The Corner Penthouse

The Freshman arrives on Blu-ray as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Retro VHS Style series, with packaging designed to look like the VHS videocassettes of the 1980s and 1990s. Several other titles in the series have already been reviewed on The Corner Penthouse, and I'm always excited when Mill Creek announces more. It's fun to see if it's a title I used to own on VHS, or one whose trailer I remember seeing at the start of some other VHS tape, or even some obscure movie I've never heard of before.


The Freshman (1990) is the story of Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick), a naive film student who accepts a job with a local mobster after a small time crook steals all his belongings. Carmine "Jimmy the Toucan" Sabatini (Marlon Brando) is an importer bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. When Sabatini makes Clark an offer he can't refuse, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining.


I'll keep this simple. It's a fun film, with excellent performances by everyone involved, especially Brando spoofing his The Godfather role of Don Vito Corelone. Supporting cast includes the delightful Penelope Ann Miller as Carmine's daughter Tina, Bruno Kirby (himself a The Godfather alumni) as Carmine's cousin Victor, Paul Benedict (Mr. Bentley from The Jeffersons) as the unsympathetic Professor Fleeber, and the always welcomed Frank Whaley as Clark's college pal Steve. The script by director Andrew Bergman is lively, with lots of misadventures for Clark to get into. I enjoyed the scenes with Clark and Steve dealing with "the parcel".


The film is definitely worth a watch, even more so for fans of The Godfather saga. The video transfer on this Blu-ray is watchable, but to be fair, it's not the greatest. The picture isn't as sharp and colorful as it should be. It's definitely an improvement over any previous DVD release, that's for sure. If you want to get an idea as to the picture quality, two framegrabs from the Blu-ray have been added to Spook Central's Washington Square Park and Little Italy pages. (The images used in this review did not come from the Blu-Ray.)


The Freshman is presented in a 1.79:1 aspect ratio (six pixels of blackness frame the film at the top and bottom, and it's not in 1.85:1 like the case says) with a runtime of 1:42:39. On the audio side, there is only an English 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio track. Subtitles are available in English only. As is the case with most Mill Creek Entertainment releases, there are no special features - just like the original videocassette!


The real "bonus feature" here is the vintage-looking VHS-inspired slipsleeve, with faux wear and tear, and fake "rental stickers" on it, while giving the appearance of a videocassette being pulled out from the right side (though the original VHS may have been in a bottom-loading box), complete with tape label side on the right spine. Here's a complete look at this special slipsleeve. Click on it to get a better look.


The front artwork is based on the original U.S. VHS box art, as seen below. The back of the slipsleeve bears a similarity to the original VHS box art, using the same or similar photos, but in a different orientation.


The case artwork underneath is of a modern style, which means that the VHS-style slipsleeve may only be available for a limited time. In the photo below, the slipsleeve cover is on the left and the case artwork underneath is on the right.


Since Mill Creek Entertainment is a budget company, you can grab The Freshman on Amazon for a great low price right now.


The "Retro VHS Style" series includes the following Blu-ray releases, which are being listed in chronological movie order, and not the order they are being released onto Blu-ray. Some titles below may not have been released yet.




Images used come from the Internet Movie Database gallery of the film. The Blu-ray has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.