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| Available at Amazon.com |
Universal delivers yet another collection of older films. Being that this one is the Family Comedy Pack it seems odd that two of the four films are rated PG-13. The films in question are Kindergarten Cop, Problem Child, Kicking & Screaming and Major Payne.
This collection start out really strong with Kindergarten Cop (1990). Arnold Schwarzenegger was still an action hero and his days as the Govenator were years away. This was his second dip into the comedy genre and he succeeded admirably in the hands of director Ivan Reitman. The reason this film works is because in the beginning Arnold is playing one of his typical action characters, Detective John Kimble. In fact, the first part of the film plays like a straight cop movie. It’s only when he has to go undercover as the Kindergarten teacher do things get silly. This is a fun movie and still holds up. I enjoyed watching it again after many years.
Next up we have the worst film in the set. I think the makers of Problem Child (1990) set out to make the most annoying film ever and I think they succeeded. They even managed to squeeze Gilbert Gottfried in there just in case the Dennis the Menace wannabe wasn’t enough. Watching this film you just feel bad for John Ritter. This movie is just painful to sit through and it presence here seriously hurts the over all quality of this set.
Things improve greatly with our next film, Kicking & Screaming (2005). Will Farrell stars in this highly predictable Bad News Bears for soccer. Phil’s (Ferrell) dad (Robert Duvall) is very competitive and trades Phil’s son to another team so Phil decides to coach his son’s team that has yet to win a game. Not knowing anything about coaching, he turns to his dad’s neighbor and archenemy Mike Ditka to help him out. There are some very hilarious moments in this film that elevate it about the blandness of the story and make it worth watching.
Major Payne (1995) rounds out this DVD collection. Damon Wayans stars as Major Payne, a sociopath who is fired from the military because there are no more bad guys for him to kill. So he gets a job at a private school as the JROTC’s commanding officer. This film is a sort of Bad News Bears meets Full Metal Jacket, but you know, for kids. I didn’t expect to like this film and was pleasantly surprised. Again, it’s a very predictable story but some gem comedy moments keep it entertaining.
Kindergarten Cop, Problem Child and Major Payne are presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 and Kicking & Screaming are presented in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1. Kindergarten Cop; and Problem Child are in Dolby Digital 2.0 and Kicking & Screaming and Major Payne are in Dolby Digital 5.1. All the films look and sound fine.
Nothing.
Really none of these films are worthy owning but three of them are certainly worth renting and with two films rated PG-13 I’m not really sure how much of a “Family” collection this really is.
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Universal presents Family Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Ritter, Will Farrell and Damon Wayans. Running time: 385 minutes. Kindergarten Cop and Major Payne are Rated PG-13 and Problem Child and Kicking & Screaming are Rated PG. Released on DVD: August 5, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
About Mike Noyes
