The story follows the life of Danny Noonan, a caddy, trying to get a scholarship by doing the right thing. This is a comedy, so the right thing isn’t as easy as it sounds. Danny runs into a variety of obstacles including getting his girlfriend Maggie pregnant, cheating on her with a slutty woman named Lacey Underall (great name), getting in trouble with a conservative judge (that is the uncle to Lacey) and trying to win an illegal tournament and get his due. Not too bad when you consider this is ‘only’ the life of a caddy.
This film is nothing short of classic! Back in the 80s there were so many one-liners that came from Caddyshack that it’s difficult to keep track. The comedic combination of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight (God rest his soul) and the late/great Rodney Dangerfield is unnaturally rare. If you tried to pull that type of talent together in the prime of their life you would run into a clash of egos. These guys played their parts and played them well. This was the definitive example of how great comedy can get in one single film. It wasn’t done prior to this film and it hasn’t been repeated at that type of level after this film; Caddyshack was/is epic!
On top of the cast, you get a almost flawless screenplay from Harold Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Doug Kenney. What’s funny, and something I’ll mention when we get to the special features, is that how the movie ended up was a mere shadow compared to how it was originally written. As the stars rolled into the film (the big four named above) the script had to change to accommodate their talents. Usually when scripts change due to talent the end result is horrible. Need an example? Check out Terminator: Salvation. That’s the most recent example that comes to mind, but it’s far from alone. Anyway, the script ended up working remarkably well, even though the original message was severely altered.
Still, you can’t complain about the end results as Caddyshack made television stars into movie stars; and it was a hit at the box office.
Now, as for the Blu-ray conversion it went from good to great in some areas. The visuals of the Blu-ray are good, but not great. I’m not sure what the conversion process was like, but the video quality is certainly HD; it’s not the best HD. In my upcoming review of A Star is Born (1954), which is right now the best HD conversion I’ve seen to date, I wonder how a 1954 movie can look so darn sharp in comparison to a 1979-1980 film that should have an easier time with the upgrade. It’s baffling and mysterious, but ultimately Caddyshack didn’t go beyond ‘good’ when it comes to going from DVD to HD in visuals. There are moments of graininess in the picture, times where the film looks a bit worn. All of these should be corrected during the Blu-ray conversion process; they seemed a bit rushed. With audio, that’s a different story.
The audio portion of the Blu-ray is spectacular. The quality of songs on the soundtrack is comparable to the Blues Brothers soundtrack. You will love the 80s music and hum it in your head throughout the day. It sounds great remastered and really hits home in some portions of the film. Regardless, I found this more appealing to me than the visuals.
Finally, the features. You get some good stuff with two great ‘making of’ featurettes. There’s not a lot more to it, but it’s still interesting and entertaining. The featurettes are really quite good, though one was produced in 1999 and the other more recent (they repeat information in some areas). Still, it’s good for $24.98.