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C/C+     Extras: D     Films: D

 

 

Getting their last mileage out of titles on DVD like the other studios, Universal has issued no less than 4 double DVD sets with four back catalog films to sell, all of which in my mind are among their worst releases in the last 20 years of the studio.  I guess they are gambling someone might discover and half-like these duds and some a curios, but I am not a fan of any of them.  The Universal Quadruple Feature Packs are as follows:

 

 

The Comedy set should be called Urban Comedy and features the long forgotten Trippin’ (1999), one-joke Dave Chappelle vehicle Half Baked (1998) which even he could not save, Method Man/Redman dud How High (2001) and lame Chris Rock entry CB4 (1993) which hardly anyone talks about anymore.

 

The Family set includes the ultra-violent and surprisingly popular-at-the-time Ivan Reitman/Arnold Schwarzenegger hit Kindergarten Cop (1990) which is one of the most violent PG-13 films of all time, the Will Ferrell disaster Kicking & Screaming (2004) trashes both Robert Duvall and its audience, Mayor Payne (1995) is one of the reasons Damon Wayans never became the big comic box office star he should have and Problem Child (1990) was a one-joke film redeemed more by the presence of the late John Ritter than anything else, though made more infamous by the presence of Michael Richards.

 

The Romantic Comedy set includes The Wedding Date, which we already reviewed on the now-defunct HD-DVD format:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5671/The+Wedding+Date+(HD-DVD)

 

It also has the terrible Ben Stiller/Jennifer Aniston train wreck Along Came Polly (2003), The Coen Brothers’ nadir (give or take The Ladykillers remake) Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and Rob Reiner’s extremely sickening and obnoxious The Story Of Us (1999) with two of the worst performances Michelle Pfeiffer or Bruce Willis will ever turn in, topped off with the theme song I’m Sorry, a horrid nightmare of a record that is the worst thing Eric Clapton will ever record!

 

The Thriller set is a real back-stabber including Mark Wahlberg hunting down Reese Witherspoon in Fear (1996) so poor that you root for the killer thanks to a bad script, the would-be thriller The Watcher (2000) with James Spader, Marisa Tomei and Keanu Reeves about a killer on the loose (yawn), Fatal Attraction writer James Dearden’s very, very, very bad remake of A Kiss Before Dying with Matt Dillon stalking Sean Young and the likes of James Russo, Diane Ladd and (oh, boy) Max Von Sydow getting in the way and Raising Cain (1992), one of the worst films Brian De Palma will ever make with John Lithgow as a split-personality killer.  The film has Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen and no substance whatsoever.

 

Skip them all!

 

 

The various anamorphically enhanced (1.85, 2.35 X 1) images throughout are good at best but nothing great, stuffed two to one DVD probably does not help matters.  The fact that one is already out in HD (dead format or not) gives you an idea how old these transfers are.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sometimes has Pro Logic surrounds, but they are weak, while the Dolby 5.1 mixes all seemed restricted in a way they should not have been.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo