Serial (1980)

Harvey Holroyd (Martin Mull) is a Marin County resident who is surrounded by strangeness. His family, neighbors and co-workers all seem consumed by the fads and trends of the late '70s, and it's getting to be too much to take. Sex, drugs, psychobabble and health food - it's enough to drive anyone insane! Tuesday Weld, Christopher Lee and Tommy Smothers help make up a wacky all-star cast. Serial is a biting and hilarious satire of late '70s California life that seems eerily prophetic three decades later. Product Description

Just like I remember it

I have been waiting for this film to go to DVD - and now its available. I have to agree that in this digital age, a little more "technology" could have been used when making the Master copy, or the lab did shoddy work. Content still great - and what a flashback. October 9, 2008

Good, But Not As Good As I Remembered

The DVD is fine as tro the quality of the video, sound etc. I did not enjoy this movie as much as I originally did. It is still a funny tkae on the 60's CA lifestyles, and can be enjoyable if you have never seen it before. September 9, 2008

Marin County Morons

This is a brilliant satire of Marin County, California residents and their obsessions with "New Age" nonsense; political correctness, weird sexual fads, "finding" one's self, religious cults, and ridiculous psycho-babble terminology. While this movie was made in 1980, its satire is still (sad to say) applicable in today's California.

Martin Mull, in his first starring role, plays the only seemingly sane person in his circle of friends (as his precocious young neighbor points out, "The sane man must appear to be mad in an insane world"). Mull's dry wit is perfectly in tune with a script that gives him lots of truly memorable comic lines ("Your name is just "woman"? How do you get your mail?").

Mull is joined in the cast by other 1980s-era stars like Sally Kellerman, Bill Macy, Tom Smothers, Peter Bonerz, and Christopher Lee. Don't miss this one! August 26, 2008

Great Film - Poor video quality

SerialThis is one of my all time favorite movies; the perfect send up of pompous bay area dilatantes. I waited a long time for this film to come out on DVD; while the film is still as funny as I remembered it, the print quality is terrible. July 30, 2008

Yet another 5-star film with a 1-star remastering. Boo! Hiss!

Methinks the previous reviewers did not actually SCREEN Paramount's DVD reissue of "Serial"? Otherwise, I don't think they would actually be THANKING the studio for releasing this bootleg quality abomination.

Don't get me wrong-I love this film; it's a precursor to Michael Tolkin's 1994 satire, "The New Age", a similarly savage send up of California trendies (another great film still M.I.A. on DVD, BTW). But... as for the disc quality?

Gosh, where shall I start?

1. OK, fine-"1:78 wide screen", but DEFINITELY not anamorphic.
2. Horribly tattered print; no better than my studio released VHS copy.
3. Muffled audio; turning it up and/or trying to adjust EQ doesn't help.

I wasn't expecting the Criterion treatment, but come on-this film has enough of a cult following to warrant a little more respect to those who are eager to plunk down their hard-earned cash. Inexcusable, after waiting so many years for this sly satire to appear on DVD, simply inexcusable. Caveat emptor, my friends.

July 28, 2008

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