Blu-ray Review Comedy

'Everybody Wants Some!!' Blu-ray Review: Dazed and Confused, the college years

July 18, 2016Ben MK



FEATURE: 
Writer/Director Richard Linklater has tried his hand at many different film genres, from dramas like Boyhood to animated sci-fi like A Scanner Darkly. However, arguably his most memorable works come from his earlier days as a filmmaker, with movies like Slacker, Before Sunrise and Dazed and Confused. Now the latter is getting a follow-up — sort of.

In Everybody Wants Some!!, Linklater teams with a cast of mostly-unknowns to bring to the screen a story in the same vein as his 1993 comedy, which starred a who's who of then-young Hollywood, including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck and Mila Jovovich. This time around, the cast includes Blake Jenner (Glee), Tyler Hoechlin (Teen Wolf), Ryan Guzman (Heroes Reborn) and Zoey Deutch (Dirty Grandpa), and their characters aren't a bunch of high school kids trying to get high, but rather a group of college students trying to get laid.

Story-wise, however, that pretty much sums things up. Set days before the start of the fall 1980 semester, the plot amounts to a series of vignettes about partying, ping-pong-playing and bong-smoking that revolve around freshman and baseball pitcher Jake (Jenner), as he becomes acquainted with the rest of his team (Hoechlin, Guzman, Juston Street, Wyatt Russell, Glen Powell, Temple Baker, J. Quinton Johnson, Will Brittain, Austin Amelio, Tanner Kalina and Forrest Vickery), while also chasing the affections of a cute theater arts major named Beverly (Deutch).

Of course, that's not to say that Everybody Wants Some!! steers clear of substantial themes altogether. On the contrary, Linklater is able to marry the film's somewhat raunchy sense of humor with more philosophically-minded undertones, creating hints of a deeper film lurking beneath. Make no mistake, though, the result is still a fun nostalgia trip, and it's one that doles out plenty of feel-good retro vibes for those who want them.

AUDIO & VISUALS: 
The cinematography of Everybody Wants Some!! is fairly low-key, but its relatively basic visuals are nicely complemented by the quality of this 1080p Blu-ray transfer, which delivers consistently clear picture quality, excellent contrast and clor saturation, and enough image detail to allow viewers to appreciate the care that has gone into recreating the era through the film's costume and production design. As for the film's audio, the disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix does a fine job transporting viewers back to the early '80s, thanks not only to the crystal-clear dialogue, the crack of baseball bats and the noise of rowdy partying, but also to the amazing retro soundtrack, which includes the likes of the Knack, Kool & the Gang, Queen, Van Halen and Devo.

EXTRAS: 
Paramount's two-disc Blu-ray combo pack includes an iTunes/UltraViolet digital copy, a DVD and the following Blu-ray extras:

  • Everybody Wants Some!! More Stuff That's Not in the Movie (25:24) - A collection of outtakes and B-roll footage from the film.
  • Rickipedia (3:57) - A piece about writer/director Richard Linklater's encyclopedic knowledge of everything '80s.
  • Baseball Players Can Dance (6:42) - Choreographer Andrea Ariel talks about the dance training the cast went through for the film.
  • Skills Videos (5:17) - Clips from the baseball skills videos the cast members submitted as part of their audition process.
  • History 101: Stylin' the 80s (4:20) - A brief look at the film's hair and makeup, wardrobe and production design.

Everybody Wants Some!! is available from Paramount Home Entertainment as of July 12th, 2016. The Blu-ray features English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Digital Descriptive Audio 5.1 tracks. The film is presented with English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. The total runtime is 1 Hr. 57 Mins.







You May Also Like

0 comments