As a man with over five hundred fifty
horror movies nesting not 6 feet from my bed, it takes a certain
special flick to really get me excited about buying it. It helps if
the movie in question has never truly had a good release or if it
belongs to a certain special subset of old Monstervision flicks. This
lil bad boy nests in both those camps.
For those who are either not old
enough, didn't have cable in the mid to late nineties or simply
missed out on watching it, Monstervision was TNT's Saturday night
horror/cult movie show hosted by the great Joe Bob Briggs. Say what
you will about Elvira or Svenghoolie, but Joe Bob never needed a
rubber chicken or a skimpy dress (that was the mail girls thing) to
keep things interesting. Simply put; no other horror host had the
same appeal or verbal skill. The guy was a top-notch host who'd toss
just enough info and comedy into perfect lil bite sized bits for your
enjoyment. He's not as prominent these days and apparently had some
trouble with a few less than choice gay jokes, but back in the day
this cat was the centerpiece of my weekend. It's rare to be able to
point to one person who helped build a love for something but I can
think of no one else who had a greater influence on my viewing
habits.Over the years he aired plenty of different flicks but there
was a group of them that stuck with me. Titles like The Wraith,
Halloween 3, The Beast Within, From Beyond, all took up residence in
my young mind while I lounged in my Pepsi beach chair. I feel a
slight twinge of pride that I have just about everything except for
Saturn 3 (which comes out soon), People Under the Stairs (no idea why
I don't have that), and until last week, I Come in Piece.
The premise of our flick is one of
simple elegance. Dolph Lundgren is a hard ass cop who has to deal
with a drug-dealer from outer space. You could turn Shakespeare into
a vampire, chain him to a typewriter for a thousand years and he
still wouldn't have come up with a story this beautiful. Admittedly
the whole plot is riddled with cliches like the by the book partner
and the old fashioned one on one fistfight to end the whole ordeal
but complex writing is not what's important here. What is important
is the feeling the movie conveys, that of pure rainy day cinema.
Truly the sights, sounds, and dialogue are of the kind that belong
solely to those special films reserved for those days when your
barbecue gets rained out.
There's also a nice variety of little
touches added in, like Dolph's character being a wine and art
connoisseur who goes to titty bars to think. And I'd be remiss not to
mention the gun the aliens carry which is essentially an Uzi that
fires explosion (eat it Michael Bey!). The cherry on top is that this
a Christmas movie as well, which would make for a great alternative
x-mas double feature if paired with Cobra.
The whole affair isn't life changing,
or even a good movie per say, but those of the right mindset will get
that warm old blanket feeling from a simple action flick from the
days when such movies weren't up their own asses with self-importance
and geeky wink wink moments. If you love action, aliens, or just
basic fun cinema at least give this thing a viewing.
As far as the blu-ray itself; the
picture quality is surprisingly good. There are a few parts that
feature a little too much grain or image stutter but all in all it's
quite purdy. I've seen some cats who like to think themselves as AV
nuts criticize the transfer on some very shaky grounds but most just
seem to be looking desperately for attention. I frankly don't get the
complains cause it's pretty damn nice looking. Audio on the other
hand is a little muffled. It's nothing serious and probably has more
to do with the movie itself than the disc. There's some OK separation
for those with multi-speaker setups, just don't expect anything too
impressive. Thankfully Jan Hammer's score come across quite well. All
in all, It's not bad audio...just kinda weak.
There's not many special features but
I don't mind since we get a good half-hour of interviews with
Lundgren, Director Craig Baxley, and Brian Benben who seems to be an
odd little man. Other than that you get a standard definition
trailer. I've never minded a lean offering of features since I don't
usually have the time to watch that many and these were good enough
to satisfy me. Plus they explained why the alien ran so damn
strangely.
Since I'm still lost in a haze of
Monstervision memories I leave you with this advice: go out and get
this disc. Also; check out the Monstervision song. Ta!
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