This month Mill Creek Entertainment has released several new movies in its Retro VHS line of Blu-rays, one of which is the 1995 film The Cure, arriving on Blu-ray format for the first time.
Erik (Brad Renfro, The Client) is a loner, who doesn’t really have any friends. His mother Gail (Diana Scarwid, Inside Moves, Mommie Dearest) tells him to go outside to play baseball with the other boys, but he knows that they’ll just bully him, calling him gay slurs simply because he lives next door to 11-year-old Dexter (Joseph Mazzello, Jurassic Park), who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. Erik doesn’t really even know Dexter, and there’s a huge fence between their homes. Gail prefers it that way, fearing that any close contact with the family could lead to her or her son contracting the deadly disease. However, Gail is a divorcee, and is always either spending her time at work, or off exploring her new social life, usually leaving Erik to fend for himself. Eventually, Erik gets to talking with Dexter and the two realize they have a lot in common. Erik enjoys spending time at Dexter’s house, playing games, and going on adventures outdoors. The two new friends decide that they are going to work together to find a cure for AIDS—a mission that has them performing various misguided “scientific” experiments involving candy bars and plants, before sending them off a cross-country road trip. While searching for a miracle, the boys find a friendship to last a lifetime, however long that may be.
The Cure is a heartwarming coming-of-age tale of love, family and friendship, that brings both laughter and tears. At the heart of the story is this tale of innocence and friendship. Both boys don’t really have any friends. Most people look at Dexter and are either afraid to get close for fear of catching a deadly disease, or look at him with pity as a dead man walking. So he pretty much just spends all his time at home with his mother, Linda (Annabella Sciorra, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle). However, Erik just sees Dexter as any other kid, and someone he can be friends with, rather than a sick kid who should be pitied. Erik doesn’t get much love and attention from his own mother, who’s not even home most of the time. Dexter’s mother is the complete opposite—she is loving, caring and attentive to her son, and loves that Dexter finally has a friend and someone else to spend time with. She immediately welcomes Erik into their home, treating him like another son. She is the mother that Erik always wished he had.
The first two thirds of the film follow the two boys as they become fast friends and start their misguided quest to find a cure for AIDS, while the final act gives a change of scenery, becoming more of a road trip adventure, with some exciting new twists and threats. Despite dealing with themes of death and a somewhat untreatable disease at the time, the film still manages to insert a lot of humor. Both young actors were just at the start of their careers when they made this film, but both Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello hit it out of the park, giving very natural and heartwarming performances. Annabella Sciorra is also delightful as the fun, loving and supporting mother, who secretly hides her sorrow, and Diana Scarwid is wonderfully despicable as the awful, ignorant and bigoted mother who takes for granted that she has a healthy child.
Even 27 years later, the film still holds up quite well, feeling not only timeless in its themes, but also a depiction of the ideas and prejudices of a particular era. AIDS is not the death sentence it once was, and most people these days have a better understanding of the disease and how it can be contracted and spread, but the film plays on the ignorance and prejudices of the time, with bullies taunting Erik and calling him fa**ot and other crude words, implying that only gay people could get the disease, or Erik’s mother’s forbidding her son to even get within 7 feet of Dexter’s home for fear of catching AIDS.
Like the majority of Mill Creek’s Retro VHS releases, this disc is barebones, just offering a basic menu with Play and Subtitle On/Off options. I found the video presentation to be generally quite good. During one sequence, as Erik and Dexter are riding a shopping cart down the street, the picture is a little blurry, but for the most part, the picture remains clean with a decent level of detail throughout. The stereo audio track doesn’t give the immersive feel of a more modern audio option, but is more than sufficient, providing clear dialogue throughout, while also showcasing the Mark Cohn’s excellent “My Great Escape” that plays during the opening titles as well as later in the film.
The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, with a Retro VHS slipcover that makes the release look like a classic VHS rental tape. The details on these slipcovers are really fun, and the design even extends to the spine as well, allowing these discs to displayed like a collection of VHS tapes on your shelf.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:38:36)
- 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
- Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Subtitles: English SDH
Extras:
-
There is no bonus material included on this disc.
Final Thoughts:
The Cure is a heartwarming coming-of-age tale, which manages to find a lot of humor while exploring themes of death, bigotry and ignorance. Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello really shine as these two young boys who form a friendship that helps fill the void in one another’s lives. I really enjoyed revisiting this film after such a long time. Mill Creek’s barebones Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but doesn’t include any bonus material. Fans will be pleased to finally be able to pick this excellent drama up on Blu-ray. An easy recommendation based on the quality of the film and performances.
CURE RETRO VHS BD
24% Off $15.99 $5.99 (as of November 8, 2024 15:45 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
