CLEOPATRA JONES (1973) (Warner Archive Blu-ray Review)

CLEOPATRA JONES (1973)

Label: Warner Archive 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: English DTS HD-MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Jack Starrett
Cast: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Shelley Winters, Antonio Fargas, Brenda Sykes

Blaxpoloitation meets 007 in Cleopatra Jones (1973) starring 6'2" model Tamara Dobson (Chained Heat) as the titular bad-ass federal drug agent, who at the start off the film is napalming a large swath of heroin producing poppy fields in Turkey. Jump cut to a scene of the film's baddie, a drug kingpin named Mommy (Shelley Winters, Poor Pretty Eddie), screaming about how that "black bitch" just destroyed thirty-million dollars worth of her dope. In retaliation Mommy has the corrupt LAPD cops that work for her bust the drug-rehab house Cleo's boyfriend operates, which brings the agent back to L.A.. Now Mommy's goons are out for her blood, but this bad-ass karate-kitten might be more than Mommy dearest bargained for! 

I don't remember loving this film all that much the first time I watched it years ago, but I think at the time I was too entrenched in my love of blaxploitation goddess Pam Grier (Coffy) to give it an honest appraisal, but watching it again ten-years or more later the action-packed has proven to more fruitful and rewarding. This viewing I was able to more appreciate Tamara Dobson, a goddess in her own right, her character's a bad-ass, kung-fu fighting mama with a sweet-looking '73 Corvette Stingray, and an ever changing array of stylish outfits throughout the film, all of which serve to separate her from the rest of the 70's black-action pack. 

The film co-stars Bernie Casey (Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde) as her lover, plus we have the rubber-faced antics of Antonio Fargas (Foxy Brown) as a drug dealer named Doodlebug Simpkins, with his girlfriend played by looker Brenda Sykes (Black Gunn). Shelley Winters is a ton of fun as the over-the-top baddie, regularly mistreating her crew of henchmen who repeatedly fail in their assignments to kill Cleopatra. Mommy is also attended to by a pair of attractive women who seem to there only to serve Mommy alcohol when she gets angry, also possibly hinting at the lesbian leanings of the kingpin. 

Directed by Jack Starrett (Race With The Devil) the film has some fun fight sequences and a killer car chase through the streets of L.A. and in the L.A. River, capping the film off with a finale that takes place in a junkyard, making this slice of blaxploitation cinema quite a bit of fun. While not on par with Coffy and Foxy Brown, the presence of the 6' 2'' Tamara Dobbs packs a solid punch, as does a great supporting cast, including the scenery-chewing Shelley Winters as Mommy! 

Audio/Video: Cleopatra Jones (1973) arrives on Blu-ray from Warner Archive with a brand new 2019 HD scan, presenting the film in 1080p HD widescreen 2.40:1. The presentation looks fantastic with a clean looking image free of dirt, debris and imperfection, aside from what looks to be one single moment of digital artifacting that shows up in the airport action sequence, a squarish grey patch that shows up on her pant leg mid kick, you check it out in the seventh screenshot in this review. That very small niggle aside, the grain levels are pleasing, the blacks are deep with colors looking quite nice when called upon, especially the yellows, reds and greens. The film is not visually stylish or particularly stunning but the presentation is quite filmic and natural looking. The vintage 70's decor, textures and wardrobe all have some great detail throughout, bringing this slice of 70's blaxploitation to life like never before on home video, I doubt it even looked this good on the first night it screened at the cinema on opening night. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 mix with optional (ALL CAPS) English subtitles, the source is not the most dynamic but it's clean and well-balanced throughout, the excellent score from J. J. Johnson (Willie Dynamite) also sounds great. 

The only extras on this one is an HD trailer for the film, to bad we couldn't at least get a new commentary for this one, there's probably a lot that could have been gleaned from a film historian about this action-packed film, it is too bad they couldn't get someone like Dr. Todd Boyd who did the commentary track for WAC's Super Fly, or Sergio Mim's who did one for Arrow's Willie Dynamite.

  
Special Features:
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Warner Archive come through with a stellar presentation of Cleopatra Jones (1973) on Blu-ray, here's hoping they follow-up soon with the sorely undervalued sequel Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975).  This excellent looking Blu-ray can be picked up for under $20 right now, if you're  fan of blaxploitation and 70's crime film this is a very easy recommend. 

MORE SCREENSHOTS FROM THE BLU-RAY 

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1995) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray review)

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1995)

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: John Carpenter 
Cast: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, John Glover, Charlton Heston, David Warner, Bernie Casey, Peter Jason, Frances Bay, Wilhelm von Homburg

John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness (1995) is probably one of the most Lovecraftian non-Lovecraft movies you will ever watch, a reality-bending slice of 90's horror that for a long time was over-looked as the near masterpiece that I think it is, but I think it's standing in Carpenter catalog has risen considerably these past few years. It opens with insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neil, Possession) being forcibly incarcerated at an asylum for reasons unknown, he's received by Dr. Saperstein (John Glover, Gremlins 2) and placed in a padded room, but not before kicking one of the orderlies right in the balls, which he jokes about later. He's later visited by Dr. Wrenn (David Warner, Waxworks) who while interviewing him  makes references to something awful happening outside the walls of asylum, and we learn of Trent's back story, narrated by Trent in true Lovecraftian fashion, working us back through the mind-bending tale that brought him to insanity. 

The tale begins to unfold with a scene of Trent interrogating a Mr. Paul (Peter Jason, Assault of Precinct 13) whom his insurer suspects of fraud, it sets Trent up as a crafty private eye and also a bit of an asshole, from here it moves on to dinner with the head of the insurance company, played by Bernie Casey (Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde) who asks Trent to take on a case for a large policy holder, Arcane Publishing. While having lunch a man with an axe and a peculiar set of eyes attacks Trent, smashing through a window and asking him "Do you read Sutter Cane?", before he's shot dead by the police. 

Trent meets with the head of Arcane Publishing (Charlton Heston, The Planet of the Apes) and Cane's editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen, Fright Night 2) who tell him of how their star horror writer Sutter Cane has gone missing along with his new manuscript, oh, and the guy with the ax who attacked him earlier was Cane's manager who read his latest book and went crazy, killing his entire family prior to going after Trent. The publisher want him to find the writer and bring back his new novel, and while Trent feels the whole thing is a PR stunt, he reluctantly agrees to take on the case. The first clue comes when Trent somehow figures out that the various covers to the author's book can be cut-up to form a map of New Hampshire, leading to a road trip with editor Styles that leads them to a small village straight out the author's books, Hobb's End, a town that shouldn't exist but somehow does.

They check into a creepy bed and breakfast run by an old lady named Mrs. Pickman (Frances Bay, Wild At Heart) and almost immediately encounter Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow, Dune) who is holed up at a strange black church located in town, and things gets really strange from the get-go, with reality and fiction beginning to breakdown and meld, leaving the investigator and the editor doubting their own sanity. As the film plays out the reality game is both horrific and psychologically mind-bending, with our once doubtful investigator questioning his own existence by the very end, in a story peppered with grotesque Lovecraftian terrors and John Carpenter's wonderful directorial flourishes. Carpenter's use of the scope framing combines wonderfully with the visually cool-looking locations, the asylum and the black church are framed to perfection, using the full scope of the frame to capture all the madness.

The special effects done by KNB are awesome, there's lots of tendril sand gooey tentacled Lovecraftian creatures, hideously deformed locals, and more subtle touches like the strange-looking dual-pupils seen throughout. The monster stuff is kept to a minimum, they didn't get a lot of screen time, but what we do get is mighty sweet, I wanted more but we get enough without over doing it. 

This has such a great cast as well, highlighted by Sam Neill who is perfectly cast as the cynical private investigator, he's wry and sarcastic ,and he plays demented well, the scenes of him losing his grip at the cinema at the end always makes me smile, he's got such a peculiar way about him, I love it. Julie Carmen feels a bit stiff to me, she's a cold fish by design, in the extras she says Carpenter had her watch Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) as inspiration for the character, which I've never seen, but I didn't love her performance, but I did like it when she begins loses her mind, telling Trent that she's "Losing myself!", that scene worked for me. The rest of the cast is a weird combo of notables, we have Bernie Casey from Revenge of the Nerds, Charlton Heston, Carpenter's good luck charm Peter Jason, plus Wilhelm von Homburg (Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2!), Carpenter really cast this one with some odd but satisfying choices. 

Audio/Video: In The Mouth of Madness (1995) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, sourced from a brand new 4K scan of the original camera negative, presented in 1080p HD and framed in Carpenter-vision widescreen (2.35:1). The previous Warner Bros. Blu-ray from 2016 looked fine to my eyes, but this new transfer looks fantastic, grain is uniformly finely managed, colors are rich and nicely saturated, black levels are deep and inky and fine detail is abundant throughout with really nice shadow detail. Scream did really good work with this new transfer. 

The lone audio option is an English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 with optional English subtitles, everything is well-balanced and clean, the Carpenter score and creepy sound design seep into the surrounds giving this a nice immersive presentation. This is one of those underrated Carpenter scores, if you ever get the chance to listen to the soundtrack away from the film give it a listen, like the movie it's only gotten better with age. 

Onto he extras we get the vintage EPK and original John Carpenter commentary with cinematographer Gary B. Kibbe from the previous U.S. releases, it's a very technical track and not one of the best Carpenter commentaries you will ever listen to, but Scream Factory come through with a brand new commentary from Carpenter and his wife/producer Sandy King Carpenter, it's a much looser and more enjoyable listen as the two wax nostalgic on making the film, covering the production, the cast and reception of the film. Sandy King several times takes jabs at New Line's Bob Shay, she definitely was not a fan of the man, also saying that Charlton Heston hated her, he even kicked her out of her office so he could take a nap! 

More extras come by way of an episode of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds with Sean Clark exploring some of the locations used in the film, I love these things, I wish there were more of them on Scream's releases, it's been a while since I saw one. There's also new interviews with actress Julie Carmen and special effects artist Greg Nicotero, both are good interviews, with Carmen speaking about her notable genre roles in film, a cool deleted ending to the film, and what it was like working with everyone on set. Nicotero speaks about the notable special effects with some cool behind-the-scenes video that gives us a much better look at some of the creatures designed for the film that are only really glimpsed in the final film, plus scenes of the special effects from the deleted scene referenced by Carmen in her interview. The disc s buttoned-up with some Nicotero home movies, a trailer and a whopping nine-minute of TV spots. 

The single-disc release is a Collector's Edition, it comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the a-side is a new illustration from frequent Scream collaborator Joel Robinson (Black Christmas), the reverse side being the original one-sheet which was used on previous home video versions. This release comes with a limited edition slipcover also featuring the Joel Robinson artwork, the disc also features the same Robinson artwork.

    
Special Features:
- NEW 4K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and producer Sandy King Carpenter 
- NEW Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – a look at the film’s locations today (12 min) 
- NEW The Whisperer of the Dark - an interview with actress Julie Carman (10 min) HD 
- NEW Greg Nicotero’s Things in the Basement – a new interview with special effects artist Greg Nicotero including behind-the-scenes footage (17 min) HD 
- NEW Home Movies from Hobb’s End – Behind the Scenes footage from Greg Nicotero (12 min) 
- Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and cinematographer Gary B. Kibbe
- Vintage Featurette – The Making of In the Mouth of Madness (5 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- TV Spots (9 min) 

If you're in a Lovecraft frame of mind and looking for something to watch I say check out In The Mouth of Madness, one of the best of the Lovecraft influenced movies out there that isn't a direct adaptation. Carpenter explored Lovecraftian themes in both of the preceding Apocalypse Trilogy entries with both The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987), but never more overtly than with this one, it's littered with Lovecraft references and Easter eggs, plus oodles of atmosphere. The new 4K transfer by Scream Factory looks gorgeous, and the new extras are all pretty great, well-worth the upgrade! Scream usually do good work for their John Carpenter titles, here's hoping they get their hands on more of 'em, I'd even be down for some of the later not-so-great stuff like Ghosts of Mars (2001) Escape from L.A. (1996) and Vampires (1998), and his sci-fi film Starman (1984) is already on tap for a Collector's edition in 2019.