The Wild Life (1984). Now I'd like to see this big party on Blu. (1 Viewer)

[Kyrsten Brad]

Well folks, here's another one of those 1980s movies which I didn't catch at the theater but managed to catch it quite often on cable TV during my break from Data Structures Programming classes (at Kent). I'd slip away from my Commodore 128 which was telephone-interfaced over a 1200 baud modem to the Kent VAX and enjoy these flicks.

The Wild Life is basically a teen comedy/ drama film (per Wiki) which takes a look at teen life in Los Angeles which I thought was a little exaggerated (but I could be wrong). This film has been referred to as a sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High due mainly to the fact that many of the producers of this film (Cameron Crowe, Art Limson, etc) also worked on FTARH. However there is nothing in this film that even remotely connects it to Fast Times. This film is pretty much its own film.

Of course it draws comparisons to Fast Times as there's quite a few similar story lines. My own opinion is that Fast Times is the superior film but one could also enjoy The Wild Life on its own merits.
We get what for a few folks was our first look at Lea Thompson, who of course went on to greater things in the Back to the Future films. She's the donut store clerk who is having an affair with a older policeman. Unknown to her, he's already married as she discovers later in the film. Rick Moranis makes a post-Ghostbusters appearance as a nerdy store clerk. And Randy Quaid appears as a burned-out Vietnam veteran (which today would draw heavy criticism for a less-than-heroic portrayal of our men, and women in uniform).

One of my favorite mini-storylines is where Jim (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) meets up with this beautiful girl in the bowling alley who happens to be with one of the local tough guys which of course leads to a face-off out in the parking lot. The way Jim handles this is quite unique (and scary) to say the least. The funny thing is that toward the end of the film, both antagonists meet up on the first day of school and the vibe you get tells you they'll end up as friends. Oh and the girl they initially sparred over (I don't recall the actress name) was cute as all dickens too.


Up until 2013, there was no DVD release and the last release was on LaserDisc way back when. Happily as of October 2013, the Wild Life is now available on DVD-R MOD. And from what I've read of the reviews on Amazon, the transfer is quite a good one for DVD. Now if they'd just do a correctly-transferred Blu-ray. Would love to see that party on blu.

Wiki Article on The Wild Life

 

[revgen]

An HD master does exist and has been broadcasted before. So perhaps a boutique label might want to look into it if the studios don't.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

An HD master does exist and has been broadcasted before. So perhaps a boutique label might want to look into it if the studios don't.

Forgot to mention that I believe Universal holds the rights so I don't see this being a TT release, unless the rumor I've been reading about TT now in talks with a as-yet unnamed studio are true, and that studio is Universal.
Universal did release the DVD last October.

 

[jcroy]

Are all the Eddie Van Halen instrumentals included on the dvd and/or hd versions?

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Are all the Eddie Van Halen instrumentals included on the dvd and/or hd versions?

Good question.

 

[Jon Hertzberg]

Up until 2013, there was no DVD release and the last release was on LaserDisc way back when. Happily as of October 2013, the Wild Life is now available on DVD-R MOD. And from what I've read of the reviews on Amazon, the transfer is quite a good one for DVD. Now if they'd just do a correctly-transferred Blu-ray. Would love to see that party on blu.

Wiki Article on The Wild Life

From what I understand, the MOD DVD features the "rescored" soundtrack that has been available on all previous home video versions of the film. The "home video version" had several songs removed or changed for licensing reasons--all or most of these spots were filled by reusing portions of Eddie Van Halen's score. Contrary to some posts you might see online, Eddie's score has never been replaced on any version of the film. Going by memory here...but some of the songs replaced include Madonna's "Burning Up" and Prince's "Dirty Mind."

Contrary to the DVD, cable airings, including recent HD broadcasts, include the full, original theatrical soundtrack. If a Blu-ray is simply going to re-create the "home video version" soundtrack, which the MOD DVD apparently does, then I have no interest.

I wrote about the film here a few years ago, prior to the DVD release: http://knifeinthehead.blogspot.com/2011/08/not-so-obscure-trailer-but-still-mia-on.html

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Ilan Mitchell-Smith went from this to Weird Science and then took this sharp left turn. . .

Mitchell-Smith received his BA in Medieval Studies from UC Davis and his MA in Medieval Studies from Fordham University. He received a doctoral degree from Texas A&M University in 2005, and he is currently an associate professor in the English department at California State University, Long Beach. Mitchell-Smith publishes on chivalry in the later Middle Ages, and he also publishes on cinematic, television, and video game versions of medieval culture.

(From Wikipedia. )

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Well if this counts, just reviewed the Universal Vault series DVD for The Wild Life released back in October 2013. The upscaled PQ was quite excellent for a DVD (which of course indicates that they did a decent transfer which bodes well for a future blu) . I of course did note some "filler" music which substituted for the original songs that were in the theatrical release. Sound quality seemed excellent as well but I'd love to get some more opinions from the more discriminating folks here with high-end systems.

Overall I was well pleased with this buy and would recommend it as a placeholder until Universal sees fit to port it over to blu-ray. It took what, 39 years after theatrical release but we at least finally got a decent DVD.

Note to Universal Vault Series folks, can we get a Blu?



Overall

 

[Jon Hertzberg]

Not really interested in a Blu-ray if the music continues to be a "rescored" job. It's not a surprise that the film looks good on Blu-ray, as the film has been mastered in HD for some time. Note that the film regularly airs on television in HD with ALL ORIGINAL THEATRICAL MUSIC intact. I wouldn't be surprised if this version is also available in streaming or downloadable form on other platforms such as Vudu or Netflix...getting ahold of that is a more viable "placeholder" for me...but, to each his own.

 

[The Drifter]

Recently saw the underrated teen film The Wild Life (1984) for the very first time. Even though I'm a huge movie fan & was the target audience for this film when it was released (early high school), for some reason I hadn't heard of the film prior to last year. TWL was released to DVD-R in the past several years, so it may attract a wider audience as time goes on. And, though the DVD-R is obviously better than nothing, it would be great to see this on Blu at some point.

TWL seems to be a pseudo-sequel (with different characters) to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The film follows the lives of a group of teens (one who has already graduated high school) & is entertaining. The film also boasts an amazing '60's/'70's classic rock soundtrack, including Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, etc. And, it stars a lot of relatively well known actors/actresses, including Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, Rick Moranis, etc. - and even has a nice cameo by Nancy Wilson of the rock group "Heart".

As is the case with a lot of "forgotten" films that are well-done, I wonder why the film didn't do better on it's release, and also why it isn't more well known - especially since it's 35 years old this year. The film is not a masterpiece, but isn't meant to be. It's just a fun film that is as good - and in many cases better - than some of the other more popular teen films that were released during this era.

If you look at the movie poster, Chris Penn could be the spitting image of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli from FTARH (with shorter hair, of course) - which I'm sure was intentional. So, I suspect that back in the '80's, if someone saw the poster without knowing much about the film, they would probably think (as I first did when seeing this) that S. Penn was starring in another teen film.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Recently saw the underrated teen film The Wild Life (1984) for the very first time. Even though I'm a huge movie fan & was the target audience for this film when it was released (early high school), for some reason I hadn't heard of the film prior to last year. TWL was released to DVD-R in the past several years, so it may attract a wider audience as time goes on. And, though the DVD-R is obviously better than nothing, it would be great to see this on Blu at some point.

TWL seems to be a pseudo-sequel (with different characters) to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The film follows the lives of a group of teens (one who has already graduated high school) & is entertaining. The film also boasts an amazing '60's/'70's classic rock soundtrack, including Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, etc. And, it stars a lot of relatively well known actors/actresses, including Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, Rick Moranis, etc. - and even has a nice cameo by Nancy Wilson of the rock group "Heart".

As is the case with a lot of "forgotten" films that are well-done, I wonder why the film didn't do better on it's release, and also why it isn't more well known - especially since it's 35 years old this year. The film is not a masterpiece, but isn't meant to be. It's just a fun film that is as good - and in many cases better - than some of the other more popular teen films that were released during this era.

If you look at the movie poster, Chris Penn could be the spitting image of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli from FTARH (with shorter hair, of course) - which I'm sure was intentional. So, I suspect that back in the '80's, if someone saw the poster without knowing much about the film, they would probably think (as I first did when seeing this) that S. Penn was starring in another teen film.

Well we did finally get Valley Girl (1983) and The Sure Thing (1985) so we can still hold out hope.

Also Private School (1983) is available online in HD on Vudu.