As Valentine's Day arrived today, the supposedly talked about film of this holiday, is unfortunately 50 Shades of Grey. In other words, a film I have no intention to see, even if I was paid plenty of money. And given the movie will make a profit, it will make disillusioned critics forced to meet a train. Nonetheless, because of this occasion, I've decided to pick a movie, which was coincidentally based itself on the book itself. However, the novel comes from Danielle Steel, and the movie itself is Now and Forever. And it is distributed by possibly the biggest Australian Home Video company of all time; Roadshow.
…The VHS Surprises…
To further elaborate, every country had a major VHS company that dominated; in the UK, there was PolyGram Video. in the US, there was CBS/Fox Video amongst others. Australia, on the other hand, had a handful in the 80’s, with (to name a few) PBV/CEL (relying on a couple of divisions), Video Classics (see PBV/CEL, as they had 8 divisions if you count the mentioned company), CIC Video (which mainly distributed Universal and Paramount movies, and actually appeared in other countries as well, especially in the UK), and Roadshow, with the latter being the only major VHS company from the 80s lasting to this day. To make another note, it was also a picture-making/distributing company in the cinema as well, starting in the 1970s.
As for the Home Entertainment market, Roadshow would begin in 1982, deciding to copy their cinema logo at the time, and tack on ‘Home Video’ in gold (or red in the earlier versions). And according to AussieRoadshow himself, he has argued that the David Cronenberg film Scanners was the first film ever released by Roadshow Home Video, and has stuck with it. Over the years, Roadshow’s logo, output, and profit improved, outlasting every other Australian-based video company right to the 90s, with 2005 being one of the final years in the home video market (I know this because I managed to spot Million Dollar Baby, with Roadshow responsible for releasing that film). The company is still alive and well, as of 2015.
Credit goes to AussieRoadshow himself for the logos provided in the video. The logos with red text were around when Roadshow began back in 1982, and was used for a year before being phased out.
As for the movie, there’s not much backstory to it, especially on Wikipedia; all it does is that is sums up the plot in one sentence, it showcases who has starred in the said movie, and the box office performance, which appeared that it didn’t do very well (as it only made under $35,000 at the time), which would explain why almost no one has seen the movie. So why this movie?
Well, seeing how that 50 Shades of Grey – THE MOVIE is out this week, and it’s Valentine’s Day, I might as well talk about a romance/drama film, coincidentally based on a book (this time, it’s from Danielle Steel). The movie in question? Now and Forever, an Australian-made film starring US import Cheryl Ladd and Robert Coleby, with the title song performed by Australian-based band Air Supply (which features at the end credits). However, I already ran into a problem with this videocassette. First of all, despite the fact that the movie is 31 years old, it is not the quality that has got me (seeing that I’ve bought The Raven and Flesh for Frankenstein, they had the quality issues there due to their current condition); it is the cover.
Why the cover? Well, since it is in a small opaque black box, part of the cover is cut off, especially at the top and right side of the VHS cover, and the spine of the slick looks extremely uneven. The ‘Roadshow’ font and the ‘VHS’ symbol are partly there, as too the ‘Video Ezy Drama’ sticker, and you can see part of where the spine is supposed to be. The feeling gets even worse when I look at the videocassette, as the videocassette is completely black, the front label is held together with stickytape, the top label is nowhere to be seen, and there is a long reel of film, despite the film being 93 minutes, given with or without previews.
Credit goes to Matthew Bayliss for the logo. The gold text was accompanied with mentioned logo, as was the announcer, from late 1983 to 1985.
Anyway, I pop the videocassette in, and despite some – somewhat consistent – tracking problems, it is in good quality, despite the fact the warning was in red text and on a yellowish/green background, which didn’t help. And then comes the Roadshow Home Video logo, in gold text and accompanied with an announcer, who informs that there are some previews ahead. The first movie is The Personals, a romance story involving a typewriter and a pair of roller-skates occasionally. The next film on preview is Gorky Park, a film from the now-recently resurrected Orion Pictures.
The third is Heart of a Champion, with Terry Fox, the man with one leg left, as the main character walking his way to history, and having a true heart of a champion. And the fourth is a short preview of Endless Love. Apparently, the film must’ve been popular in Australia. And the announcer informs us to ‘keep watching after the end of this film’ to see more previews that are yet to come.
The next part is spoilered here because of spoilers involving the film itself.
Credit goes to tin corong for the uploaded song, and Air Supply for singing the titular song.
Unfortunately, even though the announcer kindly reminds us to keep watching the videocassette (which is during the end credits, or sometimes at the end if the movie in question doesn’t feature end credits, like Count Yorga, Vampire for example), when it appears to be poised to show us the first preview (which would’ve been Rats, by the way), the videocassette, to my horror, decides to show us another movie, The Rose & the Jackal, and it’s classification, which has no relation to the VHS cover itself, and doesn’t even mention the said movie mentioned. Since I was aiming to watch Now and Forever, I ended the videocassette when the second movie started to begin. Chalk it up to the pros and cons of a bootleg videocassette, I guess…
Bottom line, this movie has surprised me at best. It’s no 50 Shades of Grey, but to be honest, that’s a good thing, because it focuses much more on storyline than it does on doing the nasty. Robert Coleby and Cheryl Ladd give good performances, which more than make up with Christine Amor’s unconvincing and somewhat laughable performance as Margaret, and the film manages to follow the plot well in a new location. I’m surprised that people aren’t talking about this film more often. Even when it’s 90 minutes, it’s not an easy film to watch, though you don’t have to cringe at it, because there’s not much worrying stuff in there.
In fact, to close my statement, I will borrow the lines from a review of the movie, written by Peter Mitchell of Australia:
“It's one of those better quality Aussie dramas, that work so well, a blink or you'll miss it film, sitting on a video shelf. And too here is a message to the dangers of infidelity, and what you can lose in result, but too everyone deserves a second chance, especially if it's with that special one.”
Final Score
VHS Cover: 5/10. It loses points because it is not in its original clamshell, it’s partially cut down, and it looks slightly bland, to be honest.
Videocassette: 5/10. Again, it loses points because it’s not the original videocassette, period.
Quality: 6.5/10. Despite constant white line spasms, the quality is decent and holds up to this day, unlike most of the Roadshow videocassettes these days.
Warning: 6/10. Informative, but the yellow/green background with red ‘Warning’ and ‘Strictly Prohibited’ text don’t mesh together. Maybe if it was dark green…
Logo: 6/10. While it is unoriginal, they had the ability to give the logo an announcer, and tasteful gold text.
Previews/Other Features: 7.5/10. Aside from Endless Love, the previews on offer are indeed interesting. What brought it down was that the end previews were overwritten by another movie.
Final Score: 36/60. A passing grade. If I was ever locked in a room, and had to choose between the two movies, I would rather see Now and Forever until the videocassette stopped playing, period.
…The VHS Surprises…
To further elaborate, every country had a major VHS company that dominated; in the UK, there was PolyGram Video. in the US, there was CBS/Fox Video amongst others. Australia, on the other hand, had a handful in the 80’s, with (to name a few) PBV/CEL (relying on a couple of divisions), Video Classics (see PBV/CEL, as they had 8 divisions if you count the mentioned company), CIC Video (which mainly distributed Universal and Paramount movies, and actually appeared in other countries as well, especially in the UK), and Roadshow, with the latter being the only major VHS company from the 80s lasting to this day. To make another note, it was also a picture-making/distributing company in the cinema as well, starting in the 1970s.
As for the Home Entertainment market, Roadshow would begin in 1982, deciding to copy their cinema logo at the time, and tack on ‘Home Video’ in gold (or red in the earlier versions). And according to AussieRoadshow himself, he has argued that the David Cronenberg film Scanners was the first film ever released by Roadshow Home Video, and has stuck with it. Over the years, Roadshow’s logo, output, and profit improved, outlasting every other Australian-based video company right to the 90s, with 2005 being one of the final years in the home video market (I know this because I managed to spot Million Dollar Baby, with Roadshow responsible for releasing that film). The company is still alive and well, as of 2015.
Credit goes to AussieRoadshow himself for the logos provided in the video. The logos with red text were around when Roadshow began back in 1982, and was used for a year before being phased out.
As for the movie, there’s not much backstory to it, especially on Wikipedia; all it does is that is sums up the plot in one sentence, it showcases who has starred in the said movie, and the box office performance, which appeared that it didn’t do very well (as it only made under $35,000 at the time), which would explain why almost no one has seen the movie. So why this movie?
Well, seeing how that 50 Shades of Grey – THE MOVIE is out this week, and it’s Valentine’s Day, I might as well talk about a romance/drama film, coincidentally based on a book (this time, it’s from Danielle Steel). The movie in question? Now and Forever, an Australian-made film starring US import Cheryl Ladd and Robert Coleby, with the title song performed by Australian-based band Air Supply (which features at the end credits). However, I already ran into a problem with this videocassette. First of all, despite the fact that the movie is 31 years old, it is not the quality that has got me (seeing that I’ve bought The Raven and Flesh for Frankenstein, they had the quality issues there due to their current condition); it is the cover.
Why the cover? Well, since it is in a small opaque black box, part of the cover is cut off, especially at the top and right side of the VHS cover, and the spine of the slick looks extremely uneven. The ‘Roadshow’ font and the ‘VHS’ symbol are partly there, as too the ‘Video Ezy Drama’ sticker, and you can see part of where the spine is supposed to be. The feeling gets even worse when I look at the videocassette, as the videocassette is completely black, the front label is held together with stickytape, the top label is nowhere to be seen, and there is a long reel of film, despite the film being 93 minutes, given with or without previews.
Credit goes to Matthew Bayliss for the logo. The gold text was accompanied with mentioned logo, as was the announcer, from late 1983 to 1985.
Anyway, I pop the videocassette in, and despite some – somewhat consistent – tracking problems, it is in good quality, despite the fact the warning was in red text and on a yellowish/green background, which didn’t help. And then comes the Roadshow Home Video logo, in gold text and accompanied with an announcer, who informs that there are some previews ahead. The first movie is The Personals, a romance story involving a typewriter and a pair of roller-skates occasionally. The next film on preview is Gorky Park, a film from the now-recently resurrected Orion Pictures.
The third is Heart of a Champion, with Terry Fox, the man with one leg left, as the main character walking his way to history, and having a true heart of a champion. And the fourth is a short preview of Endless Love. Apparently, the film must’ve been popular in Australia. And the announcer informs us to ‘keep watching after the end of this film’ to see more previews that are yet to come.
The next part is spoilered here because of spoilers involving the film itself.
Spoiler
Credit goes to tin corong for the uploaded song, and Air Supply for singing the titular song.
Unfortunately, even though the announcer kindly reminds us to keep watching the videocassette (which is during the end credits, or sometimes at the end if the movie in question doesn’t feature end credits, like Count Yorga, Vampire for example), when it appears to be poised to show us the first preview (which would’ve been Rats, by the way), the videocassette, to my horror, decides to show us another movie, The Rose & the Jackal, and it’s classification, which has no relation to the VHS cover itself, and doesn’t even mention the said movie mentioned. Since I was aiming to watch Now and Forever, I ended the videocassette when the second movie started to begin. Chalk it up to the pros and cons of a bootleg videocassette, I guess…
Bottom line, this movie has surprised me at best. It’s no 50 Shades of Grey, but to be honest, that’s a good thing, because it focuses much more on storyline than it does on doing the nasty. Robert Coleby and Cheryl Ladd give good performances, which more than make up with Christine Amor’s unconvincing and somewhat laughable performance as Margaret, and the film manages to follow the plot well in a new location. I’m surprised that people aren’t talking about this film more often. Even when it’s 90 minutes, it’s not an easy film to watch, though you don’t have to cringe at it, because there’s not much worrying stuff in there.
In fact, to close my statement, I will borrow the lines from a review of the movie, written by Peter Mitchell of Australia:
“It's one of those better quality Aussie dramas, that work so well, a blink or you'll miss it film, sitting on a video shelf. And too here is a message to the dangers of infidelity, and what you can lose in result, but too everyone deserves a second chance, especially if it's with that special one.”
Final Score
VHS Cover: 5/10. It loses points because it is not in its original clamshell, it’s partially cut down, and it looks slightly bland, to be honest.
Videocassette: 5/10. Again, it loses points because it’s not the original videocassette, period.
Quality: 6.5/10. Despite constant white line spasms, the quality is decent and holds up to this day, unlike most of the Roadshow videocassettes these days.
Warning: 6/10. Informative, but the yellow/green background with red ‘Warning’ and ‘Strictly Prohibited’ text don’t mesh together. Maybe if it was dark green…
Logo: 6/10. While it is unoriginal, they had the ability to give the logo an announcer, and tasteful gold text.
Previews/Other Features: 7.5/10. Aside from Endless Love, the previews on offer are indeed interesting. What brought it down was that the end previews were overwritten by another movie.
Final Score: 36/60. A passing grade. If I was ever locked in a room, and had to choose between the two movies, I would rather see Now and Forever until the videocassette stopped playing, period.