Bad Counselors (2026/DVD*)/Borrowers (1997/Universal/Blu-ray*)/Life Is Life (2025/Icarus DVD)/Nadine (1987/Tri-Star/Blu-ray*)/Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series (1986-1993/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Stop! That! Train! (2026/Bleecker Street Blu-ray/*all Alliance)

Picture: C/B-/C/B-/B-/B- Sound: C+/B-/C/C+/B-/B Extras: D/D/C-/D/D/C+ Main Programs: C-/C-/C+/C/C/C

Now for a very mixed bag of comedies...

Chris Dowling's Bad Counselors (2026) seems to sell itself as yet another wild summer camp movie and having Chris Klein (who is not here as much as you might think) is supposed to make us think this might be another American Pie, Meatballs or the like, but it tries to be a few kinds of movies and does little of this well.

A couple of guys get in trouble for breaking the suspension of a college frat and worse, so the windup in court is 120 hours of community service. After accidentally going to what they thought was a concert and was a church event, they land up doing their service at a Christian Camp called Camp Burning Bush. From there, it becomes two fish out of water guys trying to adjust and less funny, also skipping some obvious jokes along the way. I do not know what the makers were trying to do, but this all falls flat, unless that was the intent. Missy Pyle also shows up, one of the few highlights here.

There are no extras.

In 1992, a novel series by Mary Norton (author of Bedknobs & Broomsticks) became a hit TV mini-series on British TV, so five years later, Director Peter Hewitt made a big screen version of The Borrowers and the results were not great critically or commercially. Fox and Peanuts' creator Charles Schultz's company did a 1973 TV version (needs a new release,) but this was done with a far larger budget and a cast that included John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Tom Felton (in his first film,) Hugh Laurie, Ruby Wax and Alex Winter.

The film is consistent in what it does, you can see the hard work going on here and the cast is not bad, but it just never has the energy or punch a fantasy film like this should. Maybe it has or will have a cult following, but Hewitt is more miss (Disney's Tom & Huck, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (a big budget bomb that helped kill Orion Pictures,) Thunderpants, Zoom, Maiden Heist) than hit (Garfield with Bill Murray) so it is no surprise, but studios keep trusting this man with fantasy projects, so he must be very efficient and smart on the technical side to pull them off. Now you can see this curio on a basic Blu-ray for yourself.

There are no extras.

Riccardo Milani's Life Is Life (2025) is an amusing and even timely comedy about a town that wants an old man to sell his longtime family farm so a big money company can turn it into a big luxury tourist attraction and resort, potentially creating an economic boom in the town and changing their fortunes of hundreds to thousands of people. But it gets heavy handed early and he gets more stubborn than he might otherwise have been, so every time he gets asked, he says no!

As the hope, demand and money increases, so does his resilience, but we get some twists and turns to go with the comedy and though we have seen more than a bit of this before, this is well done enough to give it a look if curious and interested. I'm glad I saw it for what worked.

Trailers for other Icarus releases are the only extras.

Robert Benton's Nadine (1987) is a rare outright comedy for the filmmaker/writer who helped create Bonnie & Clyde (1967,) worked on Superman: The Movie (1978) and helmed the likes of the somewhat overrated Kramer Vs. Kramer, the better Places in the Heart, amazing Late Show and Bad Company with Jeff Bridges. Bridges is back, playing the somewhat estranged husband of Kim Basinger, who tries to get some racy (for the early 1960s) sexy photos of herself she is being blackmailed over when she finds sensitive documents instead. Then it seems everyone wants them.

Though it nicely evokes the period, the leads have chemistry as expected and it has a solid supporting cast, it is too comical for its own good and that backfires, making any jeopardy the leads are in ring as weak. The late, great Rip Torn plays it very evil as the dangerous man who really wants those papers and Gwen Verdon, Glenne Headly, Jerry Stiller, Jay Patterson and Mickey Jones are all a plus. Too bad this was not made in the late 1970s, because it would have really worked and likely have been a hit, maybe big hit.

There are no extras.

When ABC became the #1 TV network in 1976, the combination of hour-long dramas and sitcoms put them over, making them the first network bedsides CBS to ever be #1. The hits included Welcome Back Kotter, Soap, Happy Days and all of its eventual spinoffs. As they slowly started to loose ground and sitcoms like I'm A Big Girl Now, Out Of The Blue, Open All Night and The Goodtime Girls disappointed when they could and should have gone through the roof, they had a few more old-style sitcoms that hit. There was Family Matters (a spinoff off this show,) Mr. Belvadere and Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series (1986 - 1993,) now (sort of surprisingly for some) out on Blu-ray. We reviewed the first two seasons on DVD here:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6712/Perfect+Strangers+-+The+Complete+First+and+Second

Mark Linn-Baker is Larry, who lives in and loves life in Chicago when he finds out a distant cousin named Balki (Bronson Pinchot) has decided to move there unexpectedly and to say it is awkward at first is an understatement, but they slowly (very slowly) get to know each other better and the result was a show that remarkably ran eight full seasons when seasons were not six episodes or the like.

For myself, I liked the actors much more than the show, but always appreciated its boldness to be silly and not care what other people may have thought about it. One of the few bright lights at ABC until Disney saved the network by buying it, now you can see and hear it better than before or ever, so fans and the curious should check out the set.

There are no extras, despite the fact the DVD sets had some, but Warner has done this before (Welcome Back Kotter) so go figure.

Adam Shankman's Stop! That! Train! (2026) is an amusing attempt to further spoof disaster films, though there have not been any cycle of them since the original Twister, but the film reaches much further back to the 1970s with Airport, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. But instead of Airplane! Humor all the time, the twist is plenty of gay and cross-dressing ideas, in-jokes and a well-constructed otherworld where those ideas thrive as background to the jokes.

The unknown cross-dressers playing the main characters are just fine and consistent in their performances, while RuPaul shows up as President of the United States and we get supporting appearances by Nicole Richie, Joel McHale, Jerry O'Connell, Nicole Sullivan, Chris Parnell, Sarah Michele Geller, Rachel Bloom, Evan Mulrooney, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lisa Rinna, Raven-Symone and Charo. This will make all of this a curio, even for those not interested in any gay context, but it is better than many of Shankman's more high profile releases (A Walk To Remember, The Wedding Planner, The Pacifier, Cheaper By The Dozen 2, Rock Of Ages, and What Men Want) making this one of his better feature films. Now you can see for yourself.

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Director Shankman and Co-Writers Christina Friel & Conor Wright, Production Design featurette and Director's Vision featurette. For more on Shankman's work, see my coverage of his underrated musical film of Hairspray:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6271/Hairspray+%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%80%9C+Shake

And Bringing Down The House:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11611/Bringing+Down+The+House+(2003)/Father+Of+The+B

Now for playback performance. All four Blu-ray releases have some detail issues and softness more than one would like. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Borrowers can have good color, but is from an older HD master. It is at least consistent in the shape it is in and the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix has some highlights, but also seems down a generation and could have been fuller.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Nadine can also look a little older than it should, also from an older HD master, but this is a well-shot film (lensed by no less than the legendary Nestor Almendros) and it has its moments. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is a little wear than expected and I expect this could benefit even more from a new remaster. This is passable for a basic edition, but the film could look and sound even better, though it is a theatrical monophonic film, so we would only expect so much sonically no matter what.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series can also at times show the age of the materials used, but these transfers are better than the DVDs that were not bad at the time. However, you can see the credits are down a generation (typical of productions at the time, but at least they did not use analog tape for them) and in a few scenes, you can get some great shots and then a so-so shot shows up. Like other old filmed TV shows ands especially sitcoms (from the Andy Griffith Show to some I Love Lucy shows already on Blu-ray) happens because of limited budgets, limited schedules and unlike some action TV shows (the George Reeves Superman, Roger Moore Saint, Man From U.N.C.L.E.) there were no plans to cut a few episodes into feature films for movie theaters.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 lossless sound mixes for the show start with Mono for the first seasons, then go to Stereo for Seasons 5, 6 and 7. The Mono is not that much better than the DCVDs for some reason, making one think many of these transfers are form older HD masters, better than DVD as they are, but the Stereo is a welcome upgrade and I do not think the show can sound too much better than it does here overall. I would not bet on a 4K release of the series, but nothing seems to have been tampered with or messed up, so purists should be happy. Save for superfans who might have a film print of a given episode, all should be happy enough.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 (with some 1.33 X 1) digital High Definition image transfer on Stop ! That! Train! is a brand new shoot that is color rich with wide-ranging color that looks as good as just about anything here, with costumes and production design a highlight. All that hard work and skipping the use of too much CGI digital work pays off, especially since it is a homage to older disaster films that were mostly produced in the pre-digital era along with early satires like Airplane! That is more impressive than just about anything here. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also easily the best sound mix here sonically and otherwise, so all in all, pretty impressive for an indie production.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the two DVDs are from productions that are well shot, but they are too soft here, even for the format, so we know these could look better. Both also only offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but the Italian track on Life is a little weak than Bad and both have limited sonics. Still, I bet they could sound better lossless.

- Nicholas Sheffo