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Film Crew (The): Hollywood After Dark
R0 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (20th August 2007). |
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The Film
 "The Film Crew" is basically a continuation of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988-1999) concept only in a totally stripped down form, there aren't any characters, it's not set in the near future and there aren't any cheap special effects sequences. The essence however is there, it's basically a bunch of guys that watch terrible movies from the massive vault of F-grade movies and provide a funny, quirky, often hilarious but sometimes silly commentary over the film. It's something that a lot of people do in their homes when watching shitty films but instead of doing it yourself these guys do it for you and provide a rather lighthearted ribbing of the film. Bill Crobett, Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy effectively play themselves and they are the 'The film crew'. In each episode they receive an envelope from their boss Bob Honcho (Mike Dodge) who only communicates to them over speaker phone (Ala Charlie from "Charlie's Angles" (1976-1981)), he provides them with the film and they in turn provide a commentary for the film which so desperately needs one. In this episode they watch a dire film from 1968 starring on the "Golden Girls" (1985-1992), Rue McClanahan. "Hollywood After Dark" or AKA "Walk the Angry Beach" is a cautionary tale about Hollywood wanna-be's. Junk-yard owner Tony's (Jack Vorno) services are needed for an armored car robbery, but he refuses the job. He meets Sandy (Rue McClanahan), a stripper, but an aspiring actress. They fall in love, but Tony get jealous when he thinks that Sandy is getting comfortable with a screenwriter who promises to put her in his next film. Sandy becomes prey to the sleazy side of Hollywood. Tony, in an effort to help Sandy's career get off the ground he agrees to take part in the robbery. First of all the film is rather terrible film, and includes a wonderful amount of crappy acting, bad reactions and generally poor directing. The script is full of holes and scenes that are purely stupid including many long and often boring strip-dance sequences, it really is a bottom of the barrel production with nothing good about it other than the fact it's unintentionally funny at times and this makes it a perfect candidate for the musings of these three former "Mystery Science Theater 3000" stars to add their own whiplash wit to the film in the form of an audio commentary. Basically the same premise as "Mystery Science Theater 3000" but without silhouettes in front of the screen and they aren't in character, it's just the three guys, Nelson has some commentary experience working with Legend films and Off Color on some commentaries on "Reefer Madness" (1936), "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), "Plan 9 From Outer Spave" (1959), "Carnival of Souls" (1962) and "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). The basic rundown is that these guys generally poke fun at the film, its concept and story, especially its plot holes and inconsistencies. They also poke fun at the cast and the character's they play, dialogue, and their terrible acting. It's a like a roast, but instead of roasting a person they roast the entire film and while a lot of their quips and witty remarks are funny, there is a lot that falls flat and it does get a bit tired after a while. It's a repetitive cycle of comments a lot of the time focusing attention onto whether a character is acting ‘gay', some humorous comments are made about the stripping and obvious lack of ‘night' especially for a film called "Hollywood After Dark". If you liked "Mystery Science Theater 3000" then the "Film Crew' might be something to check out, otherwise give it a pass.
Video
The film includes some segments featuring the hosts, these segments are presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. These segments shot on a DV format are clean and feature no major problems, aside from the fact that it's non-anamorphic and the image is flat. The film, however, is in its original ratio of 1.33:1 full frame; unfortunately the image isn't that great, doing a restoration is not the priority here but rather gets a viewable print ready for the "Film Crew" to provide their commentary. As a result the image is soft, features scratches and dirt among other issues that plague films of its age.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track is included, now this is not the film's original track but only the newly added commentary provided by the crew. It would have been nice to include both the original film's soundtrack as well as the film crew commentary but alas this is not the case. It's all dialogue focused and purely front heavy, the dialogue is clear and presented without distortion. It's as basic a track as they come and works fine for this feature. The disc does not feature any optional subtitles.
Extras
Shout! Factory has released this film with only a very minute collection of extras that includes a short featurette, bonus trailers and a collectible patch. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have "Ode to Lunch" a featurette that runs for 1 minute 31 seconds, this is basically Bill Crobett reciting a poem about lunch, that's it. A series of bonus trailers play before the menu and can be skipped, they are for: - "The Film Crew" promo spot which runs for 1 minute 9 seconds. - "Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story" which runs for 1 minute 32 seconds. - "Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion" which runs for 1 minute 16 seconds. Rounding out the extras is a collectible "Film Crew" patch, this is found inside the case and you can sow this onto a shirt or something, it's a replica of the patch the crew were on their uniforms in the show.
Overall
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