5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After a heart attack, Abbie Polin, a New York doctor, goes to Los Angeles to see his father, Abe, who works in Hollywood as the "king of the extras."
Starring: Billy Crystal, Alan King, JoBeth Williams, Janet Carroll, David AckroydDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The amazing thing about presumed chats around the craft services table on the set of Happy Days, isn’t that so many of the cast and crew evidently were saying, “What I really want to do is direct,” but that so many of them actually went on to have rather notable careers as helmsmen (or indeed helmswomen). Series creator and producer Garry Marshall had already begun directing by the time Happy Days hit the airwaves in 1974, including several episodes of the television version of The Odd Couple, a show which Marshall himself had helped shepherd from play and film form to the small screen. Later, of course, Marshall would gain substantial renown for having directed a number of high profile (if not always critically acclaimed) films, including Overboard, Beaches, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, and The Princess Diaries. Happy Days star Ron Howard, one of the rare “success stories” in having been able to transition from his childhood star days on The Andy Griffith Show to young adult work, added another feather to his cap when he made his directing debut with 1978’s Grand Theft Auto, a film he also co-wrote and starred in. From that arguably less than illustrious beginning, though, within just a few years, Howard’s directing acumen had produced a number of well regarded films, including Night Shift, Splash, Cocoon, Willow, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind. Garry’s sister Penny got some of her most memorable early small screen time as a recurring character on The Odd Couple, but then she of course parlayed a guest star stint on Happy Days to help launch one of the most successful spin offs in television history, Laverne & Shirley. Like her brother before her, though, Penny ultimately matriculated into the director’s chair, earning plaudits for a number of efforts like Big, Awakenings and A League of Their Own.
Memories of Me is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Marquee Collection imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is another kind of middling looking high definition presentation culled from the MGM/UA catalog. There are parts of this transfer that pop reasonably well, with at least decent detail levels, most of them taking place in bright, sunny outside locations. But as can perhaps be gleaned from many of the screenshots accompanying this review, the palette looks faded, skewed toward brown a lot of the time, and there's a fairly rough grain field, even divorced from expected uptick moments like optical dissolves. A couple of rather rough moments seem to just crop up for no apparent reason, with pretty chunky and often yellow tinged grain. Some fine detail actually looks nicely precise, as in the checkered pattern on one of the suit jackets Crystal wears. There is occasional if slight age related damage in the form of speckling and dirt flecks.
Memories of Me features an LPCM 2.0 mono track which more than capably supports the film's dialogue, as well as an effective score by Georges Delerue (one of the conceits of the plot is that Abbie plays trumpet, and so there are a few jazz inflected cues featuring that instrument). Occasional ambient environmental effects dot some of the outdoor material, but this is not a showy film from a sonic standpoint, and so this narrow but problem free track suffices quite nicely.
You can feel Winkler and his crew aiming for some kind of emotional catharsis in Memories of Me, but the film telegraphs its bittersweet denouement almost from the moment King appears on screen, and as such the final scene of the film almost plays like parody. Crystal is a little mannered here, leaving King to play it big in many of the scenes. Technical merits are middling (video) to very good (audio), for those considering a purchase.
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