Blu-ray Movie Reviews

It made overnight stars of Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, shocked film critics everywhere and became one of the biggest cult classics of the '80s. Twenty years later, "Heathers" remains the only brilliantly black comedy about peer pressure, malicious croquet and having a brain tumor for breakfast. At Westerburg High where cliques rule, jerk jocks dominate and the most popular girls are all named Heather, it's going to take a Veronica and the mysterious and possibly psychotic new kid J.D. to give teen angst a body count.

This dark comedy classic has always been a lot of fun and it has been a long time since I’ve seen it. Seeing the stars this young was a bit funny at first but the production still holds up really well. This is one of those no holds barred teenage pics that was so popular in the eighties and rightfully so. The actors were actually good (as opposed to most the teenage junk we’ve seen over the last decade) and the stories were a bit more serious. Great to see a catalog classic like this makes its debut in HD.

This was never a big production film and the visual style was pretty plain Jane. The HD presentation does well with what it has to work with but don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles. The print has some dirt and nicks here and there but largely it held up pretty well. Detail is good but fine detail isn’t quite up there with the best HD transfers. Colors are very natural, if not a bit soft at times. Depth is good but overall dimensionality is a bit lower than reference level transfers. But considering its age and budget, it looks quite good.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and delivers the pop soundtrack and dialogue well, but the sound design is a bit limited. Natural ambiance isn’t this soundtracks strong point but at least the dialogue doesn’t sound thin and dated. The main soundstage has an open quality to it but the surrounds don’t see much use.

Anchor Bay has included a few new extras on this one including a feature commentary from the crew. Some film trivia is also included along with a look back at the production and themes. A trailer is also included.

It’s always fun to revisit classic catalog titles like this. Anchor Bay has done a great job with the presentation, even if it isn’t a reference title.