Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 7, 2025

As evidenced by the very cover of this release, Tunnel Vision advertised itself as "The funniest film of 1985", something that may have been, well, funnier when the film came out in 1976 (as is discussed in passing in a supplementary conversation between Neal Israel and Stuart Shapiro, it was actually shot even earlier than that). Kind of interestingly, then, at least for inveterate trivia lovers (ahem) is the fact that two comedies that actually came out in 1985 and made the Top 20 in box office receipts for that year, Fletch and National Lampoon's European Vacation, starred Chevy Chase, who is one of several "future" notables who appear in this slightly wobbly but still often quite funny takedown of broadcast television. The "setup" here is that in 1985 a censorship free network called Tunnel Vision (and/or Tunnelvision, depending on your orthography), is being investigated by a Senate panel (led by Howard Hesseman), in a hearing that frankly hilariously presages another actual Senate proceeding that (kind of incredibly) did take place in 1985, namely the whole brouhaha about "questionable" music highlighted by Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center, an event that I just alluded to in my Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray review. (Among the future notables in the film is an actual Senator, Al Franken, who can be seen pre-political life in screenshot 7 accompanying this review.)

Tunnel Vision, for all its patent insanity, may have frankly been subsumed by two films which "bookended" it in terms of release dates, 1974's The Groove Tube (also featuring Chevy Chase) and 1977's The Kentucky Fried Movie, both of which were so-called "sketch comedy" outings that similarly smacked down all sorts of pop culture references, and arguably with maybe a bit more consistency than this film. In fact, all three of these films would make for at least an intermittently engaging research project, as they're all more or less cut from the same cloth, both structurally and also in terms of some of the admittedly juvenile humor on tap.

Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tunnel Vision is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Rewind Collection imprint with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in either 1.66:1 or 1.33:1. I've uploaded mostly 1.66 screenshots to accompany this review, but I've also uploaded a couple of 1.33:1 screenshots from more or less the same frames as two 1.66:1 screenshots for those interested. This is a somewhat problematic looking presentation no matter which aspect ratio is chosen, despite having what the back cover advertises as a "brand new 4K HD transfer". Many of the issues here seem to stem from some video and/or interlaced workflow, some of which I'm wondering may have had to do with composited things like product names and the like over the imagery. That said, there are some really widely variant moments on display here, with some material that certainly looks at least relatively more traditionally "film like", with good detail levels and a rather nicely suffused palette. Generally speaking, though, color timing is all over the place on this presentation, with some moments looking at least relatively natural and others being pretty florid, with blooming pinks and reds. That said, grain can be pretty noisy at times, as in the opening senate scenes, and there are also some odd moments of near posterizing. Other material has a much more "video"-esque look, with some very odd anomalies in addition to aliasing and combing artifacts, both of which are suggesting to me either standard definition or interlaced source material, perhaps both. Look at screenshot 3, for example, and in addition to the above mentioned issues, look at the edge of the shirt collar, where you can see ghosting or something similar. There's also quite a bit of damage on display in both aspect ratios.

Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tunnel Vision features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio, in an enjoyable track that supports both the lunatic spoken material and several fun tunes by the team of Brian Lambert and Dennis Potter. This duo may not have risen to the general awareness level of more or less contemporary songwriting teams like, say, Bacharach and David, but they have a number of pretty big hits to their credit, and I've always loved them because my frequently mentioned Sergio Mendes obsession introduced me to them when Sergio chose their "Love Music" to more or less relaunch his group on a new label with a new singer after his long stint on A&M. Sergio recorded several Lambert and Potter tunes over the ensuing couple of years, and little slices of pop perfection like their "Funny You Should Say That" deserve wider recognition. While there are some odd segues that actually sound like less than artful editing, spoken material and music is all delivered without any problems. Optional English subtitles are available.

Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Neal Israel & Stuart Shapiro (HD; 45:07) is a really enjoyable Zoom session from August 2024.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:50)


• Archival Photo Gallery (SD; 2:55)


• Radio Spots (HD; 5:12) play to key art.


• Tunnel Vision Continuity Script (HD; 8:25) is a really fun and informative read, but this is authored with a timecode and moves at an extremely fast clip, so have the pause button on your remote ready.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:56)


• Commentary with Matt Edward Heuck is a really excellent listen and may deliver some interesting information to even diehard fans of the film.

The disc also has several trailers for other MVD Rewind releases. The keepcase features a reversible sleeve and encloses a collectible mini poster. Packaging features a slipcover.

Tunnel Vision Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tunnel Vision undeniably offers some laughs, but I actually found some of the funniest material to be in almost throwaway bits like the ridiculous "happy talk" newscasters engage in, rather than any overarching sketch material. Video has some discernable hurdles here, but audio is fine, and fans of the film should enjoy all of the supplements in general and be really delighted by the Israel / Shapiro conversation in particular, for anyone who is considering making a purchase.