Mass Appeal (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV I'd seen Mass Appeal (1984), the movie version of Bill C. Davis's "two-hander" Broadway play on cable in the mid-‘80s but not since. Watching Code Red's new Blu-ray, what mainly struck me was how this kind of sincere, mid-level, studio-financed prestige picture is all but extinct now. Movies of this type, formerly a staple of major studio output, are now produced by indie companies fighting for what crumbs are left distribution-wise. Back in 1984, a picture like Mass Appeal would play mainstream movie theaters across the country. Not anymore. The movie is pretty much as I had remembered it: pleasant but unmemorable, well-made but not outstanding, featuring a couple of good performances let down slightly by casting that doesn't entirely work and a script that, while pretty ambitious, especially for its time, is unfocused and never quite achieves maximum impact.