Night of the Dribbler

directed by Jack Bravman
Canada 1990

A smiling, basketball masked assailant is maiming and killing (in various ridiculous ways) members of the Watergate Plumbers basketball team. The coach (Fred Travalena, who plays two other characters as well) seems more concerned with winning the season than the number of bodies piling up. Is the killer waterboy/wannabe player Stanley Bates? His pipe and slippers father? One of the opposing team? Zucker Brothers-type sight gag comedy and Travalena's Leslie Nielsen-style delivery as the coach (one of three roles he plays) is more miss than hit (but there are a few laugh-worthy moments). As usual, the actors playing the college students are all too old and the eighties hair and clothes are simply atrocious (as is the music which was seemingly inspired by that annoying eighties Yello hit "Oh Yeah"). Director Bravman is more concerned with every single character's quirks and background jokes than what plot there is and the cookie cutter slasher structuring of the scenes just escapes the mechanical feel by the runaway pacing but even the amused commentators are hard-pressed to be complimentary at length.

Eric Cotenas

Theatrical Release: 2009 (USA)

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DVD Review: Code Red - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Code Red Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:27:27
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.33 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles	none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Code Red Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio Commentary by star Fred Travalena and HOSTEL producer Scott Spiegel, moderated by Marc Edward Hueck • On-camera Interview with star George Thomas (4:3; 5:27) • Trailer (4:3; 2:54) • CHEERLEADERS' WILD WEEKEND trailer (16:9; 2:17) • DEVIL'S EXPRESS TV spot (4:3; 0:31) • STUNT ROCK trailer (16:9; 2:25) • WEEKEND MURDERS trailer (16:9; 2:19) • THE INTERNECINE PROJECT trailer (16:9; 1:42) • RITUALS trailer (16:9; 1:58) DVD Release Date: 8 September 2009 Amaray Chapters 16

Comments

The fullscreen image probably looks as good as this film can. The image is colorful but soft. Bright scenes fare well but the graininess of the blacks is part of the original shooting. Audio is mostly good (one scene in a gym shower with the water running has not been post-dubbed and is the dialogue is hard to discern compared to the surrounding scenes).

The commentators make no illusions about the film's level of entertainment and poke fun in between some production anecdotes from Travalena (who died in June). George Thomas (who plays the Elvis-impersonating basketball player Hi Top) provides a brief interview. Trailers for the film and future Code Red releases round out the package.

- Eric Cotenas

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