Review of Richard Pryor (4 disc box set)

Introduction

Born on 1st December 1940, Richard Pryor was born into a strange world. His mother was a prostitute who abandoned him at the age of ten, his father was a boxer and bartender from whom he was estranged. To fall back on, the grandmother who brought him up owned a brothel. Some might say that this childhood insanity was only a foresight of what was to come.

During his formative comedic years, Pryor was nothing more than a regular, by-the-by act. But by 1967 he had begun to incorporate some foul language into his show and, realising that this got him more reaction than his previous ten years` work combined, he began to push the envelope further, with increasing success. He released several stand-up comedy albums, and in 1977 tried to break into the mainstream with NBC`s "Richard Pryor Show", which lasted all of five shows before being pulled.

Despite this setback, Pryor`s popularity continued to grow, reaching it`s peak when he was signed to a five-year, $40m film contract by Columbia Pictures in 1983. Without question, Pryor`s biggest role was alongside Christopher Reeve and Robert Vaughn in Superman III, which alone earned Pryor $4m.

Having battled with drugs for much of his adult life, Pryor finally kicked the habit after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease which would eventually confine him to a wheelchair. His last film was 1997`s Lost Highway, in which he had only a small part.

Pryor passed away on 10th December 2005, prompting those who remembered his hay-day to suggest that he was one of the greatest comedians of all time. Earlier in 2005, Pryor was named as the 10th Greatest Comedian of All-Time by his peers, as presented in Channel 4`s Comedian`s Comedian countdown.

This boxset then, released posthumously, contains some of Pryor`s best-known works. Car Wash (1976) - written by Joel Schumacher of Batman and Robin fame - is the story of a team of African-American car-washers whose lives are inhabited by all manner of different characters who require their services.

Stir Crazy (1980) sees Pryor and Gene Wilder framed for bank robbery, where they seem doomed until the warden notices that Wilder is quite the bronco rider.

Brewster`s Million`s (1985) stars Pryor as Montgomery Brewster, a minor league baseball player who can inherit $300m, but only - as the stipulation goes - if he is able to spend $30m in a single month, without accumulating any assets.

"See No Evil, Hear No Evil" is (1989) is another Pryor/Wilder effort, in which Pryor is blind and Wilder is deaf. The two friends must work together to find those who have framed them for murder.

Video

We get a mixed bag here in the transfer department.

Despite the fact that it is the earliest film (1976), Car Wash`s 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (PAL) transfer is beautifully done, and clearly some effort has gone into it`s reproduction. The colours in particular are beautifully captured and this film looks far from its age.

Stir Crazy is also presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (PAL). Whilst not as surprising as Car Wash, this is still a very pleasing transfer. It lacks the colour of Car Wash, but that is just as much down to the genre of the former than anything else. I was surprised at the lack of film artefacts on this transfer, which is a major thumbs up.

Things, however, fall down the proverbial manhole on Brewster`s Millions. Whilst my personal Region 1 copy is a decent widescreen effort, this is a disastrous fullscreen production which makes me want to utter some words that Mr Pryor taught me during his stand-up comedy days. Truthfully, this isn`t much better than my old VHS copy, and is soft in image and laden with artefacts.

At least See No Evil, Hear No Evil improves on that, with another 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (PAL) transfer. Do you think Meatloaf would mind if I changed his song to "Three Out of Four Ain`t Bad"? Being ten years the senior of Stir Crazy, you might expect this to be considerably better in terms of transfer, but both are remarkably similar. There are some artefacts along the way, but you haven`t seen this film ever look so good.

Audio

All four films are given Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes, with some working better than others. Car Wash suffers the most, for a couple of reasons. First of all, with the music being so prominent in this film, it could have done with a 5.1 remix to promote that. Secondly, many of the characters here talk in what appears to be the language of jive - although I wouldn`t know as I`m too young! Seriously though, I was reaching for the subtitle button on several occasions. For Car Wash, there are also 2.0 French, Italian, German and Spanish tracks.

The other 2.0 tracks are virtually identical and are quite good, even if that is only because the remaining films are very much dialogue based.

Stir Crazy contains additional French and German 2.0 tracks, Brewster`s Millions an additional German 2.0 track, and See No Evil Hear No Evil also has French, German, Italian and Spanish 2.0 tracks.

Features

Ah, the special features! You can`t have a box set without special features!

Sorry if I got you excited there, but apparently you can have a box set without special features. Not a very good one maybe - but you can wait until the next portion of this review to read more about that.

To cut a short story even shorter, Car Wash has absolutely no features at all. Nor does Stir Crazy. Brewster`s Millions has a trailer, the image quality of which is a slap in the face to all DVD player owners. And See No Evil, Hear No Evil too has a trailer, and an eight minute featurette which you will never watch again.

Ho-hum.

Conclusion

Given the pathetic lack of extras in this set, we can only be grateful that - partially - these films stand up on their own.

That said, Car Wash - which, perversely, has the best transfer by far - was a struggle to watch in its entirety. It hasn`t aged well, especially with the dialogue`s "jive talk" that might have been considered funny then but is now a merely a reminder of yesteryear. This film plays out more like a series of sketches than a well-constructed film, which is certainly a major part of the reason why it didn`t do it for me. What, in any case, this is doing on a Richard Pryor boxset is beyond me, since he`s in the film for only around five minutes.

Stir Crazy, however, is a different matter. As a fan of Gene Wilder and Pryor himself, this never looked like failing, and indeed was a good, easy-to-watch comedy. One of my favourite scenes is when Pryor is teaching Wilder to walk "bad" - that is, whilst looking tough in front of their new prison-fellows.

Brewster`s Millions is my favourite film of the bunch, and is a classic 80s comedy, right up there with Ferris Bueller`s Day Off. Extremely easy to watch, but with more bad language than you remember from the TV version, this is a tremendously-quotable, fun 90 minutes, aided wonderfully by John Candy.

Finally, See No Evil, Hear No Evil is another 80s-style comedy, with a premise that was made for the team of Pryor and Wilder. Fans of "silly humour" will revel in particular in their physical antics, whilst some of Pryor`s blind man one-liners are laugh out loud moments.

So whilst I can say that I enjoyed the latter three films on this box set, I certainly cannot say that I am enthralled with the lack of extras, or the fact that it seems that all four original releases were thrown into a nice box and flogged to make some money (£24.99 RRP) from Pryor`s death. I understand that there was a market for some of these films in the retail landscape because of the publicity generated, but there is absolutely no excuse for the use of a poor 4:3 DVD of Brewster`s Millions, especially when America has had their anamorphic widescreen version for four years.

Overall, despite the regional variations with Brewster`s Millions, it should be remembered that the versions of the other films included here are the best versions available. So unless special editions are on the way - and I can`t see that happening soon - if you are a fan of all four films, this is worth pursuing.

The Richard Pryor DVD box set may not be perfect, but there are some moments included here which are indicative of the genius of the man.