The Wild Life 1984 *RELEASED* — Page 2

This release has been uploaded to CG for those of you who care.

CG?

DoomBot said:

CG?

 cinemageddon

got ya  thanks

Release Date:  April 13th, 2014          Studio:  Universal Pictures               Release Year:  1984

Disk Size:  19.9GB                              Length:  96 Minutes                          MPAA Rating:  R     

Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (28.00 Mbps) Resolution: 1080p Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Audio English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Subtitles None Discs 25GB BD-R Single disc (1 BD) Playback Region free

The Wild Life Blu-ray Review

From the creators of 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High" - something even faster!

Reviewed by TripleHBK, February 2nd, 2015

The “Wild Life”… or as most of us called it:  High School, where Hormones flowed and poor decision making was a prerequisite for a good night.  The Wild Life is very much your typical 80’s coming of age comedy with goof ball antics and coming of age lessons.  Billed as an unofficial sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the film doesn’t so much follow “Fast Times” as attempt to repeat it and its success.  We’re treated to the usual tropes of 80’s comedy…  Bill, the hard working though dull hero of the story whose journey teaches him that life isn’t always what you plan for as he attempts to leave home for the first time, deciding to move into a singles complex complete with Doctors and Stewardess’.  Tom, the free spirited, red blooded American male that has one thing and only one thing on his mind, and that’s a good time, be it through peeping at his on again off again girlfriend Eileen (Played by Jenny Wright) through an open window, throwing himself a “stag Party” in celebration of his self-proclaimed (and entirely inaccurate) recent engagement, or hosting the house party to end all house parties (at everyone else’s expense of course), Jim, the younger brother to Bill (played by Ilan Michael-Smith (Wyatt from Weird Science) the tough-as-nails 15- year-old boy who's obsessed with Vietnam, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix, and Anita, (Played by a young pre Back to the Future  Leah Thompson) Bill’s Old Flame and the typical, “looking for love in all the wrong places”, kind of gal. 

Without having ever viewed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Wild Life would be an enjoyable trek through a long gone era, however having visited Ridgemont on more than a few occasions myself, “The Wild Life” feels more like a retelling of a joke we’ve heard so many times before. We know that the joke is good, but it’s just not funny after hearing (and in this case seeing) it all many times before.   The young cast is certainly entertaining, and the movie zips along nicely, keeping the audience engaged throughout the 96 minute run time, but it can never quite find it’s own identity, and in failing to do so, never quite rises out of the shadow of it’s much more popular cousin; Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  Without a doubt the most interesting aspect of The Wild Life might very well be that writer Cameron Crowe claims to have successfully masqueraded as a high school student to write the book on which the first film was based, and who wrote the follow-up screenplay for ''The Wild Life” as if living out a real life Peter “call me Lando” Griffin segway of Family Guy. 

Fans of 80’s comedy will undoubtedly find a lot to like about The Wild Life.  Its cast is likeable, and the film is full of memorable moments, however originality isn’t its strong suit, but that’s ok.  The Wild Life takes everything you liked about the 80’s and 80’s comedy and spoon feeds it to you hand over fist.    

The Wild Life Blu-ray, Video Quality

3 out of 5 stars

 The Wild Life is alive and well on Blu-ray but unfortunately fails to rise up above the crowd in this mostly satisfying presentation. The mostly average yet decently strong presentation is more akin to the kid who’s read every book on how to be cool, wears all the right clothes, and says all the right things, but just doesn’t have the confidence or swagger for people to take him seriously.

I feel fairly confident saying that this is likely the best the film has ever looked (and likely ever will look), the picture is clean and an improvement over previous releases, yet the grain is noticeably inconsistent; some scenes are rough and almost noisy while others are appreciably film-like.  Definition and clarity are mostly acceptable for a film of this age and budget, but expectations need to be kept in check. The contrast tends to wander all over the map with Day time scenes bordering on Great, while Night time scenes are flat and muddied with the viewer struggling to see much of any real detail.  Indoor scenes fair slightly better on the whole and tend to be much more consistent, but the film never really captures any sort of dimensionality with the exception of a few fleeting moments outside in the brightest of conditions.  Skin tones look good and mostly natural, however detail is often lost amongst a wash of grain or noise (I’m not always sure which).  At it’s best (outside in direct sunlight) which is sadly fleeting, skin textures are amazing with the ability to count each freckle or blemish on Bill’s face, at it’s worst however things can be a smeary mess with only mild traces of improvement over a quality upscale. Black levels are downright crushing at times, often obscuring any real detail or even large portions of a scene during the night.  Thankfully much of the film brightens up after the initial introduction and things only improve, with a mostly satisfying presentation.  The color palette is mostly accurate, with primaries seeing a nice push.  As one would come to expect there is some print noise/damage throughout the picture, but impressively it’s kept to a minimum and is never distracting.  I’d go so far as to say that the level of minor damage found in The Wild Life is less than that found in Private School, despite Private School having the stronger video presentation overall in my opinion.  The Wild Life certainly won’t win any awards with it’s video presentation, but it still stands proudly head and shoulders above many of it’s peers (all of which have come from Major Studios and not a team of folks tirelessly and thanklessly working from home).  It’s easy to be critical of the video presentation, however one only need look at comparable comedies from this time and it’s easy to see the amount of care that this release received, and to appreciate it all the more.

The Wild Life Blu-ray, Audio Quality

   3.5 out of 5

 Things fare a bit better as far as the audio is concerned, with some excellent music and a surprisingly lively presentation despite being a dialog heavy front centered comedy. Imaging ranges from decent to quite good, and overall the film does its best to envelop the viewer despite its 2 channel design.   Dialog is mostly solid, though at times can be lost amidst the ambient noise and music of the scene.  Like Private School the low end is almost none existent at times and the film suffers from an overly tinny sound.  This isn’t to say the sound isn’t mostly satisfying however, as most films from this era share In this same sound design.  If I had one complaint about the sound design, it would be that the main theme used during the disk menu is very harsh sounding with the high hats sounding very shrill when my receiver was set to THX Cinema (which processed the audio to all channels) since this wasn’t the intention of the sound design, nor was it a part of the film, it had no bearing on the score but was worth mentioning.  Also worth mentioning is that the other 2 menu songs sounded great, and the problem was isolated to the main theme.

The Wild Life Blu-ray, Special Features

  2 out of 5

• Stalking the “Wild Life” – The Sole special feature on the disk is a written interview with Cameron Crowe from a 1984 issue of Interview Magazine.  It’s an interesting read for fans of the movie and of Crowe himself as the interview covers a great many thoughts and topics all captured when the film was still fresh.  Accompanying the text interview are cast photos and background music to accompany the lengthy read.

Private School Blu-ray, Extra Polish

 3 out of 5

Teamblu provided another stellar Cover art/disk design for this release.  Utilizing the original theatrical poster, its hard to imagine a more perfect design.  As is TeamBlu’s trademark, the release lacks a UPC code to ensure that copies remain off any unscrupulous websites looking to make a buck or 2 from their hard work.  This release more than any other has a very 80’s VHS box art style that I personally enjoy a great deal. 

The Menu on this release is straightforward but still shows that care was given when designed.  The theatrical poster art fills the background as the options for Play Movie, Scene Selection or Stalking the “Wild Life” fill the corner of the screen.  1 of 3 themes plays in the background from the get go and is looped depending on the length of time the disk is left on.  Special touches like the hand and chalkboard from private school were left off of this release; however what’s presented is still an outstanding presentation that’s still better than the average retail release. 

Private School Blu-ray, Closing thoughts

It’s hard to imagine a better presentation of this film ever seeing the light of day.  The video and audio are worthy upgrades over previous editions, and I’d be hard pressed to imagine any special features ever materializing for these throw away 1980’s comedies that didn't develop into a tv series or introduce the world to a major actor (ala Weird Science, The Breakfast Club or Revenge of the Nerds).  The film makes an excellent companion to The Private School release, and is now longingly preserved thanks to the efforts of TeamBlu.  If I had one complaint (and I usually only have one with these releases) It’s that I would have liked to have seen the inclusion of the original Theatrical trailer, if for no other reason, than for preservation's sake, and if there was ever a perfect release to include the soundtrack with the film, this might have been it.  Overall while this release doesn't have the amount of extra’s or elaborate presentation that many of TeamBlu’s other releases posses, it’s still a worthy addition to the library and still well worth the effort required to obtain.  Recommended.

 EDIT:  I've toiled over my review for the past 24 hours since posting it and some of the scores I gave "The Wild Life".  I feel that my original score of 2 for "Extra Polish" doesn't sufficiently convey the quality that this release exhibits.  As this is only my second review ever, I'm still working on how I score things.  I believe I've come up with a new revised system that is more fairly weighted going forward.  Accordingly, I've revised the current score to what I feel is a better representation of the level of quality of this release.  I apologize for any confusion, but I feel that I scored this release too low for the amount of work and quality that is plainly obvious.  The difficult task I've had with these release (and just starting out as a whole) is trying to figure out what makes a Fantastic release different from a Great release or a good release.  All of TeamBlu's releases I've viewed have been good.. but some are certainly much more impressive than others.  I believe with my new system I have a fair system that will ensure these release get the credit they deserve.

Posted a revised score and explanation at the bottom of my original review.  Since it's easy to miss I wanted to mention it here.

I'm in the middle of watching this and wanted to point something out real quick. Some of the Van Halen musical cues are either replaced with alternate music or there's no music at all.

- When Chris Penn jumps out the window, the music from Back to the Future isn't heard until he's driving away. So we don't hear those notes like we do in the BTTF scene.

- The music when Lea Thompson and her friend are driving is missing (after Lea finds out the cop she's been seeing is married). Oddly enough, we do hear the piece at the end of the film when Chris Penn gets back with his girl. So as to why it's missing in this scene is a real ???

- The Van Halen demo of "Mine all mine" during the scene when the kid almost runs over Jim with his car is replaced with a Hendrix song.

- During the party scene, the demo of "A.F.U. (Naturally Wired) isn't heard until the last segment of the scene. There's alternate music instead. One song sounds like Prince, and one of the earlier Van Halen demos is heard instead.

Sorry for nitpicking. I know this movie is technically unavailable and i should be happy that this release was made (and believe me, as an 80's nut I am BEYOND grateful), but as a Van Halen fan, I miss hearing those cues. Though for the few that are interested in hearing them, the score pieces are on youtube now in their full form :)

TylerDurden389 said:

I'm in the middle of watching this and wanted to point something out real quick. Some of the Van Halen musical cues are either replaced with alternate music or there's no music at all.

- When Chris Penn jumps out the window, the music from Back to the Future isn't heard until he's driving away. So we don't hear those notes like we do in the BTTF scene.

- The music when Lea Thompson and her friend are driving is missing (after Lea finds out the cop she's been seeing is married). Oddly enough, we do hear the piece at the end of the film when Chris Penn gets back with his girl. So as to why it's missing in this scene is a real ???

- The Van Halen demo of "Mine all mine" during the scene when the kid almost runs over Jim with his car is replaced with a Hendrix song.

- During the party scene, the demo of "A.F.U. (Naturally Wired) isn't heard until the last segment of the scene. There's alternate music instead. One song sounds like Prince, and one of the earlier Van Halen demos is heard instead.

Sorry for nitpicking. I know this movie is technically unavailable and i should be happy that this release was made (and believe me, as an 80's nut I am BEYOND grateful), but as a Van Halen fan, I miss hearing those cues. Though for the few that are interested in hearing them, the score pieces are on youtube now in their full form :)

 That's quite an extensive list of differences, what did you use for comparison?  Have you just seen the film enough times that you remembered hearing the original numbers, or did you do a direct comparison to a prior release?  I'm quite surprised at the number of differences you've listed.  I wasn't familiar enough with the film to pick things like that out, so it's interesting to hear about.

TripleHBK said:

 That's quite an extensive list of differences, what did you use for comparison?  Have you just seen the film enough times that you remembered hearing the original numbers, or did you do a direct comparison to a prior release?  I'm quite surprised at the number of differences you've listed.  I wasn't familiar enough with the film to pick things like that out, so it's interesting to hear about.

 There used to be an old vhs rip of the film on youtube that had the different music portions. I'm a big Van Halen fan so I pretty much memorized all those cues. There may be even more differences, but I'm not 100% sure. Madonna's "Burnin' Up" plays during the strip club scene, and for all I know there may have been different music there to.

Funny thing is, after figuring that Eddie did the score to the movie first, and that these cues were replaced later (this blu-ray release was actually on cable a few times a few years ago. I caught it at like 2:30am and wrote some notes down regarding the music), someone later told me that the way the music is presented in this release IS how it was done originally, and that the music rights/issues came later for the vhs, and the other Van Halen cues were quickly added in for the vhs release.

Who knows? Either way, I still prefer hearing all the Van Halen stuff.

Interesting stuff!  To be honest though, I can't imagine the strip club scene without the Madonna track playing.  That just seems to go together too well!

TripleHBK said:

Interesting stuff!  To be honest though, I can't imagine the strip club scene without the Madonna track playing.  That just seems to go together too well!

 Lol I hear ya. I'd imagine in 1984 Madonna was probably the only music strippers wanted to dance to. I can imagine a lot of the older gentlemen at the time who didn't care for her music must've absolutely hated it lol.

I'm impressed Flex. I guess we can close the book on this one now, lol.