DVD reviews

Paramount updates Ghost with 4K remastered version

Ghost money when a man who appears to be

Paramount Presents Blu-ray $29.99 a mugger shoots and kills Sam when he and Molly are returning from a performance of Hamlet.

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) appears A tunnel of light appears in the sky to have it made: he’s got a good job as Sam watches Molly cradling his at a bank working with bloody body, but instead his best friend Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn), he’s moving into a new apartment with his wonderful girlfriend Molly DVD REVIEW of moving onto the other side, Sam sticks around. Desperate for closure and desperate to ease Molly’s heartbreak, Sam Jensen (Demi Moore), and discovers Oda Mae Brown their relationship might be turning into something TYLER (Whoopi Goldberg), a socalled spiritual medium long-term. Yet, there’s a feeling in FOSTER who normally scams her customers but actually the pit of his stomach hears his voice. With Oda that good things can’t last, an instinct Mae’s reluctant assistance, Sam tracks that turns out to be right on the down the mugger, a man named Willie

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Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg gets a good look from Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) in Ghost.

Lopez (Rick Aviles), and inadvertently uncovers a corporate conspiracy that puts Mollie in danger.

On paper, Ghost is a pretty wild gamble. The film is, more or less, a romance/sci-fi/comedy/thriller/ mystery/drama – not a combination one sees regularly.

Although the film essentially shies away from any specific religious talk, it is genuinely and unabashedly spiritual, with a “good” afterlife signified by the tunnel of light, and a “bad” afterlife in which howling shadows rise up and pull spirits into the ground.

The movie tests the audience’s suspension of disbelief at its most sincere moments, and that sincerity is, in and of itself, a high-wire act, frequently scored to the intensely sentimental chords of “Unchained Melody.”

On top of all that, the movie is (as both men now laugh about) in the hands of Jerry Zucker, whose previous work consisted of spoof movies such as Airplane! and Top Secret!, which he directed with his brother David Zucker, and their mutual collaborator Jim Abrahams.

Yet, 30 years later, the movie works, thanks to a number of pieces falling perfectly in place.

At the heart of Ghost’s success is the casting, which is outstanding across the board.

Swayze is the film’s first big win. He was coming off of the success of Road House, a movie that prompted Zucker to say “over my dead body” when it came to letting Swayze play Sam Wheat. Yet Road House is, in a weird way, a great example of why Swayze works for Ghost. Both films provide a great example of Swayze’s ability to subvert expectations, to go for a different tone or attitude than most actors would’ve been inclined to. The sincerity of Ghost’s romance and the intensity of the mystery both seem to call for a traditional, straightforward masculinity, yet Swayze allows Sam to be goofy and nervous, struggling with his own anxieties.

During the film’s infamous pottery scene, before both he and Moore turn up the sexiness, Sam accidentally knocks over her first attempt at making a pot and giggles about it. There’s a relaxed quality about him that makes him a great fit for the film’s funny and serious sides.

Of course, as much as Swayze contributes, no performer in the film is better at blending the movie’s tones than Goldberg, who was rewarded for her efforts with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. She deserves it, too: from the moment she comes on screen, there’s no question that Oda Mae Brown represents Goldberg in her comic prime.

Swayze may be the ghost, but it’s Goldberg who practically glows the whole movie with an other-worldly charisma, elevating the mood with her wit even as the film gets into dark and unpleasant territory. She has excellent comic chemistry with Swayze, especially in a sequence late in the movie where he accompanies her into his old bank, and she handles the film’s dramatic passages with equal skill.

There is one scene, near the film’s climax, that requires such a leap of faith from the audience, and it’s a testament to Goldberg, Swayze and Moore that the moment works, even with Zucker’s necessary sleight of hand to obscure the reality of the scene.

Bruce Joel Rubin also won an Academy Award for his screenplay, and it also deserves such accolades. The way he and Zucker weave in bits of humor (such as a bizarre, angry ghost played by Vincent Schiavelli who lives on the subway) around the film’s relatively predictable but nonetheless engaging mystery is very impressive, and despite all of the plot points and characters that Ghost needs to juggle to arrive at its conclusion, the film never feels overstuffed or bloated (accomplishing one of these two tricks is a feat; accomplishing them both simultaneously is even more unlikely).

Meanwhile, Zucker holds up his end of the bargain by deftly managing to keep the movie funny without ever turning the premise into a joke or a parody – the characters create the humor, not the situation itself. There are definitely moments that fall on the corny side of sentimental, but just like the characters in Ghost, there is a point at which viewers will just have to surrender to everything the film has to offer, and 30 years later, doing so remains a rewarding experience.

Parmaount has struck a balance between the familiar and the new with their art for Ghost, which follows the template of a blue, ghostly light and an image of Swayze and Moore embracing, but uses an entirely different picture than the original poster art, and flips the colors around so the backdrop is white and the figures are blue.

All of the Blu-ray releases in the Paramount Presents line have been given brand-new 4K remasters, and Ghost’s brand new 1.78:1 1080p AVC transfer thankfully continues their improving track record following the

debacle surrounding To Catch a Thief. Ghost offers a beautiful grain field, very impressive depth and dimension, and a thoroughly rejuvenated color palette that really invigorates the picture with new life.

There is one new extra: Filmmaker Focus: Director Jerry Zucker on Ghost (6:24) sits down with the director to chat about his memories of making the movie briefly, including first being hired to direct the script, Whoopi’s crucial contribution, the pottery scene, digital effects, and the legacy of the film.

Paramount has also included several carry-over extras from the original Special Collector’s Edition DVD, including an audio commentary by Zucker and writer Bruce Joel Rubin, the short documentary Ghost Stories: The Making of a Classic (13:06; a nice overview, if a little short), the featurette Alchemy of a Love Scene (6:16; a fun separate look at the film’s infamous pottery scene), and the film’s original theatrical trailer.

However, while this is much closer to complete than Paramount got with their recent Blu-ray of Pretty in Pink (reviewed in the July 16, 2020 Reader), the studio has still inexplicably dropped two extras from the aforementioned DVD, namely Cinema’s Great Love Stories (19:45) and Inside the Paranormal (8:53).

Now, to be fair, these are the two least-Ghost-centric extras on the original disc: the former is a clip show about an AFI list of great love stories, and the latter interviews people who do what Oda Mae Brown does in real life, but that’s still about 30 minutes of content, exchanged for less than seven that cover things already covered on the disc.

Given Zucker recorded a commentary and participated in the previous documentary, a much better new extra (assuming she was willing) would’ve been a 2019/2020 interview with Demi Moore, who only appears in the DVDera extras through vintage interview clips.

Ghost looks and sounds great on Paramount’s new Blu-ray, and while they haven’t retained all the extras, it’s fair to say they saved the most important ones. Fans of the film shouldn’t hesitate to upgrade their previous Blu-rays for the new 4K-remastered transfer. Highly recommended.

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Three westerns in one package

styles. Production Code restrictions would also seem to account for the picture’s weird structure, with topbilled Randolph Scott and Kay Francis playing characters peripheral to the Dalton saga. They exist seemingly to provide the film with a semi-happy scene before the final fade-out. The thin plot has attorney Tod Jackson (Scott), while passing through Kansas, stopping to visit the Daltons, old friends from his childhood days. The Daltons: Grat (Brian Donlevy), Bob (Broderick Crawford), Ben (Stuart Erwin), and Emmett (Frank Albertson) are honest, hard-working farmers doting on their Ma (Mary Gordon) When a crooked land development company tries to steal their farmland, Ben accidentally kills a surveyor, and during the sham trial the Daltons, left Western Classics I with no other choice, flee and turn to a life of crime, with Ozark Jones (Andy

Blu-ray, $49.95 Devine), a hot-blooded Lothario (!)

Western Classics I bundles three joining them rather than submit to a 1940s titles, all grade-A productions, shotgun wedding. polished yet only a bit above average: Meanwhile Tod, sitting on the When the Daltons Rode (1940), made sidelines after legal solutions collapse, by Universal, and two Paramount falls in love with Julie King (Francis, Westerns in Technicolor, anachronistically decked The Virginian (1946) and Whispering Smith (1948). DVD out in contemporary make-up, hair, and even The 1940s was, perhaps, the most prolific decade REVIEW ‘40s-style shoulder pads), Bob’s fiancée. Tod’s loyalty of Western movie to Bob, naturally, stands in production, yet artistically the genre was fairly STUART the way of True Love. (Spoilers) Production stagnant. B-Westerns had become increasingly GALBRAITH IV Code restrictions strangle a potentially good story. juvenile, while A-Westerns The movie was based on remained stubbornly the same-named book, cogeneric, colorful but unambitious for written by Emmett Dalton, who died the most part. in 1937. Yet, in the movie, he’s gunned

There were exceptions, of course: down along with the other Daltons William A. Wellman’s The Ox-Bow because at the time all criminal acts Incident (1942), Howard Hawks’s Red had to be punished; merely having him River (1948), John Ford’s Fort Apache arrested apparently not enough. (1948), 3 Godfathers, and She Wore a Randolph Scott dominates the firstYellow Ribbon (both 1949). half of the film, but is largely absent

However, the overwhelming number later when the narrative shifts to the of A-level Hollywood Westerns from Daltons and their activities. the decade were more like the three Compounding the oddness of presented here. Great production When the Daltons Rode is its awkward values, fine casts, but pretty ordinary. insertions of comedy relief, (more

Clearly influenced by the successes spoilers), most notably giving Andy of both Jesse James (1939), the Tyrone Devine’s broadly comic outlaw plenty Power/Henry Fonda classic that of screentime to clown (e.g., Ozark spurred a subgenre of “sympathetic trying to eat a lemon pie while running outlaw” films; and Destry Rides Again from the law) only to have loveable (1939), director George Marshall’s Andy ignominiously gunned down. semi-comical Western with James Director Marshall, who’d earlier Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, directed Laurel & Hardy at the Roach When the Daltons Rode has Marshall Studios, fills the pictures with bit and screenwriter Harold Shumate players known for their work in that awkwardly fusing these incompatible sort of comedy: Stanley Blystone, Walter Long, James C. Morton, etc.

Where When the Daltons Rode delivers is in its many, big-scale shoot-outs and impressive stunt work, including something I don’t recall seeing in any other Western: the gang, on horseback, jumping from a moving train.

The Virginian was the fourth film of Owen Wister’s 1902 novel, debatably the first serious work of western fiction. Cecil B. DeMille adapted it first, as a 1914 silent film, and 1946 audiences doubtlessly remembered the 1929 early talkie, which starred Gary Cooper.

This remake opens in 1885 Vermont, where pretty Molly Wood (Barbara Britton) leaves home to become a schoolteacher in rural Wyoming Territory. Beautiful young women being a rarity in them thar parts, her adopted town immediately becomes enamored of her, especially cowboys Steve Andrews (Sonny Tufts) and “the Virginian” (Joel McCrea). Gregarious rogue Steve seems to have the upper hand over the Virginian, a crack cowboy but all thumbs around women, but we know where this is leading.

Most of the town suspects gambler Trampas (Brian Donlevy) of rustling cattle, thinning nearby ranches and rebranding them for a quick sell-off, but the local judge is reluctant to charge him for lack of evidence, while the local sheriff is on Trampas’s payroll. Steve falls in with Trampas, while the Virginian is tasked with leading a posse to catch the rustlers, whomever they turn out to be.

Though passable as entertainment, there’s not much here beyond the pleasure of watching the four leads go through their passes, and one very sequence I’ll come to shortly.

After his death, Sonny Tufts became something of a joke, the poster child of the Hollywood “star” of dubious ability and fame. Partly this was self-inflicted, with Tufts, an abusive alcoholic in his later years, making bad career choices culminating with the movie he’s now chiefly remembered for, playing the lead (though not the hero) in Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), a notorious stinker. Yet, in The Virginian, he’s actually quite good, appealing in a breezy, Jack Carson sort of way, the friend of the hero who, like Tufts himself, makes some disastrous life choices. (Spoilers) When one of three captured rustlers turn out to be Steve, the Virginian can only stand by as his posse make plans to “string ‘em up,” a quasi-lynching. Having recently re-watched The Ox-Bow Incident, its story likewise built around a lynching, the two scenes make for interesting comparison. The long lead up to the lynching in Ox-Bow is almost unbearably tense, even seen today, but the hanging of three similar characters in The Virginian is unexpectedly powerful also.

Whispering Smith is yet another bestfriends-on-opposite-sides-of-the-law Western, this time pitting Alan Ladd against Robert Preston.

As with The Virginian, Whispering Smith is pretty ordinary as a Western, though watchable thanks to the lavish production values, attractive Technicolor lensing, and the cast. Ladd’s low-key performance makes a nice contrast to Preston’s largerthan-life one, who’s big-hearted and very likeable some of the time, but controlling and borderline abusive. He’s used to pilfering undamaged goods from wrecks for himself, petty crimes that gradually escalate, and his umbrage at suggestions that what he’s doing is morally objectionable and selfdestructive are realistically played.

The picture’s main asset, however, is raven-haired Brenda Marshall, indescribably beautiful in Technicolor. Married to William Holden at the time, Marshall’s career included major roles in films like The Sea Hawk, Captains of the Clouds, and The Constant Nymph but, despite her popularity her film work tapered off sharply after 1943, just four years in the business, and after Whispering Smith she made just one more feature, The Iroquois Trail (1950) before retiring.

The other performance of note, indeed a startling one, is Frank Faylen’s albino gunfighter. Though today best remembered as Ernie the friendly cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life and later as Dwayne Hickman’s grocer father on TV’s The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Faylen had a long and peculiarly spotty career, appearing in both small credited roles and uncredited bit parts well into the mid-1940s, but his role here, visually similar to blues singer Johnny Winter, is like a spaghetti Western villain in an ordinary ‘40s Technicolor one.

None of the three films is much better than “OK” but the transfers look great and the supplements are another incentive. Geared, really, for hardcore Western fans than general audiences, Western Classics I is, for them, Recommended.

‘Kidding’ is true must-see TV

Kidding: Season One a relationship with someone. His DVD REVIEW NEIL LUMBARD Paramount, $29.98 Kidding is one of the most unique and intriguing new television series to hit airwaves in the past few years. Though audiences have become accustomed to being in a “golden age” of television there are still shows which find ways to not only push the envelope creatively but which also genuinely surprise and delight with their originality, complexity, and idiosyncratic delights. The series is produced by star Jim Carrey along with creator Dave Holstein (Weeds), Raffi Adlan, Michael Aguilar, Roberto Benabib, and director Michel Gondry. Jeff (Jim Carrey) is a world renowned and beloved television host for a children’s series (which strikes comparison to the like of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Pee Wee’s Playhouse). His on-air persona is that of Mr. Pickles, a warm, kind and generous spirit who radiates meaningful characteristics through his show as it beams into the homes of millions. Jeff himself isn’t too far removed from the kindheartedness of Mr. Pickles. Everyone who knows him sees the kindness which inspires the beloved Mr. Pickles character. The children’s series is produced by Jeff’s father, Seb (Frank Langella). Unlike his son (whose involvement in the series stems from a desire to help others), Seb is simply a businessman whose interest is to profiteer on the production and its franchise development (as the series is translated into other countries with different “hosts” around the world bringing a spin to Mr. Pickles and he looks into the possibility of replacing his son with an animated version of the Mr. Pickles character so he can fully control every aspect of the series). Deirdre (Catherine Keener) also works on the production and tries to counter-balance some of the madcap producer-ideas from Seb. While the series itself presents Mr. Pickles as an almost-perfect and idyllic being, Jeff isn’t having such a peachykeen time in real life. His young son Will Pickles (Cole Allen) is addicted to drugs and Jeff is trying to help his son overcome his use of drugs. Jeff is also lonely and looking for relationship ended with ex-wife, Jill (Judy Greer). Though Jeff and Jill are on speaking terms it’s clear that things are rocky for the entire family. Jeff is dealing with a personal mid-life crisis of sorts while trying to sort out the meaning of his life in relation to family, to friends, and to the world of viewers experiencing his show. In my mind, Kidding is a perfect remedy to the increase in television series which star unlikable and overbearingly dark protagonists in their overbearingly dark worlds. Not every television series needs pitch-black vibes, folks. This series has the touch of being a smart, complex series which has dark characters and serious themes but you can become more easily involved in the storytelling. This isn’t a House of Cards-type series where nearly every character might feel unbearably unlikable. Though Kidding revolves around serious dramatic themes such as divorce, drug addiction and finding meaning in one’s self (as well as finding balance in family and work) it’s also a series where you become engaged with the character’s and their respective journeys. You root for these characters. Kidding was created by Dave Holstein. This is a well-developed show with great writing, characters, and themes at each turn. It’s easy to get engaged with each episode as the show quickly pulls you in with it’s storytelling craft. The series feels like it has an overarching aim and direction, developing piece-by-piece. The characters are on a journey that feels well laid-out by the staff of writers. The series is directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Jake Schreier (Robert and Frank), and Minkie Spiro (Call the Midwife). Gondry is the primary director who oversees the creative development. Jim Carrey and Michel Gondry created magic together when they made the cinematic gem Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. They have perfect collaborative synchronicity once more with Kidding. From a production standpoint,

Kidding excels.

The music by David Wingo (Take Shelter, Midnight Special) is unique and charming. The score feels whimsical and part melancholic while effectively matching the tempo and mood of the story.

Cinematography by Shawn Kim and Shasta Spahn is engaging and beautiful throughout.

The costumes by Rahel Afiley (Flight of the Conchords, The Muppets) are stylized for the characters and the quirky nature of the story. The production design by Maxwell Orgell matches the outlandish originality of Gondry with aplomb.

Kidding is that rare television series that grips you from the very first episode.

More often than not, television can sometimes take some time to truly win you over completely. The first episode is not always the best indication on whether a series will ultimately work for you. (Even some of my all time favorites like Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn’t completely win-me-over from the first episode).

Yet with Kidding, that initial episode is a good indication of what’s in store from this charming and quirky television series.

I’m not kiddin’ (pun is intended, folks) about Kidding being something truly special.

Kidding arrives on DVD with an MPEG-2 encode in the original television broadcast aspect ration of 1.78:1 widescreen. The DVDs are presented in anamorphic widescreen for widescreen televisions. Unfortunately, that’s the most positive thing about the presentation: no black bars on all sides. This presentation is predictably mediocre with high compression levels. It’s mediocre by DVD standards (feeling as if little thought or care went into the presentation). The presentation quality has little to add, with poor definition, frequent pixelation and bad color reproduction.

This entire presentation feels like one which was just tossed on disc without any regard to trying to eek out the best of the DVD format.

The audio is presented on DVD with 5.1 surround sound. This is a averagequality sound mix which occasionally has interesting sound design decisions but mostly is front-heavy and dialogue-driven. Nothing impressive regarding dynamics or fidelity but it’s a serviceable presentation.

The DVD includes a handful of fluff EPK behind-the-scenes promotional videos (which were previously released as promotional videos online).

The most interesting extra on the release is a making-of breakdown of the filming of one particularly challenging sequences in which an entire apartment is given a time-lapse makeover that required production crew to rapidly run around the set, making major set alterations, without breaking the sequence’s single-take photography. This sequence clearly demonstrates the brilliance of director Michel Gondry (who has become a master of these photographic efforts with music videos from the likes of The White Stripes to The Chemical Brothers).

Kidding is great appointment-level television. Jim Carrey is incredible in the series and delivers one of his best performances to date. The show is engaging from start to finish and leaves one practically begging for more.

Season 2 can’t come soon enough. The series is also beautifully directed by Michel Gondry, and feels so creative, original and complex with each episode. This is easily one of my new favorite television outings. Must-see television.

Highly Recommended.