Police Academy, Real Genius, Bachelor Party, Surf Ninjas, Moving Violations. These are just some of the films of Neal Israel, who directed Tunnel Vision with Bradley R. Swirnoff and wrote it with Michael Mislove.

As of 1985, Tunnel Vision is the biggest channel in the world, one that is completely free of censorship. The government, led by Senator McMannus (Howard Hesseman) is investigating them, bringing owner Christian A. Broder (Phil Proctor) in front of the Congressional Oversight Committee. They plan on watching an entire day of the channel, which is this movie.

Vincent Canby said of this, “When undergraduate humor fails, as it does in Tunnel Vision, it doesn’t die alone, it threatens to take you with it.”

I felt more for it than he did, but I have a weakness for unconnected comedy sketches turned into a movie. See  The Groove Tube, Kentucky Fried Movie, Amazon Women on the Moon, Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video…

So what’s in it? Or more to the point, who? Ron Silver — in his first movie — as Dr. Manuel Labor. If that joke is funny to you, you are the correct audience for this. As for me, I love seeing Ron Silver show up in things. Ghoulardi himself — and dad of Paul Thomas Anderson and the voice of ABC — Ernie Anderson is in this. So are Gerrit Graham, Betty Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Pat Proft, John Candy, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Laraine Newman, Dick Tufeld (the voice of Robby the Robot), Chevy Chase and tons of others. Sometimes, the sketches are as creative as being as filthy as possible. I mean it, I have no idea how this got an R rating. At others, it’s creative. As these movies often can be, it’s uneven.

There’s a trailer for The Pregnant Man, a game show called Remember When that asks very personal questions,  Young People After School Press Conference in which Henry Kissinger gets abused by children and puppets, a trailer for the just a head cop movie Get Head!, the Archbishop of the New Catholic Church (Dody Dorn) taking off her robes and getting nude — Dorn would go on to edit Memento — and Secret Camera, a hidden camera show made by the CIA.

The MVD release of Tunnel Vision has a brand new 4K HD transfer presented in 1080p in both 1.66:1 and 1.33:1 aspect ratios, commentary by cult film historian Marc Edward Heuck, a new interview with Israel conducted by Stuart Shapiro, a continuity script, a photo gallery, TV commercials and a trailer. Plus, you get a mini-poster and a limited edition slipcover. Get it from MVD.