7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In the summer of 1963, innocent 17-year-old Baby vacations with her parents at a Catskill's resort. One evening, she is drawn to the staff quarters by stirring music. There, she meets Johnny, the hotel dance instructor, who is as experienced as Baby is naive. Baby soon becomes Johnny's pupil in dance and love.
Starring: Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Jack WestonRomance | 100% |
Teen | 50% |
Coming of age | 27% |
Music | 26% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Baby’s out of her corner again, folks, with Lionsgate returning to the well for yet another Blu-ray release of Dirty Dancing. This unlikely hit about, well, dancing in the Catskills managed to not just break box office records during its theatrical exhibitions, but went on to become one of the all time sales champions in the then nascent home video market. That may be one reason Lionsgate hasn’t been shy about re-releasing the film in various editions through the years. The first Blu-ray release was not greeted kindly in terms of its technical presentation by my colleague Martin Liebman. Another colleague, Dustin Somner, was more impressed by the remastered version that came along a few years later, a version that was then repackaged as part of the Dirty Dancing Collection which I reviewed. Now Lionsgate is offering fans not one but two versions under the rubric “30th Anniversary”, the one currently under review and the more deluxe set billed as a Collector’s Edition which includes (and I swear I'm not making this up) a Kellerman's cottage room key chain for Baby's room, along with a bunch of other swag (including a 108 page shooting script).
For an assessment of the video, please refer to Dustin's review, linked above.
For an assessment of the audio, please refer to Dustin's review, linked above.
Just to make things extra confusing, this edition has some new supplements (indicated with an asterisk), while porting over some but not all of the supplements on the previous release. See Dustin's review for a complete list of supplements available on that edition.
- Dirty Dancing The Phenomenon (480i; 13:45)
- The Rhythm of Dancing (480i; 4:08)
- Hungry Eyes (480i; 3:54)
- She's Like the Wind (480i; 3:59)
- I've Had the Time of My Life (480i; 4:51)
- Jennifer Grey (480i; 11:14)
- Eleanor Bergstein (480i; 18:38)
- Miranda Garrison (480i; 13:19)
- Kenny Ortega (480i; 15:23)
Whether fans will want to put Baby back in her corner again or spring for this latest release (in either of its editions) will probably come down to an assessment of how much the new supplements appeal to them and how much the loss of some of the old supplements bothers them. The film itself is of course an evergreen, which means if this particular release doesn't satisfy completely, chances are there will be another one somewhere down the line.
Twentieth Anniversary
1987
Limited Keepsake Edition | with Book
1987
30th Anniversary Collector's Edition
1987
30th Anniversary Edition | Retro VHS Collection
1987
1987
1987
35th Anniversary Edition
1987
1987
2004
40th Anniversary Edition
1984
2006
2001
Dance-Off Edition
2008
2014
2017
2002
2007
2007
1985
2016
2007
1980s Best of the Decade
1984
2010
2008
2012
2012
2010
2014