- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Subtitles Color: White
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Certification: 15
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Studio: Arrow Video
- Blu-ray Release Date: August 6, 2012
- RRP: £19.99
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Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:2/5]
A purely tongue in cheek, low budget comedy-horror sci-fi yarn from Troma, Class of Nuke ‘Em High could be taken straight out of a comic book or pulp novel. The direct-to-video tale is set in the fictional town of Tromaville, where the local nuclear powerplant has an accident, which it covers up, at the detriment of the local high school. High school sweethearts Warren (Gil Brenton) and Chrissy (Janelle Brady) notice something is awry when the kids in school start acting strange, but it comes too late. After they indulge in some tainted pot at an out of control party they find themselves in the throes of uncontrollable passion. Chrissy and Warren both undergo serious changes, but it is Chrissy who suddenly gives birth to a deadly spawn that proceeds to attack the kids at school.
Like most Troma films, and, lets face face it, the majority of films in this genre, the acting is pure melodrama, over-the-top, like a bad high school drama club. But it’s this silly, almost surreal sense of humor rather than a reliance on copious amounts of gore that makes it appealing to many fans of cult films of the era.
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Class of Nuke ‘Em High can’t be expected to look like a Hollywood blockbuster, but this effort to bring it to Blu-ray is somewhat disappointing, even if it is hardly the worse I have ever seen. The image is certainly soft with a somewhat coarse yet natural grain structure. There are minor amounts of dust and dirt that can be seen throughout, not enough to ever become completely distracting, but enough to alert you of its presence. Definitely the strength here is the color reproduction that looks rather vibrant and natural given the obvious budget constraints and vintage of the film (1986).
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
There isn’t much to this rather dull sounding, LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) monaural soundtrack. I suspect it suffers mainly from its original recording equipment and recording techniques the most, but any clean up or remastering effort – or lack thereof – hasn’t helped any. There is a lot of sibilant distortion evident straight through and it sounds a bit boxy.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Although much of the on disc supplements are all simply older featurettes that have been up-scaled to 720p (oddly enough, the specs upon inspecting the disc show 720p/24), these are just the sorts of supplements that cult film fans will eat up, especially the interviews, reversible sleeve, poster, and new collectible booklet.
The supplements:
- Audio Commentary with Lloyd Kaufman
- Interview with Robert and Jennifer Prichard (1.33:1; 720p; 00:05:41)
- Making the Powerplant (1.33:1 720p; 00:00:40)
- Troma Studios Tour (1.33:1; 720p; 00:09:19)
- Troma Public Service Announcement (1.33:1; 720p; 00:01:33)
- Aroma du Troma (1.33:1; 720p; 00:02:05)
- Troma Studios Trailer Reel (1.33:1; 720p; 00:14:09)
- Lloyd Kaufman Q&A (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:24:35)
- Deleted Scenes (1.33:1; 720p; 00:07:03)
- Reversible sleeve with original poster and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Booklet: Collector’s booklet by critic and author David Hayles
- DVD — Standard DVD included in the set.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
Class of Nuke ‘Em High will obviously never win any major awards and most likely will never look spectacular on Blu-ray or any format, but for what it is, this is a rather fun flick with a decent enough transfer.
Additional Screen Captures
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B007XRX7UI[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
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[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B007XRX7UI[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
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