Why So Blu?

Earth Girls Are Easy – Collector’s Series (Blu-ray Review)

The Vestron Video series lives! Continuing to bring films from the obscurities of VHS and DVD to Blu-ray, the line has been both fantastic to see things roll out with superb extras and on the wallet. They really do put these out for a steal on Day 1. The latest serving from them is 1988’s invaders from space musical Earth Girls Are Easy which boasts Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans and Julie Brown. They’ve served up a disc with a load of new extras to take in as well as some archival stuff they dug up. You can grab this one for like $10 if you want it by using the paid Amazon Associates link at the bottom of this review.

.

.

Film

In this musical comedy, Valerie (Geena Davis) is dealing with her philandering fiancé, Ted (Charles Rocket), when she finds that a trio of aliens (Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans) have crashed their spaceship into her swimming pool. Once the furry beings are shaved at her girlfriend’s salon, the women discover three handsome men underneath. After absorbing the native culture via television, the spacemen are ready to hit the dating scene in 1980s Los Angeles.

Earth Girls Are Easy is a lot of things, but one of them that’s plastered all over it is that its such a Los Angeles movie. From the stylings, the places and the personalities, its oozes and embraces that aura and moment in time. This is very much a companion to the likes of Valley Girl, that really hit the youth scene and make no apologies for it. If you’re wanting to look into a time capsule and capture a specific moment, Earth Girls Are Easy feels like a film that can itch that curiosity.

While the film is a tried and true cult classic, nothing that’ll set the world on fire, it sure is a good time. Its hard to not enjoy a film that looks like fun, sells you on fun and looks like everyone making it had fun. There are big song and dance numbers to boot. Also, the film embraces silliness in any facet. From the look of the aliens, to the big styles and wild scenarios, its a film that really never even tries to convince you to take it seriously.

And of course we have to mention this star studded cast. We get a Cronenberg’s The Fly reunion of Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum. Its fun to see. Davis especially radiates in this movie and quite hot to trot and showing off some of her goofier flare that makes her such a charm to some “playing it big” levels you don’t often get to see her let out. Jim Carrey is here and he’s quite wild and going for it along with cohort Wayans. There’s a lot to dig into with Earth Girls Are Easy, but its also a fun stop on the 1980s musical train as a more non-traditional type that feels like its in a league with the likes of Voyage of the Rock Aliens.

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Earth Girls Are Easy debuts on Blu-ray with a just above average looking transfer. There’s room for improvement, surely, though it does feature a nice clarity, color saturation and finer details. However, some scenes look like they could’ve been an DVD upconvert at times. Overall, it took this movie quite a while to get to the format. So fans should be happy with just that, but this image does look like it has the potential to do more.

Depth:  Depth of field is rock solid, showcasing some good spacing and decent pushback in interiors. Motion is smooth and natural with no issues of distortions from rapid actions.

Black Levels: Blacks and rich and deep. There’s some good saturation going on and details rarely find themselves drowned out by really dark areas. Patterns, textures, finer details still are discernible. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors do pop, especially on the fashions in the film and the aliens. While quite vivid, they don’t necessarily bleed off the screen. A 4K restoration of this film would look incredibly groovy.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from opening to end credits. Facial features and textures come through quite discernible from any reasonable distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: None

Audio

Format(s): English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: Earth Girls Are Easy has a pretty banging and loud 2.0 track. It has some good weight to it in the form of producing convincing low frequency sounds. Its also got some solid layering and depth to it as well.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Earth Girls Are Easy – Collector’s Series comes with a redeemable digital code.

Audio Commentary

• with Actress and Co-Writer Julie Brown

The Musical Man (HD, 20:01) – An interview with director Julien Temple. This was a bounce back film for him. There’s some fun to be had with this one as he talks his excitement of coming to Blu-ray as he hated its look on VHS as the opening of the interview plays with a VHS filter over the video and muffled sound. This is a pretty good in depth interview with his account of the film.

Candy Time! (HD, 20:10) – An interview with actress and co-writer Julie Bowen. She goes into how she visualized things and how they did and didn’t wind up as they were intended in the film. Bowen was looking for musicals to come back and wanted to be at the forefront of that. She gives a pretty fun and detailed account of how this all came together and was executed.

Views of the Valley (HD, 17:39) – Interviews with director of photography Oliver Stapleton and production designer Dennis Gassner. “Its silly in a sense that spaceships don’t land in pools and people in fuzzy costumes don’t get out of them”. Both guys find it to be a fun film with interesting work. They go into their details of being hired and their contributions on the film and collaborating with Julien Temple in trying to present the “kitsch” of Los Angeles.

Aliens in L.A. (HD, 11:42) – An interview with special make-up supervisor Robert Clark. “This was a transition of times when make-up when from D list of Drive Ins and stuff to A List”. He speaks on how he got connected (“I was probably the low bidder on it) onto the film and his work thereafter on it.

Deleted Scenes & Outtakes (HD, 8:07) 

Earth Girls Karaoke! (HD, 11:02)

BTS Footage (HD, 7:43)

Vintage Interview with Actor Charles Rocket (HD, 6:29) – The interview was done on the set of the film. He talks about his audition and working with the director and co-stars

Vintage Premiere Night Promo (HD, 3:59) – “The biggest movie to hit Hollywood since…probably Gone With The Wind”. This is a nice little promo for the film with clips from the red carpet.

Theatrical Trailers (HD, 3:39)

TV Spots (HD, 1:56)

Radio Spots (HD, 1:08)

Still Gallery (HD, 7:33)

Storyboard Gallery (HD, 6:26)

Summary

Earth Girls Are Easy is a movie that’s hard not to like. The performers, story, songs and look of it says nothing but fun and silly. This new release from the Vestron Video line at Lionsgate features a solid presentation and a wonderful full load of extras. Sitting at around $10, its hard to pass on this one for curiosity sake or just collecting’s sake.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link