Ladybugs (1992) (2024 BD-R Reissue) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Sidney J. Furie

Cast: Rodney Dangerfield, Jackée, Jonathan Brandis

Release Date: August 20, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 5/10

Synopsis:

Rodney Dangerfield gets no respect as a salesman seeking a promotion, so he decides to coach the company-sponsored girls’ soccer team to impress his boss. Problem is, he knows nothing about the sport and his players are the most inept in the league, so he convinces his girlfriend’s son to don a wig and join the squad.

‘Ladybugs’ tells the story of a salesman named Chester who has been building up the courage to finally ask his boss for a promotion, but hesitant to cause friction he holds off and ends up trying to gain some favor by agreeing to coach the team-sponsored girls soccer team known for their talent and success. But when Chester arrives to the field for his first day as coach he discovers that the talented players are all long gone and the team is in the midst of rebuilding, with many players less knowledgeable than even he is. Desperate to please his boss and hopefully nail down the promotion he desires which he needs to marry his girlfriend, Chester enlists the help of his girlfriend’s son to dress up as a girl and turn the team’s path in the winning direction with hilarious consequences.

Directed by Sidney J. Furie from a screenplay written by Curtis Burch, Furie does a decent job at the helm of ‘Ladybugs’ guiding along the goofy comedy with some raunchy humor and even a bit of heart. The film’s cast includes comedian Rodney Dangerfield in the lead, along with Jackée, Jonathan Brandis, Ilene Graff, Vinessa Shaw and Tom Parks who each offer decent or at the very least fitting performances in their respective roles, even if some may offer slightly more impressive performances than others.

‘Ladybugs’ first kicked its way into theaters in 1992 and ended up disappointing at the box office which many believed played a big part in the lack of lead roles offered to Rodney Dangerfield thereafter. The film has gained some semblance of a cult following since its release, especially among fans of Dangerfield and then up and coming young star Jonathan Brandis but never managed to really take off in a big way even at home. While I won’t claim that ‘Ladybugs’ is an underrated masterpiece or misunderstood, I’ve always had a soft spot for the film (perhaps due to the fact I was in my early teens when I first checked it out on video) and have always thoroughly enjoyed its goofy, raunchy and offbeat style.

‘Ladybugs’ is still a fairly amusing film that will have many folks laughing out loud on more than one occasion, although it’s also definitely a product of its time and there are numerous elements within that almost surely would never fly in this day and age. For those of you that grew up in the ‘90s like me and might have never had the chance to check this one out, it’s worth giving a shot if you’re a fan of Dangerfield or Brandis, but the rest of you probably won’t be too impressed with it, especially by today’s standards. Even so, it’s a fun, funny and at times surprisingly heartwarming sports comedy that embraces its ridiculousness and even more than three decades after its initial release still keeps the fun and laughs coming, with a splendidly short runtime that works in its favor.

‘Ladybugs’ returns home on Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment in a reissued edition that features a burned BD-R disc as opposed to a pressed disc. The release offers a fairly solid high definition video presentation paired with a somewhat underwhelming but still largely decent multichannel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that probably won’t get fans extremely excited but still looks far better than the various VHS and DVD releases over the years. The film has been released twice on Blu-ray previously (initially by Lionsgate with Paramount releasing their own edition some years later) and while I don’t have access to those releases it seems extremely likely that the video and audio are similar, if not identical to the previous editions. If you’re a fan of this amusing and at times even heartfelt teen sports comedy from the ‘90s and don’t already own one of the previous Blu-ray releases, then this release is probably worth picking up whenever you can find it a price point that fits your budget, but for those who aren’t big fans of it or already own it on Blu-ray, this release probably won’t have much to offer that’s new, notable or worthwhile to justify a double dip.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Ladybugs’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with a 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks decent for the most part and delivers an acceptably sharp, clean and detailed presentation from start to finish that looks fairly good for the most part, but never manages to reach the level of exceptional or impresses. Detail is solid throughout and everything from character specifics to the soccer field and other locations look good but never attain that sharpness and clarity we typically expect from the Blu-ray format, perhaps a result of its source or an old master (after all, things have changed a great deal since the format first debuted). Overall, this is a mostly solid high definition video presentation that is surely the best that the film has ever looked at home, but fans may still be somewhat underwhelmed.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is decent but also quite underwhelming, especially for a multichannel soundtrack. It delivers a primarily clean and crisp soundtrack that keeps all of the dialogue, music and other audio elements capably balanced and never results in any dialogue or other elements becoming problematic, although the activity is almost entirely relegated to the center channel, with no noticeable or noteworthy surround elements arising throughout. Overall, this is a so-so 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that sounds pretty good in terms of clarity and delivery but disappoints as a surround presentation, even for a ‘90s comedy.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Ladybugs’ includes the film’s ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (running approximately 2 minutes in length).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 5/10

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‘Ladybugs’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘Ladybugs’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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