Await Further Instructions
Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Collector’s Edition), The Jerk: 40th Anniversary Edition, Await Further Instructions, Bad Reputation.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Collector’s Edition) and The Jerk: 40th Anniversary Edition
Steve Martin and Michael Caine star in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), a suave evocation of classic Hollywood comedy. Martin even learned to tap dance for his role. The Blu-ray includes a behind-the-scenes documentary and interview with Martin and writer Dale Launer. For The Jerk’s 40th anniversary, the Blu-ray’s bonus material includes an amusing conversation between director Carl Reiner and writer-star Martin, who explains that the movie represents his transition from stand-up to cinema.
Await Further Instructions
It’s not a happy Christmas when the Milgram family’s son returns home with his Indian girlfriend. British director Johnny Kevorkian sets his horror film against a backdrop of ill-tempered xenophobia and bad news on the TV. The young couple try to slip away from the unpleasant household but find the house enclosed inside a mysterious black wall. The archetypal story of squabbling people trapped together against an enemy takes pokes at mindless obedience and social anxiety.
Bad Reputation
When The Runaways debuted in 1975, girls didn’t play rock ’n’ roll. Whatever else can be said for them, The Runaways were trailblazers in their day. Focused on guitarist Joan Jett, Bad Reputation revisits their origins in L.A.’s campy-Quaalude-cocaine subculture. But when they strayed into the mainstream, they were bullied and treated with scorn by a rock scene that wanted to remain a boys’ club. Jett makes the case in interviews for the liberating aspect of The Runaways.
