Blu-ray movie reviews: ‘The Holdovers’ and ‘The Road to Hong Kong’

Here’s a look at two films released in the Blu-ray format.

The Holdovers: Collector’s Edition (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, rated R, 133 minutes, 1.66:1 aspect ratio, $24.98) Chameleon character actor Paul Giamatti once again embraces his curmudgeonly side in a 1970s-themed Christmas dramedy directed by the Academy Award-winning Alexander Payne.

A simple, familiar story introduces Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a hard-nosed, grouchy history teacher at the Barton Academy boarding school in snowy New England. As students leave for winter break, Hunham is punished by the schoolmaster for his rough grading tactics by having him supervise a quintet of holdovers — students stuck at the school over the holidays.

The quintet quickly is reduced to one after a parent shows up and offers to take all the boys on a ski trip, except Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa) can’t get his vacationing mom’s permission.

Thus, the troublemaking and disgruntled Angus is living in the school with Hunham and sympathetic cafeteria managing cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), grieving over her son recently killed in Vietnam.

The trio share a bonding and healing experience over the two weeks, culminating in a life-changing trip to Boston for Hunham.

A striking film stock nostalgia trip arrives via the high definition format and screen-filling aspect ratio to showcase the detailed period set design and Eigil Bryld’s cinematography and create the feel of an actual 1970s visual presentation.

Viewers will find a vintage opening ratings credit and revel in grainy scenes with a pinch of film scratching and yellowish and green tints throughout, especially in interiors, that look indicative of the movie era.

Best extras: This impressive film does not equal impressive bonus content and hardly worthy of the label “collector’s edition.”

Extras are relegated to a pair of featurettes (roughly 20 minutes in total) that finds actors patting each other on the back for each other’s efforts and the director getting equal love from cast and crew.

Viewers also get an alternate ending which was wisely not used in the final theatrical release and explained why by Mr. Payne.

The Road to Hong Kong: Special Edition (Kino Lorber, not rated, 91 minutes, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, $24.95) Home theater owners looking for some vintage laughs will appreciate the return of a 1962 musical comedy in the Blu-ray format directed by Norman Panama and starring a pair of Hollywood legends.

Specifically, Bing Cosby and Bob Hope teamed up one more time after a 10-year absence for a final “road” movie as famed con men Harry Turner and Chester Babcock. The futuristic tale has the boys run a failed scam in Calcutta in which Chester injures his noggin and loses his memory. After a visit to Tibet to help, Chester, with help from Harry, acquires an herbal drug that gives him a photographic memory.

When Diane (Joan Collins) from the spy organization the Third Echelon mistakes him for a fellow agent, she gives Chester a stolen document that spells out a secret rocket fuel formula, which he memorizes before it’s destroyed.

In the finest of James Bond traditions, the boys are captured and must escape from the Third Echelon’s headquarters before becoming test monkeys in space. Of course, the plot leads to plenty of hijinks, and Peter Sellers delivers the biggest laughs in a single scene as an Indian doctor not helping Chester get his memory back.

Other guest appearances abound, including David Niven as a lama, Robert Morley as the head of the Third Echelon (wearing a Nehru jacket of course), Bond villain stalwart Walter Gotell as Third Echelon scientist Dr. Zorbb, Dorothy Lamour as herself, and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as a couple of lost astronauts.

The black-and-white classic offers plenty of details, down to watching the older Hope and Crosby often with forehead sweats, but unfortunately, the stock footage comes loaded with scratches and dirt. This version was not a restoration by any means.

Best extras: Owners get an optional commentary track by enthusiastic film historians Michael Schlesinger and Stan Taffel, both big fans of the film. The pair break down the cast and some of the crew’s credits, the comedic patter between Hope and Crosby, and offer a steady stream of informative but non-movie related trivia while reminding us that it’s a British movie and incessantly mocking Crosby’s plaid suit jacket.

Movie-centric nuggets include mentioning artist Maurice Binder created the titles and also created the famed James Bond gun barrel title sequence.

Additionally, the location footage of Hong Kong was borrowed from the movie “The World of Suzie Wong.”

Also, Crosby thought Lamour was too old for the film, but Hope demanded she appear (she received a large check for her efforts).

The file historians even explain that the filmmakers scheduled the shoot to not conflict with Crosby’s trout fishing season and that the spaceship-banana-eating sequence was a tribute to the eating machine in Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.”