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 Post subject: Buddy's Song [LDCVM5565]
PostPosted: 20 Dec 2020, 16:34 
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Buddy's Song [LDCVM5565]

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In my opinion for the last 30 years Buddy's Song has been unfairly treated. It is not a crap film. Granted, with Roger Daltrey starring and co-producing it does reek of Eau de Narcissism, but I think it's very unfair to say he's rubbish in it. The bloke is not an actor, he was in The frikkin' Who for crying out loud. But I think he puts in a half decent turn here and is convincing enough as the hapless ex-con trying to go straight.

The rest of the cast, although relatively unknown in 1990, now read as a bit of a who's who of all the British TV shows you may have seen over the last 30 years. You've got half of Press Gang in here including Julia Sawalah and Lee Ross who both went on to big things. Most of EastEnders bit-parters appear here, including Jake whatshisface who was also in The Jolly Boys Outing, as well as the tremendous Emma Amos who would later go on to play Yvonne alongside TV legend Nicholas Lyndhurst in Goodnight Sweetheart.

You also get Liza Walker, who was in Hackers and The Jungle Book but me being me I instantly recognised her from the best episode of Inspector Morse of all time. The ravers episode from 1992, 'Cherubim and Seraphim'. I actually bought two wall-sized fractal posters off the back of that episode in honour of the one she has in her room in this episode. Not forgetting Michael 'Boon' Elphick and the lovely Sharon Duce too!

Then of course there is Chesney Hawkes, who never set the film or music industry alight, but did go on to have one of the biggest one hit wonder songs of all time, The One And Only, which was written by Nick Kershaw on the back of a card in about 5 seconds. Kershaw made an absolute mint off of the song, Hawkes pissed his cut of the money up the wall but is doing well now in the USA thankfully.

As for the film, it's kind of a by the numbers band success storymeets growing pains meets family struggles with parents who don't get on. I think it's an enjoyable hour and a half. It's not going to set the world alight, but it is innocent enough and leaves you satisified. What's probably not so great is the heavy use of the Confederate flag through the early part of the film.

I'm no politician and like the chief justice from the Neutral Planet in Futurama, I have no strong feelings one way or the other. It just warrants mentioning as it's presence may offend and is very dated in the film. The end.

What about the disc? My copy was new and sealed and comes with a silky smooth picture in sexually explicit 4:3 ratio. The ultimate ratio! Image quality is a tad soft but does appear to liven up in the latter stages of the film. The audio is more interesting as on the end credits it states the film was presented in Dolby Stereo but the sleeve states the disc is in Dolby Surround. My Dolby matrix sure enough processed the Surround track but to be honest it may as well have been stereo. You get a few good uses of surround but it's nothing to shout about. Audio comes through really well though, nice and clear and the music tracks are nice and boomy.

My main gripe with the film itself is the main song only features on the end credits. Such a shame!

One other thing, it's likely the film may not see a DVD or HD release, most likely because of the use of Bobby Vinton songs is my best guess. So it's likely a rights issue? The film is available on VHS and Laserdisc and they are still the best and only way to see Buddy's Song to date.

This one will certainly appeal to nostalgic Europeans (and soon to be non-EU UK folks :oops:), but regardless it is a fun little film and one that is still exclusive to Laserdisc and VHS. Go get it!
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