MEATBALLS 4 (1992)
Special Edition Blu-ray
Label: MVD Rewind Collection
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 89 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Bob Logan
Cast: Corey Feldman, Jack Nance, Sarah Douglas, Paige French, Kristi Ducati
Summer camp comedy Meatball 4 (1992) is directed by Bob Logan (Reposession) and produced by Donald P. Borchers (Tuff Turf), which started out as a summer camp comedy, but was very late n the game rebranded as Meatballs 4 aka Meatballs 4; To The Rescue. The set-up basically falls into one of the '80s styles 'we gotta save the...' flicks, and this time they're out to save Camp Lakeside, owned and run by Neil Peterson (Jack Nance, Twin Peaks) who operates a water sports themes summer camp for... thirty-somethings? The main threat here is that the scheming Monica Shavetts (Sarah Douglas, Superman II) who runs a competing ski-rat resort Twin Oaks is out to buy his property to expand her own resort. Neil hires the young hoy shot ski instructor Ricky Wade (Corey Feldman, The Lost Boys) to hopefully double his bookings, realizing that his business has been dwindling since the advent of MTV. What it all boils down to is a the summer camp's annual waterskiing competition, pitting Lakeside against Twin Oaks, with the fate of the Camp lakeside hanging in the balance. but the scheming Monica will stop at nothing to win, even if it means sabotaging the compeitition.
Even in '92 I feel that summer camp flicks were already past their expiration date, at least in pop-culture. We were already on the PC upswing and political correctness was making us rethink our past ways, and this is not a very PC film by any means, which I sort of love about. The original Meatballs is a classic camp flick, but without the charms of Bill Murray starring I am not so sure it would be as beloved, but at least the film had heart and something more to say, well, something more than 'look at these tits'. Meatballs 4 is all about looking at those tits, it's very Porky's in that way, and has very little heart to it. With that said, if you like non-PC summer camp comedies chock full of one-line groaners and oodles of tits, well, you just might be in for a fun time.
Honestly, it's a shit flick, the humor and puns are just bad, real bad, but this cast is something... for starters, Corey Feldman fresh out of rehab, Jack Nance from David Lynch's Eraserhead, and Sarah Douglass from Superman II are in it, which is just a weird mix of talents. Then you this guy named Brad Grunberg (Revenge of the Nerds) who is the spitting image of former New Jersey given or Chris Christy, I seriously had to look him up to make sure it wasn't Christy under a pseudonym. It's not, but when you see this guy I dare you not to see the similarity. Anyway, he plays Victor Thigpen, the fat-guy, who seems to really be going for a “Flounder” Dorfman from Animal House role, he even says "Isn't this great!", which seems a bit too on the nose. Then we have Wes (Bojesse Christopher, Sleepwalkers) and Howie (J. Trevor Edmond, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings) as the two attractive '80s guys who have it out for Victor after he accidentally sends a trough of water onto them shortly after arriving at camp. Deborah Tucker (Dr. Giggles) plays camp instructor Kelly Peterson, the daughter of Neil, who is dating douche-nozzle instructor Kyle (Bentley Mitchum, The Borrower) who is jealous that Debbie's former boyfriend Ricky got the lead instructor job over him.
We also get a gaggle of female actors who get naked a lot, which when I was twelve would have been something special, but here just feels rather gratuitous, it's clear this is less a sequel to Meatballs and more just Porky's but at summer camp, complete with the prerequisite shower-peeping on the nude girls, but since this is a summer camp they throw a skunk into the scenario. Among the oft nude women we have Playboy Playmate '91 Cristy Thom, Miche Straube (TV's Silk Stalkings), Lauren Hays, Alien Intruder), Kristi Ducati (Sorceress), Neriah Davis (The Bikini Carwash Company), and Paige French (Intimate Stranger) who actually gets one of the larger speaking roles.
The film is a rough watch, the story is hackneyed, and the ski-resort setting is sort of mind-boggling, especially since no one looks to be under the age of twenty-five, who the fuck is this camp even for and why? You can tell that there was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that kept changing, which is addressed in the interview with the director on the extras, because there are so many close-ups of people just reacting, pointing and laughing, they were just getting quick shots of these people and inserting them all over the place, it's kind of nuts.
That said, I kind of had a fun time with just because of how bad it is, it's an '90's summer camp flick that feels like a throwback to the '80s, if you have low expectations there's fun to be had with it. The worst offense is that the jokes are lame, and the story pretty hackneyed, but every Meatballs sequel has been pretty bad to be honest so it kind of gave me exactly what I was expecting it to be.
Veterans Nance and Douglass are just fine, the roles don;t call for much and they give us more than what was on paper for sure. Corey Feldman is charming as the arrogant but well-meaning instructor also, but he gets the worst of the dialogue, too, so you feel it more with him. I was just disappointed with how dull-edged and outdated the humor was, it was bad, Feldman cracking wise with groaners like "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up" and "Wait, I lost my contact", oh wait, he doesn't wear 'em, ugh, it's just bad all the way around, there's even a "pull my finger" fart joke, but I guess you could argue that it's so bad it comes all the way around into being something fun to laugh at, if not necessarily with.
It might sound like I hated this, I didn;t, I just wish it had been better, as someone who grew up watching bawdy sex comedies and summer camp flicks I have a real affinity for the sub-genre, and while this is not at the top of the heap, it's still pretty enjoyable in it's own charmingly dated and inept sort of way.
Audio/Video: The film arrives on Blu-ray from MVD Rewind Collection in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. There's no information about the source of the HD master used for this but to my eyes this looks like an older master without much restoration. The image is fairly thick and flat looking, even sunny outdoor scenes seem a tad dark, and the darker scenes can be somewhat murky. It's noy terrible by any means, but I would call it serviceable, and certainly not the height if HD perfection. Close-ups of faces and fabric details look slightly smeary as well. With that said, the early 90's neon colors looks pretty great, Body Glove clothing must have been a sponsor of this film because their merch is front and center. Audio comes English PCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The dialogue sounds fine, cleanly delivered, the sounds of laughter and water sports vehicles sound good, and the soundtrack fares well. We get tunes from Paul Sabu and his band Only Child as well as Rank and File and Rhett Forrester, the vocalist of metal band Riot. Interestingly Sabu's tunes end up a handful of notable b-movie flicks, including Vice Squad, Ghoulies II, Ghost Town and Hard Rock Zombies.
Extras for this releaase are somewhat slim, but we do get a new 55-min Interview with Writer/Director Bob Logan, which is a fun watch. He's quite candid in spots, getting into how he started out as a writer for stand-up comics, working for the legendary likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, and Gary Shandling, eventually punching up screenplays, before becoming a director himself. How he created the directr-to-video Life in the.... Bowling Lane! (1988) flick to ride the coattails of Dorf on Golf, starring the Unknown Comic (Marty Langston), which lead to directing Up your Alley starring Linda Blair, which did well and lead to more work. He gets to Meatballs 4, which he says started out as something else altogether, when midway through the production the producers bought the rights to use the Meatballs branding, which made him very unhappy, and he was then mandated to make R-rated with nudity and adult themes. He also shares his initial thoughts about the Corey casting, which was forced by the producers, versus how it went on set. He addresses Corey's dance sequence, and why the casting of Twin peaks alum Jack Nance and Superman's Sarah Douglass, as well as the casting of Brad Grundberg who played Victor Thigpen. He talks a bit about the shenanigans they got into on set, including let the entire cast on a day of take turns jumping jet skis off the water ramp, crediting the the stunt team, including Ted Barba as Feldman's double during his sky-diving entrance, and a slight stunt mishap. He further recalls the 28 day shoot with three in a half weeks of pre-production, the location at at Bass Lake near Yosemite, the same lake that was also the location of The Flame and the Arrow and The Great Outdoors. Towards the end he opens up about the tragic suicide of Jack Nance's wife, Kelly Van Dyke, actor Jerry Van Dyke's daughter, who committed suicide in Los Angeles while Nance was shooting the film, and how that affected the production. He also gets into the hectic six-week post-production process, and his thoughts about the winky end-credits sequence, and the film's performance at the theater and home video distribution, and it's legacy.
Disc extras are buttoned-up with the 2-min Original Theatrical Trailer, and 7-min of MVD Rewind Collection Trailers for Hail Caesar, Joysticks, and Big Helium Dog. The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Wrap, that basically features the same key artwork with slightly a slightly different layout and title treatment. Inside there is a Collectible Mini-Poster.
Special Features:
- High Definition (1080p) presentation of the main feature in 1.85:1 aspect ratio
- Audio: LPCM 2.0 Stereo
- Optional English Subtitles
- NEW! Interview with Writer/Director Bob Logan (55:04)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:35)
- MVD Rewind Collection Trailers: Hail Caesar (2:15), Joysticks (2:22), Big Helium Dog (2:21)
- Reversible Artwork
- Collectible Mini-Poster
Screenshots from the MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray:
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