Meatballs 4- Movie Set DVD Review + Screenshots + Packaging Shots

Studio: ?????
Release Date: June 29th, 1979 (theatrical) (Meatballs) / July 27th, 1984 (theatrical) (Meatballs Part II) / October 27th, 1986 (theatrical) (Meatballs III) / March 6th, 1992 (theatrical) (Meatballs 4) / 2025 (DVD)
Run Time: 1 hour 33 minutes 43 seconds (Meatballs) / 1 hour 27 minutes 19 seconds (Meatballs II) / 1 hour 33 minutes 42 seconds (Meatballs III) / 1 hour 29 minutes 12 seconds (Meatballs 4)
Region Code: FREE

Disc Count: 4 (DVD-5)
Picture: 480p (1.75:1 aspect ratio) (Meatballs) / 480p (1.85:1 aspect ratio) (Meatballs Part II) / 480i (1.33:1 aspect ratio) (Meatballs III) / 480p (1.85:1 aspect ratio) (Meatballs 4)
Sound: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Meatballs) /
Subtitles: English, Spanish (Meatballs) / English, Spanish, French (Meatballs 4)
Slipcover: No
Digital Copy: No
Starring: Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, Kate Lynch, Russ Banham, Kristine DeBell, Sarah Torgov, Chris Makepeace (Meatballs) / Richard Mulligan, Hamilton Camp, John Mengatti, Kim Richards, Archie Hahn, Misty Rowe, John Larroquette (Meatballs Part II) / Sally Kellerman, Patrick Dempsey, Al Waxman, Isabelle Mejias (Meatballs III) / Corey Feldman, Jack Nance, Sarah Douglas, Bojesse Christopher (Meatballs 4)
Written by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, Janis Allen, Harold Ramis (Meatballs) / Bruce Singer (Meatballs Part II) / Bradley Kesden, Michael Paseornek (Meatballs III) / Bob Logan (Meatballs 4)
Directed by Ivan Reitman (Meatballs) / Ken Wiederhorn (Meatballs Part II) / George Mendeluk (Meatballs III) / Bob Logan (Meatballs 4)
Rating: PG (language, sexual references) (Meatballs) / PG (language and sexual references) (Meatballs Part II) / R (language and nudity) (Meatballs III) / R (nudity and a scene of sensuality) (Meatballs 4)

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Poster(s)

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What's It About?

Bill Murray is at his hilarious best in thi sclassic comedy that's "Animal House goes to summer camp" (Newsweek). Murray plays Tripper, the wisecracking, rule-bending head counselor at camp North Star. Whether playing pranks on Camp North Star's clueless director, wooing the female counselor, or scheming against the rich brats of a rival camp, Tripper delivers fun and mayhem in a laugh-filled summer his campers will remember forever (Meatballs)

In this sequel to the teenage summer camp comedy Meatballs, the usual '80s misfits come together in a series of comic misadventures, and then band together to save their beloved Camp Sasquatch. John Mengatti stars as Flash, a juvenile delinquent who's given the choice of reform school or serving as a camp counselor at Camp Sasquatch, where he has the opportunity to pursue fellow counselor Kim Richards (Escape to Witch Mountain). Among the various oddball campers is a space alien nicknamed "Meathead" - we're guessing your weird summer camp experience was never like this. (Meatballs Part II)

When porn star Roxy Doujor is denied entrance into the afterlife, she is given one last chance to help some poor soul on Earth. She finds Rudy Gerner working at a summer river resort. Roxy is given the task of helping Rudy lose his virginity in order to allowed into the afterlife. (Meatballs III)

When Lakeside starts losing it's campers to a competitor, tget hire new recreation director - and cocky maverick skier - Ricky Wade (Corey Feldman). Ricky not only energizes his team for a super competition, he also pulls a few outrageous surprises and makes a splash thats ends the summer with a real bang. So hold on to your bathing suit! This year, it's going to be a bumpy ride. (Meatballs 4)

The above plot descriptions were taken directly from the back of the DVD box, misspellings and all.

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Video/Audio

Presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio (there are small black bars on the side), MEATBALLS looks good. It looked great back when it was released in 2012 and time has been pretty kind to it. Detail is fair, colors are good, and brightness levels are just right. The picture is interlaced and you can see it all throughout the film.It gets pretty comb-y at times. If you own the Lionsgate DVD or the Umbrella Entertainment DVD, then just stick with those. I mean, this IS the Lionsgate DVD so it would be weird to buy something you already have, right?

Presented in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, MEATBALLS PART II looks good. Detail is a bit higher than what we saw on the MEATBALLS DVD. Colors are stronger here with reds looking particularly strong, and skin tones look fairly healthy. I am going to go so far as to say this is the best looking film in the set.

MEATBALLS III is a VHS rip. It's in 1.33:1 and displays the type of video noise and imperfections we have all come to love about VHS. The opening logo bounces like the tape is trying to track, and there is the usual video noise along the side of the screen. The picture is fairly flat without much in the way of detail. The picture is kind of smeary at times, and blacks crush from time to time. Colors are ok and might actually be the best thing about the picture.

We finish up this section with MEATBALLS 4. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. I will say this is the second best looking film in this set. Colors are pretty good with green and brown being the strongest, of course. Clarity is good. Detail isn't bad. It's a good looking transfer.

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Extras/Packaging

Disc 1: Meatballs (1979)

Audio Commentary with director Ivan Reitman and writer/producer Daniel Goldberg This is a strong commentary. Very informative and easy to listen to, I had a lot of fun with this one. I doubt there is anything more we could learn about the film after listening to this.

Also from Lionsgate (all of these play at the disc start up)

One for the Money (1m 13s, SD, 1.78:1)
Bait Shop (1m 47s, SD, 1.78:1)
L.A. Story (1m 20s, SD, 1.33:1)
Epix (2m, SD, 1.78:1). This is a trailer for the cable channel that was also an app. This was kind of a big deal back in the late 2000s.

Film is divided into 12 chapters

The Sony DVD contains a making-of featurette that is not present here. Weirdly enough, Umbrella Entertainment released MEATBALLS on DVD in Australia, where this collection is from, in 2020, with the featurette this set is missing.

Disc 2: Meatballs Part II (1984)

There are no special features on this disc at all. In fact, the film begins immediately after the standard FBI warnings, and if you press any of the menu buttons, it restarts the disc from the start. Very weird.

The film is also presented on the disc twice as one video file. Once the film stops playing, it will start over. Usually, this is done within the program used to author the disc. Here, it's just the same film twice in the same video file. It is weird. I guess they figure once people notice the film has restarted, they will turn it off.

Disc 3: Meatballs III (1986)

Trailer - Free Ride (2m 10s, SD, 1.33:1)

This is the weirdest disc in the set. Upon bootup, we are given a genric menu screen. This is the kind of menu you get when you use one of those home DVD creation programs. It's just a blue screen that says "Title Menu" at the top. Then we are given two options:

1. MEATBALLS 3 1989
2. Trailer - Free Ride

This disc screams bootleg to me. What company, outside of the public domain companies that plagued the market during the heyday of DVD, would use a menu like this? They also got the name of the film wrong, the title uses Roman numerals, and the year wrong, the film was released in 1986, not 1989.

Film is divided into 7 chapters

Meatballs 4 (1992)

There are no special features on this disc.

This is the Fox DVD that was released in the mid 2000s. That disc was a flipper disc with a widescreen version (the one that is present here), and a "fullscreen" version (1.33:1 aspect ratio) on the other side.

Film is divided into 20(?) chapters

Every disc in this collection is REGION FREE

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Overall

The MEATBALLS films are a weird lot. The first film is your typical summer camp comedy. High jinks and cursing (back when cursing was allowed in a PG film). Bill Murray is great playing exactly the type of character he would become known for: the loveable asshole who is smooth with the ladies. It's a good flick even if it isn't nearly as good as CAMP NOWHERE or HEAVYWEIGHTS.

The first sequel, MEATBALLS PART II, starts out innocent enough. We get the loveable camp owner, the camp that is facing closure, wacky highjinks. I liked a lot of what was happening. Then there's a fucking alien the kids name Meathead. Every scene with this fucking thing grinds the film to a halt. I know the film came out in the wake of E.T., but they could have added the alien to another film. It feels out of place. It reminded me of the film, THE DARK. The film was being made when ALIEN was released, so the producers made the filmmakers turn the bad guy into an alien, complete with lasers that shoot out of its eyes. They didnt reshoot any of the footage. They just added lasers shooting out of its eyes. While this is a bit different, it still features producers making filmmakers of a film to add something based on the success of a previous film. Is it a good film? Not really, but it could have been had they not added the alien.

MEATBALLS III is the most interesting film in the series (to me, at least) The film out hero, a nerd who can't get with the ladies, befriending a dead pornstar who helps him out in the ladies department so she can get into the afterlife. That's right. There is a dead pornstar who wants to get into the afterlife but has to help someone first. The film is set at a summer camp, has the usual pranks and hijinks, and also features a dead pornstar. I would love to hear about the the first time the filmmakers said outloud, "Let's have a dead pornstar come back as a ghost to help a nerd get the ladies." The rest of the film is the typical summer camp film but turned up a lot due to the R-rating. The previous films were rated PG. Sure, they had their fair share of cursing and slightly mature hijinks, but they had to hold back a bit. This film does not hold back. Cursing, adult hijinks, and nudity. This type of summer camp film was what we 80s and 90s kids knew. We didn't know very many of the family oriented summer camp films, but we did know all the R-rated ones. I liked this one a lot more than part 2.

MEATBALLS 4 is the final film in the series and I love this film. I used to watch this all the time when I was a teenager and it was a pleasure going back to that time the moment the film began. I love the characters and the nudity, of course. I find the film to be a lot of fun and I would say this is the best in the series.

Is this set worth the money? Yes. You will have to look past some of the imperfections, but I am happy to finally have the whole series on home media. I already had parts 1 and 4 (which I had already owned twice) and was looking for the middle two films. I wish part 3 had been in its OAR but that is a small complaint. This is a weird set in that the transfers are all over the place and there is no listed company who released this. The copyright on the back just says it's for Australia and New Zealand only but nothing else. There are other sets like this for the BEST OF THE BEST films, the BEASTMASTER film, and the first four KICKBOXER films. It seems they take whatever disc images they can get and only include special features if that image has them to begin with. I am not sure how legal these things are but I don't live in either Australia or New Zealand so I don't know how their copyright laws work. I will say that I recommend buying this set.

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Extras/Menus