Film After 11 Podcast | What About Bob? (1991)

I had no problem picking a “W” movie for this week’s installment of the Film After 11 alphabetical marathon. Of course, the 1991 comedy What About Bob? was an easy choice. Is it even possible for anyone to dislike this movie? I can’t imagine so. My son Joseph definitely enjoyed it. If his reaction in the discussion afterward seems muted, know that he was feeling a little under-the-weather at the time we recorded it.

I’ve seen What About Bob? a ton of times and it never fails to make me laugh. The hostile chemistry between Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss (allegedly just as much off-screen as well as on) is hysterically funny. While Bill Murray is obviously a funny guy and very good at playing nutty goofballs, I came out of this viewing feeling that Dreyfuss is the real star here. His slow escalation from annoyance to psychotic hatred of Murray’s character is a masterclass of comedic performance.

What About Bob? (1991) - Richard Dreyfuss
Title:What About Bob?
Year of Release: 1985
Director: Frank Oz
Watched On: Fandango at Home
Also Available On: DVD
AMC+
Philo TV
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

Video Streaming

Somehow, What About Bob? has never been released on Blu-ray, anywhere in the world as far as I can tell. The last physical media release was a non-anamorphic letterbox DVD from Buena Vista Home Entertainment (in other words, Disney) back in 2000. Given Disney’s aversion to physical media these days, I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything new now.

Fortunately, an HD version of the movie is available on a couple streaming services I don’t subscribe to (no Hulu or Disney+, even!), as well as VOD rental and purchase platforms. I decided to rent the movie from Fandango at Home, but after finding that I could purchase it for only $1 more, opted to go that route. Now I own a digital copy of the movie I didn’t plan to buy.

I started this viewing expecting the worst, that it would be a very old video master of dicey quality. However, it seems that Disney actually remastered the movie at some point, though I don’t know when. The image is genuine 1080p HD, mildly letterboxed to its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

For all that, the streaming version looks, well, adequate. The picture is kind of soft but not unacceptably so. Grain is noisy at times, but not too bad. Colors are decent, though contrast is flat. I’m sure the movie could, or even should, look better than this, but it’s fine for now. I have no serious objections. What, am I supposed to go back to DVD?

What About Bob (1991) movie poster

The audio on streaming is Dolby Digital 2.0, and again sounds fine. The movie has a pretty basic comedy mix without a lot to distinguish it. Even with an upmixer engaged, I didn’t notice any surround activity. Volume is set a little low and benefits from more amplification than usual. The playful musical score uses some snare drums that produce moderate bass, but dynamic range is negligible otherwise. The big explosion at the end of the movie is weak.

My viewing had a very slight lip sync mismatch in the dialogue. I’m not sure if that’s embedded in the video file or something my streaming device caused. The problem was mostly subtle and I decided not to stress about it.

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Note: Screenshots on this page were taken from a web browser and came out much softer than the HD streaming actually looks. They’re used for illustration purposes only.

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