USA Region A blu-ray
1080p Widescreen 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
MOVIE: 8
VIDEO QUALITY: 9
AUDIO QUALITY: 8
EXTRAS: 8
I was expecting The First Nudie Musical to be one of those “so bad, it’s good” films but actually it’s a pretty solid piece of entertainment and filmmaking. For a movie that was cobbled together for very cheap, it’s surprisingly very professionally made. As I watched this film, I couldn’t help thinking that this would make a great stage play (not sure if it has been transferred to the stage or not?) – this cult movie is the typical type of film that would have a stage play running for many years. A cross between The Producers and South Park, the film is about a struggling filmmaker that has two weeks to complete a film with financial backing, but it has to be a porno musical and it has to be directed by one of the investor’s nephew. The nephew, played by Bruce Kimmel, is actually really awkwardly funny and reminded me of Tom Hulce. The two main leads, played Stephen Nathan and Cindy Williams, have excellent chemistry with each other. Actually, the whole movie is full of positive energy and good chemistry. If the script was more polished, this could have been actually been a great movie. Once again, I see this film being re-written into a great stage play – with better dialogue and longer musical numbers. The story is simple but a really good one. Besides the cheesy dialogue (which really isn’t really that bad as people say), the main negative is that the musical numbers run too short. Every song is catchy and really good, but since it’s a movie within a movie, the songs get cut short most of the time because the movie is about making a porno musical rather than the movie being a porno musical.
The blu-ray is overall very good. I never saw the DVD version so I can’t compare to the blu-ray, but the video quality is a totally pleasing presentation. It has a nice fine layer of grain, but colors really stand out. The picture isn’t soft nor is it crisp – somewhere right in between, which reminds us of that type of film stock in 1970s films. The audio is okay. It definitely sounds like a mono track with just a tiny bit of power, but you will have to turn the volume up to really enjoy the soundtrack. Some of the dialogue sounds muffled at times, but from what I read about the film, I’m sure this blu-ray is as good or even better than how it played in the theaters. The only negative of the blu-ray is that there are no subtitles. It would have been great to play subtitles during the songs to really help remember the funny lyrics.
The blu-ray is pretty loaded with great extras as one would expect from a cult film. You won’t be disappointed in that respect.
The First Nudie Musical is a fun, charming musical that is just slightly dirty and much better than I expected!
couchpotatofarm 