Mr. Saturday Night Blu Ray Review (MGM)

Mr. Saturday Night is a 1992 comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Billy Crystal (Here Today, 61*, Forget Paris, Comic Relief, Billy Crystal: Don’t Get Me Started – The Billy Crystal Special, and Billy Crystal: Don’t Get Me Started – The Lost Minutes). It was co-written/executive produced by Lowell Ganz (City Slickers, Splash, Parenthood, Greedy, Robots, Multiplicity, Father’s Day, Night Shift, Fever Pitch, and Gung Ho) and Babaloo Mandel (Vibes, Happy Days, Busting Loose, Spies like Us, A League of Their Own, and EdTV). It was produced by Peter Schindler (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Joan of Arcadia, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Siege, Criminal Minds, Friday the 13th: Part 3, My Giant, Forget Paris, and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold). In 2022, it was made into a broadway musical under the title “Mr. Saturday Night: A New Musical Comedy”. The budget was $43,000,000 and it only grossed $13,351,357 worldwide at the box office. Given all of his success in the early days of television, you’d think that Buddy Young Jr. (played by: Billy Crystal from City Slickers franchise, When Harry Met Sally…, Analyze This/That, Running Scared, The Princess Bride, and This Is Spinal Tap) should be coasting happily into retirement alongside his wife Elaine (played by: Julie Warner from Tommy Boy, Doc Hollywood, Flatliners, Indian Summer, and The Puppet Masters). Instead, Buddy is an acerbic blowhard who alienates his brother Stan Yankelman (played by: David Paymer from State and Main, Get Shorty, City Slickers franchise, Drag Me to Hell, Payback, and Howard the Duck), and everyone else who fails to bow to his bullying. His agent Annie Wells (played by: Helen Hunt from As Good as It Gets, Twister, Mad About You, Trancers franchise, Pay It Forward, and What Women Want) has positioned elderly Buddy for a big movie role that could resurrect his forgotten career but his irreverence might come back to bite him one last time!!!! I never understood why Mr. Saturday Night flopped so hard in theaters back in the day. I can only assume that they didn’t really want to see comedian Billy Crystal in a more serious role. They marketed it as a laugh out fest, it has a very different vibe to that. Crystal put everything into this one. He was the director, co-writer, producer, and the star of it. This honestly might be his best performance as an actor despite not being one of his biggest projects. He is amazing as the stubborn television star Buddy Young Jr. He was very successful early on but he’s the type that just never wants to stop. Everything has slowed down for the funny man but he still thinks that he can reach a huge audience again. He is ignoring his wife and he’s bullying his loyal brother that’s dedicated his life to being his agent. It’s a hilarious and sad portrayal of someone that just doesn’t know it’s over. David Paymer damn near steals the show as Stan. He started out as a comedy duo with his brother but he couldn’t handle the spotlight so he stayed behind the scenes. He has sacrificed his whole existence for his brother’s fame and never ending drive but it’s just the same anymore. He clearly knows this magical run is over plus he has his own family and he wants to finally spend time with them. He’s treated like a traitor, he’s only doing the best for everyone around him at this point. David Paymer is top notch in this, it’s his greatest performance out of everything he’s ever done in his already impressive character actor career. Both Julie Warner and Helen Hunt stand out the most when it comes to the supporting cast. The rest of the cast includes Mary Mara (Prom Night), Jerry Orbach (Law and Order), Ron Silver (Timecop), Walton Goggins (The Shield), Jerry Lewis (The King of Comedy), Adam Goldberg (Dazed and Confused), Richard Kind (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Michael Weiner (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Jason Marsden (Step by Step), Larry Gelman (Dreamscape), Will Jordan (The Doors), Carl Ballantine (Revenge of the Cheerleaders), Slappy White (Sanford and Son), Marc Shaiman (Saturday Night Live), and Randy Crenshaw (The Nightmare Before Christmas). Mr. Saturday Night had some high quality aging special fx from artists David P. Kelsey (Dexter, The Thing, Weird Science, Dick Tracy, and The Craft) and Steven Kirshoff (The Departed, A Bronx Tale, Carlito’s Way, Friday the 13th franchise, Exterminator 2, Monkey Shines, The Sopranos, and Golden Years). This is a reflection of so many performers in the early days of humor. They would do stuff like this all the time. Mr. Saturday Night is a true definition of dramedy, it’s a quality mix of both drama and comedy genres. Buddy Young Jr is self destructive and he has created his current situation all by himself. It’s pushing everyone close away. Mr. Saturday Night gets a little sad and depressing at times but it still pulls in the viewers. Buddy does redeeem himself a little with his estranged daughter and he does something out of character to help her. Billy Crystal has excellent chemistry with everyone, it’s a shame it didn’t do better and it’s kinda forgotten at this point. Mr. Saturday Night should be bigger and have more of a following. Hopefully it gets the respect it deserves someday, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from MGM Studios! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer is the exact same restoration as the 2015 Blu Ray release from Olive Films. It still superior to the previous VHS and DVD home video releases. It still looks really good for an older transfer, it might be the best treatment that it ever gets. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track on the disc. It’s mainly shines for it’s soundtrack, score, and comedy routines here. All of the dialogue is crystal clear, the drama is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has an archive “Audio Commentary” with Billy Crystal and David Paymer. It has the “Original Theatrical Trailer” for Mr. Saturday Night. It has the almost 20 minute “Deleted Scenes” with introductions and explanations on why they didn’t make the final cut. It has an 8 minute “Gag Reel”. It has the 4 minute “The Buddy Young Story”. Billy Crystal goes over the different variations of the character on stand up specials, Saturday Night Live, and other performances. It shows a few archive clips including one with director Rob Reiner. He goes over his development that lead to this full length feature. It has the little over 22 minute “See What We Did!”. Billy Crystal goes over his origins of comedy doing routines with his brothers in front of his family. He tells stories that helped inspire this production during his childhood. He wrote the original draft for this while working with David Paymer on City Slickers. Paymer chats about his audition and getting the part. Billy joked with him about it. Crystal talks about his first time experience behind the camera for this. It’s a very detailed look into setting up this dramedy. It has the almost 7 minute “Make-Up!”. It goes over the process of playing Buddy younger and older. The later Buddy look was inspired by Frank Sinatra. David Paymer goes over his aged look for his character. It has some behind the scenes footage of the fx here. It has an almost 2 minute “Behind the Scenes Gallery”. It’s awesome that this re-release actually has some bonus material on it. This actually has Subtitles and a other things that weren’t on the previous Blu Ray so it’s actually an improvement over that. It ported over everything from the older DVD. Hopefully MGM keeps doing this on their future home video discs. It’s available everywhere right now including Moviezyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!