NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Eureka Blu-ray (September 2023): Eureka have transferred Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K scan of the original negatives". I suppose the film looks as good as it can with that less-resilient early 80's film stock. It has heavy, clunkier, textures - especially at night but the image is clean and consistent. I suspect this is a strong replication of how it looked theatrically. There is decent color depth with a couple of 'tealies'. 

NOTE: We have added 44 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Eureka offer the options of a linear PCM stereo track or a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track  (both 24-bit) in the original English language. Valley Girl has a score credited to Marc Levinthal and Scott Wilk but there is a mass of contemporary and new wave recording artist's music in the film including The Plimsouls, Josie Cotton, Felony, Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo, Payolas, Eddy Grant, Sparks, The Psychedelic Furs, Men at Work, The Flirts, Modern English, Pat Travers, and Gary Myrick. sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Eureka offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'B' Blu-ray.

The Eureka Blu-ray offers, possibly the most extras of the year, starting with a new commentary by Maya Montañez Smukler (author of Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema) and Maria San Filippo (editor of After 'Happily Ever After': Romantic Comedy in the Post-Romantic Age.) I have not had the opportunity to indulge. Included is character actor Colleen Camp (Smile, The Swinging Cheerleaders), who played Julie’s mother, talking to Elijah Drenner to the running of the film for about 1/2 hour as a last audio option. There is also new interview with Deborah Foreman who was also regarded as a scream queen in 1980s horrors like April Fool's Day, Waxwork etc. and was also in the comedy My Chauffeur. The bulk of the extras, including an audio commentary with director Martha Coolidge, seem to have come from the 2018 Shout! Factory Blu-ray. These include Valley Girl in Conversation - an interview with director Martha Coolidge and actresses E. G. Daily and Heidi Holicker, 20-minutes of Martha Coolidge and Nicolas Cage on Valley Girl plus a huge selection of archival interviews with cast and crew totaling over 4 hours; The Boys - 54:09, The Girls - 47:51, The Parents - 42:59, The Bands - 54:11, and Producers / Writers - 14:11. 20 Totally Tubular Years Later is a 24-minute 2003 featurette. There is The Music of Valley Girl featurette running just over 1/4 hour. There are two music videos (Modern English - 3:48, A Million Miles Away - 4:27,) storyboard comparisons and an original theatrical trailer. The package, in a hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Sam Gilbey, has a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Craig Ian Mann.

Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl was a teen romantic comedy harkening to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It seized the opportunity of the 'valley girl' fad (propagated in the same titled song by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa) contrasting the cultures of the 80's, more preppie, San Fernando Valley and less-affluent central Los Angeles with Nicholas Cage exporting a 'punk' vibe. There will be nostalgia for some. Valley Girl is pretty cute, if, like the characters, quite vapid, although there is a universal subtext of 'opposites attracting'. The Eureka Blu-ray seems to have bested the US release with a new (and the old) commentary, new interviews and booklet in the handsome package. Fans of Valley Girl should pick up this edition.

Gary Tooze