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Joe's Apartment
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
What better way is there to ensure that a movie flops and dies than to give it the tagline "MTV's First Movie!"? With the replacement of 120 Minutes with a marathon of whatever not-even-tangentially-music-related programming MTV can haphazardly slop together for its mindless audience, there's not anything redeeming I can say about MTV now. Even though things weren't quite so bad when "Joe's Apartment" was released in '96, the MTV brandname wasn't enough to bring in an audience to see a movie about a guy and his cockroach friends, despite a barrage of shorts airing on MTV (actually, the movie was based on those shorts, which were created before a feature length film was a glimmer in anyone's eye, but...whatever).
Poor marketing is probably what killed "Joe's Apartment". It's not a great movie, but it was a lot more fun than I thought it was be, and the roach's songs are infectious (pun intended). The marketing department seemed to let the film rely completely as being produced by MTV Films rather than letting it succeed or fail on its own merits. In "Joe's Apartment", Joe, fresh out of Iowa, makes his way to New York City to start a new life on his own, and things turn out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. A rapid succession of muggings leave Joe broke, but after befriending an avante-garde artist, Joe happens upon a rent-controlled apartment filled with singing, dancing cockroaches. The unemployed Joe also begins to fall for Lily (played by the lovely Megan Ward), whose garden is one of the sole sights of beauty in such an ugly city. The roaches attempt to help Joe out in life and love, but end up causing more harm than good. Will the roaches be enough to help Joe and Lily save their community garden from a senator trying to turn it into a maximum security prison? There's actually a lot that goes on in the film -- I'm leaving out quite a bit -- and I think that with better marketing, it might've been pretty successful. Maybe its long-time bargain bin status will find a new audience...
Video: "Joe's Apartment" was released in a day when "Warner budget release" disappointingly meant "full-frame". As always, my point-of-comparison for full-frame transfers is a USA World Premiere Movie, and "Joe's Apartment" passes this not-extremely-rigorous test. Light grain infrequently rears its head, and a few shots didn't compress too well -- particularly one quick shot of smoke and another of a Texan roach throwin' a lasso. A couple of shots early on just look 'off', such as the woman falling down the stairs, where the colors just didn't seem quite right. Another example is Joe's interview with P.I. Smith, as the quality alternates from 'nice' to 'bad' as the camera shifts from Joe to...uh...P. Other than that, the disc looks pretty good. The clarity of the image is downright spiffy. For a full-frame transfer, this is above average, though the quality (particularly black levels) is somewhat inconsistent.
Audio: Quite a Pro-Logic track here, budget release or not. Surrounds are used extensively and extremely effectively, and the bass is very punchy and has quite a bit of range. I don't think I've ever given a full 5-star rating to a disc with just a Pro-Logic track, but...I'm doing it here... A not-nearly-as-nice French track is also available.
Supplements: Nothing. Not even the "Joe's Apartment"-themed video for "Waiting" by the Rentals. Not even a trailer. Not even a themed menu. Nothing.
Conclusion: I got "Joe's Apartment" as a gift from a cheap relative, and I went in expecting to hate it. "Joe's Apartment" isn't something I see myself pulling out on any sort of regular basis, but I actually found it pretty entertaining. For a bargain disc, despite the lack of an OAR transfer and any special features whatsoever, it's worth getting, but only for under $7. Recommended, at the right price.
Poor marketing is probably what killed "Joe's Apartment". It's not a great movie, but it was a lot more fun than I thought it was be, and the roach's songs are infectious (pun intended). The marketing department seemed to let the film rely completely as being produced by MTV Films rather than letting it succeed or fail on its own merits. In "Joe's Apartment", Joe, fresh out of Iowa, makes his way to New York City to start a new life on his own, and things turn out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. A rapid succession of muggings leave Joe broke, but after befriending an avante-garde artist, Joe happens upon a rent-controlled apartment filled with singing, dancing cockroaches. The unemployed Joe also begins to fall for Lily (played by the lovely Megan Ward), whose garden is one of the sole sights of beauty in such an ugly city. The roaches attempt to help Joe out in life and love, but end up causing more harm than good. Will the roaches be enough to help Joe and Lily save their community garden from a senator trying to turn it into a maximum security prison? There's actually a lot that goes on in the film -- I'm leaving out quite a bit -- and I think that with better marketing, it might've been pretty successful. Maybe its long-time bargain bin status will find a new audience...
Video: "Joe's Apartment" was released in a day when "Warner budget release" disappointingly meant "full-frame". As always, my point-of-comparison for full-frame transfers is a USA World Premiere Movie, and "Joe's Apartment" passes this not-extremely-rigorous test. Light grain infrequently rears its head, and a few shots didn't compress too well -- particularly one quick shot of smoke and another of a Texan roach throwin' a lasso. A couple of shots early on just look 'off', such as the woman falling down the stairs, where the colors just didn't seem quite right. Another example is Joe's interview with P.I. Smith, as the quality alternates from 'nice' to 'bad' as the camera shifts from Joe to...uh...P. Other than that, the disc looks pretty good. The clarity of the image is downright spiffy. For a full-frame transfer, this is above average, though the quality (particularly black levels) is somewhat inconsistent.
Audio: Quite a Pro-Logic track here, budget release or not. Surrounds are used extensively and extremely effectively, and the bass is very punchy and has quite a bit of range. I don't think I've ever given a full 5-star rating to a disc with just a Pro-Logic track, but...I'm doing it here... A not-nearly-as-nice French track is also available.
Supplements: Nothing. Not even the "Joe's Apartment"-themed video for "Waiting" by the Rentals. Not even a trailer. Not even a themed menu. Nothing.
Conclusion: I got "Joe's Apartment" as a gift from a cheap relative, and I went in expecting to hate it. "Joe's Apartment" isn't something I see myself pulling out on any sort of regular basis, but I actually found it pretty entertaining. For a bargain disc, despite the lack of an OAR transfer and any special features whatsoever, it's worth getting, but only for under $7. Recommended, at the right price.
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