Tammy and the T-Rex 4K UHD - Denise Richards

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Tammy and the T-Rex" or "Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex" or "Tanny of the Teenage T-Rex" or "Teenage T-Rex")

Directed by Stewart Raffill
USA 1994

Tammy is a popular high school cheerleader whose new boyfriend, Michael, might be the love of her life. But Tammy’s jealous ex, Billy, won’t stand for anyone coming between him and ‘his’ girl, so he and his friends kidnap Michael, leaving him to be mauled by a lion in a local wildlife reserve. Comatose and at death’s door, Michael’s body is stolen from the hospital by mad scientist Dr. Wachenstein, who extracts his brain and implants it into a giant robotic T-Rex. Horrified by his predicament and new dinosaur body, he escapes from the doctor’s lab and begins brutally killing his former bullies. Meanwhile Tammy and her best friend Byron start searching for a suitable human corpse in which to re-transplant Michael's brain...

A jaw-dropping assault on good taste from the whacked out mind of cult filmmaker Stewart Raffill (The Ice Pirates; Mac & Me), TAMMY AND THE T-REX features Denise Richards (Wild Things) in her first starring role, alongside Paul Walker (The Fast & the Furious), Terry Kiser (Weekend at Bernie’s), George “Buck” Flower (They Live), and John F. Goff (Drive-In Massacre). Primarily seen in its heavily censored PG-13 version, Vinegar Syndrome brings TAMMY AND THE T-REX to 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray fully uncut for the first time on home video, with all of its gross-out gags and gratuitous decapitations, gut-rippings, and head-smashings, courtesy of special effects wizard John Carl Buechler (Mausoleum), completely intact.

***

After finessing a large animatronic T-Rex for a brief two week period, Stewart Raffill, the madman behind Mac & Me, scribed a bizarre E.T. meets the Beverly Hills 90210 comedy – about a cheerleader (Denise Richards) whose dead boyfriend’s brain is placed into a robotic dinosaur by a scheming scientist. That succinct plot description might sound demented enough, but what was actually shocking (especially in 1994), was the amount of gore that was infused alongside its myriad of gay panic jokes and Zucker Brothers‘ rapid-fire gags. The film was promptly censored, cut to pieces and dumped on VHS, another forgotten gem deserted in the vast library of tape-only titles.

Excerpt from FilmInquiryN located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 21st, 1994 (video premiere)

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Review: Vinegar Syndrome - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Also coming to Blu-ray on the same date:
Distribution	Vinegar Syndrome - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:30:42.728
Video	1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 44,083,246,352 bytes Feature: 27,410,453,184 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.86 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video	1.85:1 2060P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 62,151,763,254 bytes Feature: 61,126,120,704 bytes Video Bitrate: 82.77 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Bitrate 4K UHD:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2656 kbps 2.0 / 96 kHz / 2656 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Vinegar Syndrome 1.85:1 2060P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 62,151,763,254 bytes Feature: 61,126,120,704 bytes Video Bitrate: 82.77 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD • Audio commentary with director Stewart Raffill and producer Diane Kirman Blu-ray • Audio commentary with director Stewart Raffill and producer Diane Kirman • “Blood, Brains and a Teenage T-Rex” - an interview with director Stewart Raffill (22:12) • “A Blast from the Past” - an interview with actress Denise Richards (11:31) • “Having the Guts” - an interview with actor Sean Whalen (12:12) • “A Testicular Stand-Off” - an interview with actor George Pilgrim (25:07) • Full length PG-13 cut of Tammy and the T-Rex (sourced from video) (1:22:36) Reversible cover artwork Blu-ray Release Date: January 28th, 2020 Black 4K Ultra HD Case Chapters 5

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective disc.

ADDITION: Vinegar Syndrome 4K UHD (January 2020): In what reached 10th place in our year-end best-of poll, Vinegar Syndrome has released a 4K UHD of the 1994 comedy-sci-fi, "Tammy and the T-Rex". Seriously. It is Vinegar's first attempt (hopefully of many) at 4K UHD and their fans have supported them with enthusiastic encouragement. As always, the image quality is at the mercy of the source and while this can look fairly modest, colors are richer (golden yellows dominate) and brighter than the included second disc Blu-ray, flesh tones warm and the 3840 X 2060 resolution image shows a fair amount of grain (highly notable in darker sequences). It seems to improve clarity in every third frame or so. It won't rival any of the previous 4K UHD visuals we have reviewed, but it looks fairly pleasing on my system but is, obviously, incapable of advancing beyond its inherent limitations. Miss Richards looks great - if the higher resolution image is inordinately grainy at times. The HDR can, at times, appear liberally applied but I, personally, thought this looked quite appealing - thick, rich, bordering on moiring without attaining it. I believe these guys at Vinegar Syndrome know what they are doing.

NOTE: 28 more full resolution (3840 X 2060) Blu-ray captures for Patrons are available HERE.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: I own two different 4K systems and transfers frequently show a variance in the image presentation depending on the system and its set-up. This is also true of computer monitors. It is highly unlikely that these captures reflect the exact same color balance and brightness as on your home system, but the detail, grain support and other attributes will, hopefully, give you an indication of the value of this 3840 X 2160 resolution and restoration. I cannot say how you will like it on your 4K UHD set-up - only how it looked on mine.

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Suspiria, Pan's Labyrinth (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Wizard of Oz,(software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shining, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Batman Returns (software uniformly simulated HDR), Don't Look Now (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man Who Killed Killed and then The Bigfoot (software uniformly simulated HDR),, Bram Stoker's Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucy (software uniformly simulated HDR), They Live (software uniformly simulated HDR), Shutter Island (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Matrix (software uniformly simulated HDR), Alien (software uniformly simulated HDR), Toy Story (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Few Good Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), 2001: A Space Odyssey (HDR caps udated), Schindler's List (simulated HDR), The Neon Demon (No HDR), Dawn of the Dead (No HDR), Saving Private Ryan (simulated HDR and 'raw' captures), Tammy and the T-Rex (No HDR), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (No HDR), The Big Lebowski, and I Am Legend (simulated and 'raw' HDR captures.)

Vinegar Syndrome use the same DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel (24-bit) track for both the Blu-ray and 4K UHD. The Dino has some deep, effective, growls via the lossless and music is credit to Jack Conrad and Anthony Riparetti with Keep the Fire, Take a Look Around You, Walking Away written and performed by 'Jaded Heart' with tunes like Dinosaur World performed by 'Simon Stokes and the Black Whip Thrill Band', and Tammy's in Love performed by Mark Hanley plus other generic 90's pop-style music. It sounds fine without flaw. There are optional English (SD) subtitles on Vinegar's Region Free 4K UHD disc.

On the 4K UHD Vinegar Syndrome include an audio commentary with director Stewart Raffill and producer Diane Kirman, hosted by Bret Berg (American Genre Film Archive), discussing the budget, the availability of the dino prop that initiated the film, writing, the innocent look of Denise Richards and Paul Walker plus much more. There is a second disc - a Blu-ray with the feature (max'ed out bitrate) plus the same commentary and some other extras. “Blood, Brains and a Teenage T-Rex” is a 22-minute interview with director Stewart Raffill. “A Blast from the Past” is an 11-minuten interview with, still bubbly, actress Denise Richards (although she does look quite different.) “Having the Guts” is an interview with actor Sean Whalen that runs a dozen minutes as he reflects on his experience in Tammy and the T-Rex. “A Testicular Stand-Off” is a 25-minute interview with actor George Pilgrim. Vinegar include the 1-hour 22-minute PG-13 cut of Tammy and the T-Rex (sourced from video 4:3, gore sequences removed). It showcases the superiority of the 4K UHD. The package has reversible cover artwork.

This new 4K UHD release will be appreciated by Vinegar Syndrome's niche. While it's bad cinema, there is a weird appeal. It's fun, had the deceased Paul Walker, cute Denise Richards in her first role. Although she is from German, French-Canadian, Irish, English, and Welsh ancestry - I always think of her as being Scandinavian. She epitomizes the healthy California 'look'. It's probably just me, but I often hear 'Tanny' not 'Tammy' in the dialogue (and that is how the title is written and is the title in Singapore.) I didn't finish the commentary and maybe that was addressed, or maybe it's just me. Anywho - not a bad first effort, typical of their film selection and a highly competent transfer. Most aren't expecting Citizen Kane, so sit back and have a few laughs.