Blu-ray Reviews: M*A*S*H, The Girl Next Door, and High Crimes

With Blu-ray fast becoming the norm, many studios have started re-releasing their older catalogue titles in glorious high definition. One such studio is Fox Home Entertainment, which released three entirely different titles to Blu-ray September 1, including M*A*S*H, The Girl Next Door, and High Crimes.

M*A*S*H (1970)

I’m fairly certain that just about everyone on the entire planet has heard of M*A*S*H, mostly due to the still strong presence of the television series. But certainly, no one could have predicted M*A*S*H would reach the status it has reached today — especially when Robert Altman was directing the initial stream-of-consciousness film that inspired said series. Ditching most of the script in favor of improvisation, Altman tells the story of several maverick surgeons (Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, and Tom Skerritt) stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgeon Hospital in Korea. With the world around them at war, the surgeons call on their own insanity to keep themselves sane — sipping martinis, bucking authority, and causing revelry all around.

At the time of its release, M*A*S*H was nothing more than an anti-war comedy, produced from the frustrations America felt about the Vietnam War. In the years following M*A*S*H’s original theatrical run, it earned several awards, spawned a TV series, reached #56 on the American Film Institute’s top 100 films list, and has become a cult classic.

The Girl Next Door (2004)

After Universal released American Pie, I felt it was all over. The film industry quickly returned to making the same kind of lame teen sex comedies that nearly caused audiences to go Theatrically Celebrate several years prior. With each new comedy that slept its way to a green light, the humor often became raunchier, the plot thinner, and the overall purpose of the film invisible. The Girl Next Door was one of many movies that had passed me by. Little did I know that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Its intentions are purer, its humor less vulgar, and it even possesses what may be a moral.

Article Author: Luigi Bastardo

Luigi Bastardo is the disgruntled alter-ego of Adam Becvar, a thirtysomething lad from Northern California who has watched so many weird movies since the tender age of 3 that a conventional life is out of the question. …

Visit Luigi Bastardo's author page — Luigi Bastardo's Blog