Why So Blu?

The Babysitter (Blu-ray Review)

Alicia Silverstone, winner of the National Board of Review’s Best Breakthrough Performer Award for her performance in Clueless, is Jennifer, the object of lust and desire in THE BABYSITTER.  The Babysitter, directed by Guy Ferland (Telling Lies In America) from a screenplay by Robert Coover (TV’s Alexandria), features compelling performances by Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), Jeremy London (Mallrats), Nicky Katt (Sin City), George Segal (A Touch of Class), Lois Chiles (The Way We Were), J.T. Walsh (A Few Good Men) and Lee Carlington (One Hour Photo).  What begins as a quiet evening of babysitting escalates into a series of emotional confrontations, physical altercations and a life-shattering event in the tension-filled The Babysitter.

Film 

Harry and Dolly Tucker, out for an evening at a party hosted by Bill and Bernice Holston, hire high school student Jennifer to babysit their two children. Jennifer will find herself the recipient of unwanted advances from her estranged boyfriend Jack, a manipulative and threatening acquaintance, Mark and — in the case of a very drunken Harry — the object of erotic fantasies.

Okay, men of my generation, admit it.  You saw this movie.  It may have been sneaking it out of the rental store via renting five movies so it didn’t look obvious or you caught it when it premiered on Cinemax, but you saw it.  Alicia Silverstone was a HOT HOT HOT item at the time and for a while all we had were three Aerosmith video to take in.  There was this movie that showed up on rental shelves, and while it looks liked some sultry Red Shoe Diaries type thing, in your heart of hearts you knew she wasn’t getting topless, but you were willing to take the gamble anyway.  And you found out that that “hear of hearts” was right.

The year 1995 was the big breakout year for Alicia Silverstone.  She had five films come out that year besides this one.  Some lowly thrillers, like Hideaway (Written by Seven‘s Andrew Kevin Walker and co-starring Jeff Goldblum).  But, the big time was Clueless, her big break out feature that probably escalated her to “must have” when it came time for Joel Schumacher and company to cast Batgirl for 1997’s Batman & Robin.

I remember viewing this back in the day and not caring too much for it, but was definitely.  Basically its what every guy watching this movie back in 1995 was doing; fantasizing about Alicia Silverstone.  There’s a couple who are on the rocks, so the man fantasizes about his babysitter.  Then there’s the boyfriend who’s not able to see her because she’s babysitting fantasizing.  The ex flame fantasizes and heck, even the young boy she babysits fantasizes.  And this is ALLLLL the movie is.  I did giggle once or twice at some intended and unintended hilarity in this thing, but for the most part this was a clock watcher.

If you’re into Cinemax sleeze, I’d recommend checking out a vintage Kira Reed movie from the 90s.  This one doesn’t offer enough to be that level and its not commercial enough to work on a different level.  There was a nostalgic Alicia Silverstone teenage crush wave that hit for like five minutes of the movie but was over quick.  I did enjoy one of my all time favorite character actors J T Walsh was in this (He was a “that guy is in EVERYTHING” guy back in the day), which is fun, but something that wore off fast and a movie I’m sure he didn’t care for himself.  I’m sure this film has its fans though, it just wasn’t for me.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1o80p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail:  Here we have a nice hands off approach (per usual for Olive).  The image just isn’t particular impressive.  Its soft and the detail is merely average.  The print isn’t in rough shape, but it looks a bit weak in some areas.  I’m sure this is the best the film has ever looked (and may ever), its just not a steep hike up.

Depth:  This is a bit average, featuring a more flat look.  Movements look cinematic and feature a little bit of blur at times.

Black Levels:  Blacks are a little deep, but do feature some minor crushing.

Color Reproduction:  Colors are a bit dingy.  There’s red filter in some scenes and it eradicates some of the detail on display.  Aside from that, everything looks close to natural

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are at a natural level and consistent.  Facial detail in close ups is merely decent, picking up some wrinkles.

Noise/Artifacts:  The film features a decent amount of grain and some slight blocking issues.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: N/A

Dynamics:  Sound for the most part is good enough to get the job done.  There is a couple places where the volume has some peaking issues.  Sound, vocals and music for the most part are balanced, but a few scenes has them stepping on another’s toes.

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  Vocals are clear enough and have an analog tinge to them.

Extras 

The Babysitter contains no supplemental features.  Menu offers “Play Movie” and “Chapters”.

Summary 

The Babysitter was a blast from the past with very little blast.  This movie is based all around the allure of an “it girl” of the time acting sexy and teasing that there maybe possibly could be isn’t really any nudity.  The film is a yawner of a bunch of men just fantasizing about her that winds up taking a really dark turn.  Some of this has some humor intended and may be unintended.  Olive Films provides a decent presentation of The Babysitter that is void of extras.  You’ll have to be a super duper fan of Alicia Silverstone to own this.  Then again, you probably own Batman & Robin, so what’s the hold up here?