Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 17, 2015

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were ostensibly well past their “marijuana chic” prime when they made The Corsican Brothers in 1984, but one has to assume both were substantially herbally enhanced during the production of the film, for there’s no other logical explanation for the haphazard, chaotic and frankly desperately unfunny shenanigans that unfold during this putative send up of Alexandre Dumas’ hoary tale, one that had been filmed countless times before Cheech and Chong took it on (and which continues to be adapted into various media, including several post-Cheech and Chong films as well as—according to some sources—the long running musical Blood Brothers). This pretty sad “entertainment” doesn’t even set up its supposed thesis very artfully, beginning and ending with a contemporary bookending sequences that sees the boys playing band members whose execrable music making is so bad that French folks pay them to move their mobile bandstand to different neighborhoods. When a young “gypsy” (Rae Dawn Chong) sees the pile of cash they have accrued, she offers to share a tale with them for suitable payment, at which point the film segues back to a supposed 19th century setting, where the boys play Luis (Cheech) and Lucian (Chong) Corsican, two (once conjoined, at least in Dumas' version) twins who are kind of telepathically linked and who can feel each other’s pain.

Perhaps there’s something intrinsically unfunny about the vagaries of an incipient French uprising, for even a comedy master as iconic as Bud Yorkin was unable to really find consistent humor in his take on some aspects of this same material, the fitfully amusing 1970 comedy Start the Revolution Without Me. Yorkin at least had the talents of Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland in front of the camera, while Chong (who directed) only has—well, Cheech and Chong. This is one film which frankly should have gone up in smoke.

Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While there's typical age related wear and tear throughout this presentation, the palette pops quite vividly, though hues like reds tend to skew ever so slightly toward orange territory at times. The transfer has some density fluctuations as well as a somewhat unwieldy grain field at times, one which expands and contracts from scene to scene. The overall look is on the soft side, though close-ups can reveal decent detail in elements like some of the finery the French aristocrats wear.

Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers features a fine sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, one which supports the goofy musical elements (including the "modern day" boys mugging it up with their supposed band), as well as dialogue and sound effects. There are no age related issues to warrant concern, and while this isn't an especially ambitious film from a sound design perspective, everything is rendered cleanly and clearly with no obvious defects.

Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:24)

Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is pretty close to the nadir of Cheech and Chong's big screen entertainments, and the sad thing is, there is probably material here to spare that is more than ripe for satiric skewering. The comedy duo probably would have been better served by having an outside writing team and director helping with this project, though. Technical merits are very good (video) to excellent (audio) for those considering a purchase.