Army Brat Review

Distributor: Vivid Entertainment Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Classic (1980s Shot on Video) Run Time: 64 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 1987 Director: Paul Thomas Written by: uncredited Director of Photography: unknown Cast: Jamie Summers, Gail Force, Nikki Knight (as Nicki Knights), Kim Alexis, Tom Byron, Scott Irish, Joey Silvera (as Joey Cevera), Alan C. Bosshardt (as Alan Bassinger), Joe Elliot Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Subtitles: none Video: Full Screen, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 10 (Single Layer, Dual Sided) Special Features: Chapter Search, Vivid Bios, Vivid Stills, Vivid Live Action Scenes, Vivid Previews, Int. Tel. Sex DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
The Brat (Jamie Summers) is bored with her life and her husband (Tom Byron). He challenges her to do something useful with her life so she joins the Army and ends up being recruited by Dawn Patterson (Gail Force) to hunt for spies working in the U.S. Army for communist Russia.

Video/Audio:
Army Brat is in the 1.33:1 (full screen) aspect ratio, which appears to be the film's original aspect ratio since the feature looks like it was shot directly on video. The picture is a bit soft but color levels are good and the picture is clear throughout the film without many artifacts.

Available audio tracks are in 2.0 Stereo English and 5.1 Dolby Surround English. There are no other language tracks available on the disk and no subtitle options. Both tracks are nothing more than the film's original mono track slightly tweaked and the 5.1 has added generic effects in the background. All spoken dialog is clear, easy to hear and the music doesn't drown it out.

Special Features:
On the “A” side of the DVD the special features are Bios, which contains short biographies with pictures for the current Vivid girls: Celeste, Jenna, Heather, Melissa, Asia, Dyanna, Jenteal and Nikki. Int. Tel. Sex contains three additional sex scenes from unlabeled films. There are five chapter breaks for the feature. With this small number, easy navigation through the movie is not possible. It would have been nice to have twice this number for chapter breaks.

On the “B” side of the DVD the special features are previews for Plaything, Plaything 2, American Pie, Photoplay, Supermodel, Night Nurses, Heist, Generation X, Cat House and Julia Ann Superstar. Also included are three scenes for each of the following stars: Ashlyn Gere, Julia Ann, Nikki Tyler, Jill Kelly, Asia and Roxanne Hall. There are also three bonus categories with hardcore scenes: Group Sex with four hardcore scenes, Extreme Sex with three hardcore scenes and Voyeur Sex with three hardcore scenes. Like Int. Tel. Sex none of the films from where these scenes came from are listed.

Conclusion:
Army Brat, part of the Brat series from Vivid, is a fun amusing movie from the 80's. What makes this movie so fun is that the cast, themselves, seems to be having a good time which compensates for the silly plot. The plot is enough to keep the film going, but not enough that you have to worry about getting dragged down by it. The acting is incredibly cheesy but fun to watch.

The set could use some work, but some thought and work went into it. Not as much work as went into the films from the golden age but still the attempt was made and it is enough to give the film the proper atmosphere. Not as much work went into the props, some are very well done and fit the film completely. Others are ridiculously bad, to the point of being very amusing, like Dawn Patterson's secret agent ID card which was obviously constructed with a piece of colored paper and a black magic marker.

The extras, keeping with the Vivid standard, have nothing to do with the feature and add nothing of value to the disk. At least the bios could have been for the Vivid girls that were in the feature, not the current set of Vivid girls. All you end up getting are some additional sex scenes from unidentified movies and some previews for other Vivid releases.

All in all, a safe fun couple's movie. It doesn't have anything real hardcore in it but Jamie Summers sizzles in the role of the Brat reminding us why this series was so popular back in the 80's. Worth picking up, especially since it is sold relatively cheap online.

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