Crackers: Blu-Ray Review

Up until recently, I had never seen the 1984 comedy, Crackers. I am unsure how I had never come across it before since it features such amazing talents like Sean Penn, Wallace Shawn, Jack Warden and Donald Sutherland. To top it off, the story is about a group of oddballs who try to pull off a crime. This is definitely, something I would have wanted to see growing up. Now having finally viewed Crackers, it is hard to put into words just how truly awful this thing is. An interesting fact I learned about Crackers while doing some digging was that it was originally planned for John Belushi to star, but the comedic genius passed away before the film could go into production. Not saying Belushi’s involvement would have made the film any better, but I can’t imagine it would have turned out any worse.

Set in San Francisco, a group of down-on-their luck locals, decide to rob the local pawn shop by breaking into the safe while the owner (Warden) is out of town. Westlake (Sutherland) leads the team of weirdos which include Dillard (Penn), Boardwalk (Larry Riley), Ramon (Trinidad Silva) and Turtle (Shawn), who is always eating anything he can get his hands on. Obviously, the plan doesn’t go smoothly and here we have a group of talented actors bumbling their way through the story. It’s a real shame too, because I so badly wanted to enjoy Crackers.

This is Crackers first time on Blu-ray and it does look quite nice, which means any fans of the film should be pleased with the HD transfer. As far as bonus content, there is a new audio commentary by film historian Daniel Kremer and critic Scout Tafoya.  Although, I can’t personally recommend the film, it is worthy of picking up if you are a fan.

Bonus Features:

  • NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Filmmaker Daniel Kremer and Film Critic Scout Tafoya
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Dual-Layered BD50 Disc
  • Optional English Subtitles

By: Marc Ferman