Why So Blu?

Bachelor Party (Blu-ray Review)

Every now and then you get a batch of older, similarly-themed films released on Blu-ray and Fox has recently delivered Weekend At Bernie’s (Reviewed HERE), Revenge of the Nerds (Reviewed HERE), and Bachelor Party, which I am reviewing now. This is the not-so-classic 80s party film, starring Tom Hanks mere months after finding success with the film Splash, beginning his break away from his TV-stardom and into feature films. It is a simple film that has a mix of Hanks’ natural charm and the rowdiness of these types of movies. Now it is on movies for anyone who wanted to take this movie to the HD level.

Film:

Bachelor Party stars Hanks as Rick, a fun-loving guy with no real future prospects (he drives a school bus), but enough appeal to put him at the center of his friends and on the other end of his relationship with his loving girlfriend Debbie (Tawny Kitaen), much to the disapproval of her snobby parents. After announcing to the guys that he’s getting married, Rick naturally decides to have a bachelor party, which leads to a crazy night involving strippers, donkeys, pimps, and whatever else made sense in the 80s.

As far as these kinds of movies go, I am an Animal House guy through and through, with some other standouts sitting on the sidelines as well. Bachelor Party is a movie I have seen a few times and I think the charm obviously comes from Hanks, who is basically too good for this movie. I would not say he’s above it for that time, given that he was basically known for dressing in drag on Bosom Buddies, but he clearly has more talent, which is why he’s a two-time Oscar winner. That said, Hanks brings this movie up a few notches, simply because he is likable and so are his friends for the most part.

Part of the reason I have never found Porky’s, for example, to be a particularly good movie is due to the characters all being jerks. You are supposed to root for a certain set of guys, but they have nothing redeeming about them, beyond the ham-fisted racial stuff that makes them slightly less dickish than the ‘bad guys’ in the movie. Bachelor Party is not an amazing movie, but it is a good look at friends wanting to have a good time, without turning into jerks to make it happen. It has a snobs vs. slobs aspect that is similar to Caddyshack, but not nearly as creative.

For being a raunchy comedy, it is actually pretty tame compared to many of the other comedies of this type, from the same era. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but if one is searching for a level of comedic hijinks, Bachelor Party only goes so far. That said, Hanks does his best to hold the film together, the un-PC jokes of the time are not as offensive as I thought they may have been, when revisiting the film, and it flies by pretty quickly. Not the party of the century, or even the decade, but a decent effort.

Video:

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1:85.1

Clarity/Detail: For what it is, the film looks pretty solid on Blu-ray. Bachelor Party is not the sharpest, but it is about as good as the film will ever look at home. Given the blandness of a lot of the locations, seeing the more exotic sets in this film actually have a nice bit of detail conveyed, which is perfectly fine.

Depth: Dimensions are solid for what we are given. That said, the 3D movie finale is a lot of fun and this seems like the place to mention that.

Black Levels: Blacks are pretty dark and sometimes mask detail a bit.

Color Reproduction: Colors are fine, some wacky 80s costuming make it work well.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are consistent. Facial detail is high in the moments involving close ups.

Noise/Artifacts: Not much to complain about, given the age. No real digital altering is present.

 

Audio:

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0, French Dolby Digital 1.0

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: Nothing overly impressive about the audio in this film, but I do enjoy its bouncy soundtrack.

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is clean and clear, without being overwhelmed by the stuff going on around it.

 

Extras:

Just imagine if Tom Hanks came back to look at this film. He doesn’t but we do get some vintage BTS stuff.

Features Include:

• Behind the Scenes – 3 minutes in SD.
• An American Tradition – 3 more minutes of vintage stuff in SD.
• While the Men Play – 2 minutes focused on the female cast in SD.
• Tom Hanks Interviews – 3 minute compilation of vintage Tom Hanks interviews in SD.
• Theatrical Trailer

Summary:

I am not going to defend Bachelor Party as some sort of comedy classic, but I do have fun with it. Tom Hanks makes the film work better than it should and it has likable aspects thanks to a cast made up of rowdy, but decent people, as opposed to a film filled with horny jerks with no redeeming qualities. Yes, it is not many notches above that notion, but its fine for what it is. The Blu-ray is expectedly lean on features and not a top notch technical joy, but it is fine for what is being offered.

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Aaron is a writer/reviewer for WhySoBlu.com. Follow him on Twitter @AaronsPS4.
He also co-hosts a podcast, Out Now with Aaron and Abe, available via iTunes or at HHWLOD.com