Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Experts Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 15, 2023

Dave Thomas' "The Experts" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include an exclusive new program with the director and remastered vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Deal

Did you know that 1989 was almost exactly like the last couple of years? For example, back then there were just as many invisible evil Russians roaming the streets of our biggest cities. Did you know that back then the Japanese were still making the best home video equipment? And did you know that back then there were just as many Americans who believed that there were small towns in Russia that looked like small towns in Nebraska and their residents spoke English?

Believe it or not, an utterly ridiculous comedy like The Experts could be quite illuminating because it reveals a lot about the cliches people loved to target at the time of its production. Once you identify these cliches and begin examining them, you could easily link them to the supposed truths that are positioned behind them and the funny begins to look very sad. It is not because the cliches are mismanaged and the funny mishandled. It is because the funny was never there but someone wanted the masses to laugh anyway.

This is one of the reasons I sort of enjoy The Experts. It is a nauseating mish-mash of bad ideas the sum of which is essentially a giant mirror with a sizeable hole right in the middle of it. You see plenty of meaningless reflections, but through the hole, you can also see what is on the other side. And guess what? In 1989, on the other side, there were many people with remarkably low IQs and they thought that you would buy all of the unfunny they were selling and then go home happy.

Before I reveal the other reason that makes me enjoy The Experts, I must mention a few details about its plot. In New York City, Travis (John Travolta) and Wendell (Arye Gross) are approached by Mr. Smith (Charles Martin Smith) and offered what seems like a way out of their misery. Mr. Smith, a businessman with very deep pockets, wants them to relocate to a small town somewhere in Nebraska and help him open a first-class club where the local residents can do all the things New Yorkers love to do. Travis and Wendell reluctantly agree and board Mr. Smith’s private jet, but shortly after a beautiful flight attendant serves each a large bowl of black caviar and a glass of chilled champagne fall asleep. Then, without knowing where the plane has taken them, Travis and Wendell wake up in a town somewhere in the middle of the Soviet Union where time seems to have stopped. (The local scene has an early 1960s vibe, rather than the 1980s vibe that the two have left back in New York City). The town, an ultra-secret replica of Anytown USA built by the KGB, is a most valuable training camp for KGB agents, but once the clueless Travis and Wendell go to work and begin interacting with its “residents” unexpectedly comes alive.

Shortly after Travis and Wendell open the club and realize that no one knows how to have proper fun or dance, sexy KGB agent Bonnie (Kelly Preston) steps out of the shadows. Before falling madly in love, Bonnie and Travis do a rather remarkable “dance” in the middle of the club whose unbridled eroticism saves The Experts.

The rest of the material is either very silly or flat-out annoying. Even when there are decent situations that could have produced a few laughs something goes terribly wrong and the opportunities instantly disappear. There is a lot of very awkward editing as well.

While working on The Experts, Travolta and Preston fell in love and a couple of years later married at the iconic Hotel de Crillon in Paris, France.

*Kino Lorber’s release of The Experts is sourced from an exclusive new 4K master that was prepared after the film was fully restored in 4K at Paramount Pictures.

The Experts Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Experts arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a magnificent new 4K master prepared at Paramount Pictures. Excluding a few areas where I think that minor encoding optimization could have been introduced, the visuals are consistently breathtakingly beautiful. I liked everything that I saw. Delineation, clarity, and depth are often gravitate around what I consider to be 'reference levels', so even on a large screen they can look very, very impressive. The new 4K master boasts an outstanding color scheme, too. All primaries look very fresh and balanced exceptionally well. Supporting nuances are very healthy and equally impressively balanced. Unsurprisingly, the dynamic range of the visuals is terrific. In fact, I upscaled the film to 4K and frequently felt as if I was viewing native 4K content. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Image stability is excellent. The entire film is spotless. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Experts Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very healthy and in areas where the music is prominent -- like the one where John Travolta teaches the Russians how to properly check out the hot girls while wearing glasses, which is around the 0:58.00 mark -- boasts outstanding dynamic potency. The dialog is very clear, sharp, and stable. So, it is obvious from the get-go that the audio has been fully remastered. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

The Experts Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - presented here is a newly remastered vintage trailer for The Experts. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Comrades in Film - in this exclusive new program, director Dave Thomas recalls his experiences with different cast members during the shooting of The Experts, how the choreography of the famous dance scene was put together, and how he managed the funny throughout the film. In English, not subtitled. (14 min).

The Experts Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

John Travolta and Kelly Preston's "dance" is probably the only legit reason to see The Experts, a very unfunny comedy from the 1980s. There is one other reason that surprisingly helps me enjoy this film but this is not how its creators wanted it to work. I find the utterly ridiculous in the film to be quite illuminating and in some ways relevant again. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a fabulous new 4K master that was prepared by Paramount Pictures.