HARD HUNTED (1992)
Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: A
Duration: 97 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Andy Sidari
Cast: Dona Speir, Roberta Vasquez, Geoffrey Moore, Bruce Penhall,Tony Peck, Cynthia Brimhall, Al Leong, Rodrigo Obregón, Michael J. Shane, Ava Cadell, Skip Ward, Chu Chu Malave, Richard Cansino, Carolyn Liu, Buzzy Kerbox, Mika Quintard, Brett Baxter Clark
In Hard Hunted (1992), the seventh film in director Andy Sidaris' series of girls, guns and g-strings films, we find bikini-clad L.E.T.H.A.L. agents Donna (Dona Speir, Dragnet) and Nicole (Roberta Vasquez, Picasso Trigger) again facing off against the notorious arms dealer Kane. Gone is Pat Morita (The Karate Kid) who played Kane in the previous film Do Or Die (1991), having been replaced by totally different guy Geoffrey Moore (Fire, Ice & Dynamite), the son 007-star Roger Moore (Octopussy). The younger Moore at least plays the villain with a bit of his father's panache, so I forgive the strange switch-a-roo.
The scantly-clad spy-thriller has the lady-agents chasing after a jade Buddha trinket that conceals within it what turns out to be a some sort of nuclear trigger, and they gotta get a hold of it before Kane sells it to some Middle Eastern terrorist group. As a fan of the series I was pleased to see that this entry is a slight return to form, as I was not too happy with the last film. I thought this one righted a lot of what was wrong with the previous entry.
The film starts off by setting up that there's a sexy double-agent named Silk (Carolyn Liu, Do Or Die) working within Kane's organization, while L.E.T.H.A.L. also has a double-agent in their midst, a steely-eyed character named Cole played by surfer turned fashion model Buzzy Kerbox. The first few minutes lso brings back the lovely Cynthia Brimhall (Picasso Trigger) as crooning secret agent Edy performing to a crowd of onlookers in a typically revealing get-up that highlight her top-drawer assets. We find Donna and Nicole being assisted by a L.E.T.H.A.L. operated radio station that informed through broadcasts of a segments called 'sextrology', it's silly stuff, with the ladies operating the station often wearing g-strings if anything at all, it just being another opportunity for more T&A, which I think we can all appreciate.
Baddie Kane again enlists the help of various henchmen this time around, we get the return of Chu Chi Malave (Mausoleum) and Richard Cansino as a pair of bumbling hit-men, code-named Wiley and Coyote. They even bring back the hovercraft explosion gag I am certain we saw in another Sidaris film, the exact same explosion being re-used, very Troma-esque. Sidaris regular Rodrigo Obregon (Savage Beach) also returns, this time as an one-eyed operative named Pico, with the best of the baddies being Al Leong (Big Trouble in Little China) as Kane's preferred assassin, a guy named Raven who flies around in a mini gyrocopter that's painted black and tricked out with machine guns and missiles.
As with most of these films it largely happens in the gorgeous settings of the islands of Hawaii, but there is a short and pointless detour to the mainland, with doomed agent Mika (Mika Quintard, Candyman) heading to Sedona, Arizona by way of Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, which as a resident of Arizona I appreciated. The detour makes a decent excuse to watch shots of g-strung Donna and Nicole splashing around in a mountain stream, and some cool gyrocopter action.
Hard Hunted (1992) looks great, the visuals of both the gorgeous tropical locations and numerous scantily-clad curvy women are wonderful, Sidaris had an real eye for this slick-looking, action-adventure fantasy, overflowing with T&A, hilarious dialogue and some truly headquartering moments that make it so much fun, while there is still no scene I love as much as the rocket launcher scene from Hard Ticket To Hawaii it's still a blast. The strangest scene for me was a scene of KSXY employees watering a radio transmission tower to increase it's range, which I don't think is a thing, there's also a strange sub-plot involving Donna losing her memory and momentarily joining the enemy and sexing up Pico, which felt more like padding than anything else, but it also allowed for more sex, which is sort of this film series thing, thinking up fun and usually goofy ways to cram more sexy ladies onto the screen, and I am okay with that.
Audio/Video: Hard Hunted (1992) arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment with a spiffy-looking 4k restoration prepared by the fine folks at the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA). It's a good looking image, grain structure is rich, colors are vibrant, and the plentifully displayed skin tones looks natural. The image is cropped from the original open matte framing to create a widescreen 1.78:1 presentation that's HD TV friendly, but the cropping looks good and doesn't looked cramped at all. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo audio that sounds good, it's clean and well-balanced with optional English Subtitles are provided.
All the extras are ported over from the previous special edition DVDs, we get an introductions for the film from director Andy Sidaris who is joined by the topless Julie Strain, plus we get an audio commentary from the director and his producer wife, plus 22-mins of Malibu Bay trailers, and a 48-min behind-the-scenes featurette, and a brief nudity filled Easter Egg. Like the other films on the set this release also comes with a digital code of the film for Mill Creek Entertainment streaming service movieSPREE.
Special Features:
- All new 4K transfer by the American Genre Film Archive
- Introduction by Director Andy Sidaris & Julie Strain (1 min)
- Audio Commentary with Andy and Arlene Sidaris
- Malibu Bay Trailers: Hard Hunted, Hard Ticket To Hawaii, Malibu Express, Picasso Trigger, Return To Savage Beach, Savage Beach, The Dallas Connection, Day of the Warrior, Do Or Die, Enemy Gold, Fit To Kill, Guns (22 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (41 min)
- Easter Egg (1 min)
Hard Hunted (1992) is another Sidaris action-gem stuffed with the usual amounts of sexy ladies in bikinis, naked ladies taking showers, sexy topless ladies deejaying and pouring coffee, and then on top of that there's a veneer of cheesy spy and action-thriller content, chock full of awful but awesome dialogue, all of which I find thoroughly entertaining. Even seven films into this series I am still a bit dumbfounded that these films are getting gorgeous looking Blu-ray releases, here's hoping that after these have all received their stand-alone Blu-ray that we see a Steelbook box set of all these girls, guns and g-strings films. That would be the absolute nipple of perfection on top of these already titty-filled fever dreams of ridiculous action-fantasy.
More Screenshots from the Blu-ray
