If you were a kid in the ‘90s, you likely watched MTV and remember some of its original programming like Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1998), Total Request Live (1998-2008), and The Real World (1992-2008). Those are merely three of the *many* programs that MTV grew a brand off of, but real ones remember Donal Logue’s Jimmy the Cab Driver tv spots, Liquid Television (1991-1995), MTV’s Oddities (1994-1996), and Joe’s Apt. (1992), a short film that would become the basis of the 1996 feature. The musical comedy (or comedy with a few select songs) would burn into this reviewer’s brain to the point that a squeaky faucet lever or a rancid towel will immediately prompt me to burst into song. Now, nearly 28 years after initial release, Warner Archive releases director John Payson’s Joe’s Apartment for the first-time on Blu-ray with a 4K digital remaster from the original negative and a few WB original cartoons.
Fresh off the bus from Iowa, Joe (Jerry O’Connell) quickly discovers that being a recent college grad full of positive energy doesn’t mean much in New York City. Thrice robbed and low on funds, Joe figures big city life just isn’t what it seems to be until a chance encounter lands him with a $50 rent-controlled apartment. Plus, there’s a girl, Lily (Megan Ward), who’s caught his eye. Things seem to be turning around, except Joe doesn’t realize that his apartment is the key to a big land grab with major dollar signs attached by a local crime boss, Alberto Bianco (Don Ho). Now, the only thing standing between Joe living the life of his dreams and certain death are a couple thousand cockroaches with a penchant for song and dance who just so happen to have taken a liking to Joe.
If you rushed to this review, then you’re likely like me and this new edition is as much of a must-have as it is a massive curio. So let’s get into it.
According to the press release from Warner Archive, the video elements are an 1080p HD remaster from a 4K scan of an original camera negative. There’s no information on the process undertaken or who supervised/approved in the release and nothing was provided with the review copy sent to us. However, the difference between this release and any other version you’ve seen is obvious from the very first frame as an unnamed roach flies over New York City. For comparison’s sake, I pulled out my 1999 edition DVD and it goes beyond just screen ratio. Yes, the Blu-ray takes up the entire screen, but it’s been remastered so that the low-quality haze is gone, the colors are sharpened, and even the CG on the roaches in close-up looks more realistic, with cleaner browns and golds in their exoskeletons. Additionally, the remaster provides a smoother seam between the real world and the animation, integrating the stop-motion and CG more effortlessly so that the illusion of this wild world is upheld. Granted, some of the clarity and sharpening and the removal of visual miasma does sort of take away the crustiness that was the perspective of ‘90s NYC via MTV, but just because aspects of the locations and sets are easier to discern doesn’t make the film any less crummy — Joe is a slob, after all, and Ralph, Rodney, and the rest of the gang need a distinctive environment in which to thrive.
One major downside to this release is that the bonus features are not release-specific. To clarify, there’s no feature commentary from film principals (cast or crew), no retrospective, no inclusion of the original short, or anything else. All that’s included with the new version is a theatrical trailer and three cartoon shorts of varying lunacy. Sure, “The Lady in Red” does focus on roaches and both “From Hare to Eternity” and “Superior Duck” are enjoyable Looney Tunes adventures, one does feel a little let down by the fact that we aren’t treated to hearing from roach voice-actors like Billy West (Futurama), Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), B.D. Wong (Jurassic Park), or Academy Award-winning composer Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Banshees Of Inisherin). You read all of that correctly — those are just a few of the voices that make up the insect menagerie that exists within Joe’s new apartment and, yet, we get nothing from them. This isn’t a deal-breaker, to be sure, but it does frustrate, especially for those who enjoy this film and speak of it fondly.
In truth, I’ve probably listened to “Funky Towel” more than I’ve watched the film over the last two decades. Not a slight on the film in the least, and that song is a bop, so it gets a lot of rotation on my iPod. This home release review allowed for an on-purpose revisit and it’s nice to report that the film, for the most part, holds up. It’s absolutely of its time and comes equipped with a specific era language that, if you didn’t watch MTV, wouldn’t make as much sense, their sort of punk, anti-authority, adolescent rebellion energy that translated in supporting entertainment that played outside the norm. A movie following the “odd couple” trope where one part of the couple is a thousand cockroaches definitely lines up with that specific view. Being of that era and recognizing the language, the jokes still land, helped, of course, by performances from O’Donnell and Ward (as well as the rest of the cast) who knew to take the film as seriously as it took itself. You don’t take this job based on the short and not feel some sense of “what did I get into?”. Of all the things that may not translate as well is the depiction of Lily’s father, Robert Vaughn’s Senator Dougherty, who has a penchant for women’s clothing. The scenes he’s in don’t try to reduce the fetish nor does anyone outwardly seem to recognize or take issue with him, for instance, wearing a spiked band uncharacteristic for a buttoned-up politician (in short, no one shames him). But it’s clear from the three instances where we, the audience, see Dougherty taking interest in some aspect of women’s fashion that it’s meant to be played for laughs. Oddly, considering Jim Turner’s anti-establishment conceptual artist Walter Shit is meant to be an outlier to society that we admire, a symbol of New York on the whole for Joe, the representation of Senator Dougherty should be as an ally, that we all have little secrets that should inspire us to stand apart, yet one is treated as a joke and one is not.
Ultimately, if you’re a fan of Joe’s Apartment, this Blu-ray 4K remaster is an easy one to recommend. It looks incredible and sounds just as a great as previous editions. The bonus features are lackluster, but what I really want is a version of the film that can stand up to being run on my 5.1 surround sound system and my 63” 4K UHD TV without looking specifically dated as my player desperately tries to up-convert the video to something fresh. This Blu-ray does all of that without really giving up too much. Now it just comes down to whether this sounds worth it to you to snag immediately or to wait for a Warner Archive sale.
Joe’s Apartment Special Features:
- The Lady in Red
- From Hare to Eternity
- Superior Duck
- Original Theatrical Trailer
Available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive January 30th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Warner Brothers Pictures Joe’s Apartment webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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