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C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud

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    Ian Jane
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  • C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud



    Released by: Lionsgate/Vestron Video
    Released on: November 22nd, 2016.
    Director: David Irving
    Cast: Brian Robbins, Bill Calvert, Tricia Leigh Fisher, Gerrit Graham, Robert Vaughn
    Year: 1989
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    The original C.H.U.D., made in 1984, might have had comedic moments, but it was very definitely a horror film first and foremost. David Irving's 1989 sequel, C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud, might have horror tinged moments, but it is very definitely a comedy film first and foremost. It's also a remarkably bad comedy film - and yet, somehow it's entirely watchable and kind of loveable.

    Two high school goofballs, Steve (Brian Robbins) and Kevin (Bill Calvert), screw up and need to find a corpse because of some nonsense. They find one, conveniently placed on a gurney, and hey, things are looking up. Being high school goofballs, they screw up and send it careening out of its storage locker and down the road, completely unaware that on that gurney was Bud (Gerrit Graham). Who's Bud? Well, as the title implies, he's a C.H.U.D. but he's not an underground dweller as you might expect. They try to keep Bud tucked away at Kevin's house but it doesn't go well and soon enough, the dog is dead and Bud is gone.

    It turns out that the U.S. military, led by Colonel Masters (the late, great Robert Vaughn), have been making C.H.U.D.'s to use in combat. Bud was their most recent experiment and now that he's loose, they have a problem. So Steve and Kevin team up with their cute friend Katie (Tricia Leigh Fisher) to go and get Bud before things get worse. What they don't know, but will soon find out, is that Bud is basically a zombie. He's running around biting people and those people are turning into C.H.U.D.'s like him. Then those people run around biting more people and, you know how it goes. Masters and his crew are doing their gosh darned best to keep all of this under wraps but it's not going to be easy with the C.H.U.D. plague spreading faster than you can say 'huh?'

    This really is a sequel in name only. Outside of the C.H.U.D. name this has nothing to do at all with the original film. It's tone is way different, there are no returning cast members or even characters and it's set somewhere in California rather than the mean streets of mid-eighties New York City. It's not all that gory and it's never once scary. The comedy is as hokey as it gets and the plot is all over the place. The whole thing is very silly. The makeup effects are okay and the movie is reasonably brisk in its pacing but C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud is a very, very silly film.

    So why watch it? Well, aside from the fact that it's a pretty interesting snapshot of what people thought was funny (the comedic dialogue in this will make you groan before it'll make you laugh) and/or cool and/or fashionable in the late eighties and the fact that it has an awesome theme song, it's got Gerrit Graham in it. As Bud, Graham is a sight to behold. He lumbers about like a spastic, horny Frankenstein and delivers a genuinely great physically comedic performance. Sure, he might be surrounded by… silliness. He might even be a big part of this… silliness - but he's so awesome to watch doing his thing here that you forgot about the fact that this movie is fairly terrible and you just sort of go with it.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud debuts on Blu-ray framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. This won't become your new demo disc, the transfer is too soft for that, but it is a pretty massive upgrade from the DVD release. Colors look good and the image is remarkably clean and shows virtually no print damage. Black levels are solid and skin tones are fine as well. Some light noise reduction looks to have been applied, so fine detail is a little less impressive than you might hope for, but overall this is a perfectly nice looking transfer that is free of compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues.

    The DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track, in the film's native English, sounds really good - especially when the Bud The C.H.U.D. theme song kicks in! The score is a big part of what makes this screwy film so enjoyable, it's just plain catchy and it really does sound nice in lossless audio format. The dialogue is usually clean, clear and nicely balanced. No problems with any hiss or distortion to note here, the movie sounds just fine save for a few spots where the levels on the dialogue are a bit harsh.

    Extras start off with an audio commentary with director David Irving in which he talks about following up the original C.H.U.D. movie (which he says he never saw). He discusses how he came on to direct the picture, his thoughts on the project, what it was like working with the cast and crew, the film's effects work. It's an engaging and informative talk, Irving has a good sense of humor about all of this and moderator Michael Felsher does a good job of keeping him engaged and involved in the talk, which means no dead air or long stretches where we simply hear the participants narrate to us what's happening on the screen.

    From there we move on to the first of three featurettes. Bud Speaks! Is an with actor Gerrit Graham that runs just over sixteen minutes. Here Graham talks about how and why he wound up in the movie, how his genre material seems to be considerably more popular with fans than his more mainstream stuff, his thoughts on playing Bud in the film, and some of the challenges that were involved in the picture. In Katie's Kalamity we get a thirteen minute sit down chat with actress Tricia Leigh Fisher who shares some amusing stories about her audition, how she landed the part, working with the special effects crew on certain scenes, and how she basically knew exactly what kind of movie they were making on this shoot and how she just sort of went along for the ride! This C.H.U.D.'s For You! is a fifteen minute interview with Special Effects Artist Allan Apone who took this job after finishing up some work on Miami Vice. He talks about landing the gig, his appreciation for Graham's penchant for physical comedy and being a good sport about everything, and the challenges involved in making a low budget picture like this one. There's some very cool behind the scenes footage include in this last interview that is great to see as well.

    Outside of that we get a video trailer for the film, a still gallery, animated menus and chapter selection. Additionally, the Blu-ray case fits inside another slick looing foil embossed slipcover that matches the other entries in the new Vestron Video line (all of which have spine numbers and look really cool beside each other on your shelf!).

    The Final Word:

    C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud is played entirely for laughs and never once tries to take itself seriously, but if you've got a taste for goofball eighties comedies and an affinity for campy horror pictures, you'll probably find this one pretty entertaining. Lionsgate, through their Veston sublabel, have done a fine job bringing this one to Blu-ray with more extra than anyone probably ever expected to see! God bless you Gerrit Graham.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!





























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