INNOCENT BLOOD (1992) (Warner Archive Blu-ray Review)

INNOCENT BLOOD (1992)

Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 115 Minutes (International Version)
Audio: English DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: John Landis 
Cast: Anne Parillaud, Robert Loggia, Anthony LaPaglia, Don Rickles, Chazz Palminteri, Angela Bassett

I caught Innocent Blood (1992)at the theater in '92 and I loved it - but I think I was in a minority at the time, it didn't go over all that well with the masses as I recall, including my friends. Here we have a bloodsucking comedy about a Parisian vampire who accidentally turns a maniacal Pittsburg mobster into a bloodthirsty vampire when she fails to kill him properly after feasting on his blood. The mobster, Salvatore "Sal the Shark" Macelli, is played by Robert Loggia (Lost Highway), an over-the-top portrayal as a power-crazed mobster, and that was before he was turned into a bloodsucker! The vampiress, played by the pixie-ish Anne Parillaud (La Femme Nikita) is a Dexter-ish sort of femme fatale, she has her own moral code, which prohibits her from drinking the blood of innocents, preferring only the crimson fluid of criminals, which is why she sets her sights on this particular Italian crime family, who are in the midst of a turf war. 

Once turned Macelli realizes the vampiric power he now has, and begins turning his crew into the undead, beginning with his Jewish lawyer Manny, played by comedy legend Don Rickles who is fantastic! He also turns two wiseguys played by future Sopranos stars Tony Sirico and David Proval. Realizing that she's unleashed a monster of the city Marie sets about to stop the ruthless mobster with the help of an undercover cop, Joseph Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia, Empire Records), who has ties to the crime family.  The comedy comes fast and furious in this one, mixed in with some sweet gore and awesome special effects from Steve Johnson (Poltergeist II: The Other Side). There's not a whole lot of fang-action, we get some tearing of flesh and bloodied faces as the vampires feast messily on their victims, and both Rickles and Loggia have visually stunning death scenes, especially Rickles who catches an intense ray of sunshine before going up in flames in sight of a hysterical nurse played by scream queen Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead)! That's a scene I feel is owed some love from Let The Right One In, which has a very similar vamp at a hospital scene, he blows up real nice! Not all the effects and visual trickery hold up though, there's a weird circling camera movement that feels like an ode to Argento's Opera (1987) that takes place in a church, meant to imply Maria can fly (or turn into a bat?) that falls a bit flat, and the red-eyes I loved when I saw it at the cinema doesn't hold up, but that cracked-skin, burning embers effects of the vamps going up in flames is still fantastic stuff. 

Loggia steals the show, at least when Rickles isn't on screen, particularly as the scenery chewing (and bloodsucking) mob boss, with great one liners like "I can hear an angel fart" and "I'm gonna grind you down to blood and screams", loads of great quotes in this one, so good. Parillaud as the pint-sized vamp-vixen is good but not great, her French accent sounds a bit odd when they modulate her voice when she's vamped-out, at one point sounding like Lou Ferrigno, but she does fine, she's very easy on the eyes. The love story with her and LaPaglia is dead on arrival to me, I don't feel the chemistry, but it pays off with a kinky handcuffed sex scene, her tiny body is undeniably sexy, and she bares it a few times. LaPaglia like Parillaud is decent, but he's fairly low-key and straight-laced, overshadowed by the deliciously blood-crazed performance of Robert Loggia, who is just so great. 

The movie is front loaded with director cameos, a bit of a trademark for director Landis, with Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) as a meat man, Dario Argento (Tenebre) as a paramedic, and Frank Oz (The Dark Crystal) as a morgue mortician. Also be on the lookout for special effects master Tom Savini (Day of the Dead) as a photojournalist and the beloved Forest "Famous Monsters of Filmland" Ackerman in a brief cameo. Another fun Landis-ism is the appearance of other movies on TV's throughout the movie, we get clips of people watching Hammer classic Horror of Dracula (1958), Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), the Harryhausen extravaganza The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms(1951) and Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954), all these clips brought to mind the Landis-produced HBO sitcom Dream On (1990-1996)which was predicated on TV clips. 

This one is criminally underrated, and too often maligned, perhaps owing a bit to the fact that Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula hit theaters the same year, this one sort of waned in its shadow, but this is well worth a revisit, a horror-comedy along the lines of An American Werewolf in Paris, it was even marketed in some foreign market as  A French Vampire in America, against Landis's wishes, but I can see the urge from the marketing department to make that connection to movie goers. 

The mix of mafia crime film and slapstick horror comedy is fun, it doesn't all stick when thrown up against the wall, but most of it sticks without overdoing it, the comedy is fun, the romance is just alright, and the horror is mixed well with the silliness. Landis does not get enough credit as a director these days, but this was a unique and original idea for a vamp flick and he executed it with his usual comedy-deftness, balancing the absurd with the grotesque. 

Audio/Video: Innocent Blood (1992) arrives on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive with a brand new 2017 HD master that looks mighty spiffy. Previously only available in an unattractive pan and scan full frame DVD for Warners we get a nicely opened-up 1.78:1 widescreen presentation revealing left and right information not seen on home video in the U.S. before - it's an eye-opener! Grain is nicely managed, the film has a certain early 90's ugliness to it, a gritty urban patine, but it's all nicely resolved in HD and the reds really pop, plus the black levels are nice and deep. 

The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo track and it does the job; crisp and clean, nicely balanced with some good stereo separation, the music scores from Ira Newborn (Mallrats) sounds great, plus songs selections from Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter, Prince and the New Power Generation and the Rhythm Syndicate. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Warner Archive are not known for their newly produced extras, and true to form there are none here, we get only the trailer for the DVD, but there's is something new, this is the longer international cut (115 min) version of the film with over two minutes of never-before-released-in-the U.S. footage, it doesn't add up to a whole lot honestly, a few seconds here and there, some dialogue, a bit more of a burning Loggia at the end, but it's great to have this Landis comedy in widescreen HD and uncut!   

Special Features:
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Finally at long last Innocent Blood (1992) gets a proper widescreen HD release from Warner archive, they even sweeten the deal with a longer international cut we've never had in the U.S.. Sure, I would have loved a John Landis commentary or an interview, the guys is always a veritable treasure trove of Hollywood insight, but I am pleased as punch just to have this sweet looking widescreen HD version of the film on Blu-ray! It doesn't mix the comedy and horror as well as An American Werewolf in London, but then again, so few do, and that's a Hell of a benchmark, even for the same director.

 

SUPERNOVA (2000)

SUPERNOVA (2000) 

Label: Scream Factory 

Release Date: January 13th 2015

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 91 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2:35:1)) 

Director: Walter Hill

Cast: Angela Bassett, James Spader, Lou Diamond Philips, Peter Facinelli, Robin Tunney, Robert Forster, Wilson Cruz

Walter Hill directed a science fiction space thriller, damn this sounds like it might be a blast, but before you get your panties damp just keep in mind that Walter Hill abandoned the film after the initial filming when the studio would could not keep their hands off the project. When the studio demanded screen tests and re shoots the director left the project and the film went through he hands of two more directors before being dumped into the cinema at the turn of the century where it died a painful death, a ninety million dollar science fiction flop. Keeping in mind that good taste has never been my strong suite there just might be some fun to be had with this one, I do love a trashy b-movie if we cannot squeeze some enjoyment out of this one. 

Sometime in the 22nd century we have the medical vessel Nightingale patrolling the galaxy when they receive a distress transmission from an abandoned mining colony on the far side of the galaxy on a moon known as Titan 37. They make a hyperspace dimension jump to the location of the beacon only to be unexpectedly caught in the gravitational pull of a dying star. On top of that the captain of the ship (Robert Forster) dies a gristly death when his pod malfunction mid jump, his body fused to the inside of his pod. 

 On top of that they are caught in the gravitational pull of a dying blue sun and just barely escape. The co-pilot (Spader) manages to stabilizes the Nightingale and prevent it from being pulled into the sun but the ship is damaged and the fuel is lost. Their only way out is to make another hyperspace dimension jump but the ship needs fuel, and time to reset the hyper drive and it's only a matter of hours before things are going to get pretty hot on the ship, it's a race against time. 

The film has a decent cast, we have Captain Marley (Robert Forster) for about a minute, co-pilot Nick Vanzant (James Spader), medical officer Kaela (Angela Bassett), medical technician Yerzy (Lou Diamond Phillips), rescue paramedic Danika (Robin Tunney), and computer technician Benjamin (Wilson Cruz) plus a survivor from the mining colony, played with some menace by Peter Facinelli.

The plot is pretty threadbare and the script doesn't offer a lot of meat for the actors to chew on, both Spader and Basset do what they can with the material but there's just not much to it. They both come across as intense and brooding but there's not much substance to any of the characters. The survivor from the mining colony is douche nozzle from the beginning and as he transforms he only gets worse. The survivor has brought with him an alien relic composed of ninth dimensional matter which not only has made him stronger but threatens to potentially destroy the entire damn galaxy as it turns out. 

Now the race is on to reset the hyperspace drive and recover fuel from the Titan 37 before the entire ship in is pulled into the giant blue sun, but the crew must also contend  with a killer on board who is killing them off one by one. Not the most original plot but this one should be pretty decent on paper - there's a lot of potential here and for the most part it's just pissed away. 

That ninth dimension thingamajig is affecting some of the crew, too. Mostly Lou Diamond Philips, who is becoming both obsessed and possessed by it's ambiguous sinister power. And let me just say that when Wilson Cruz is supposed to be a bad ass you know something ain't right in Denmark.  When he has to toughen up I just could not buy it on any level, a poor casting choice. Additionally Cruz's character is having a romantic courtship of sorts with the ships on board computer system, affectionately named Sweetie. The A.I, is not the only love interest, we also have an often nude Robin Tunney to distract with the occasional  anti-gravity sex scene, which is appreciated but even her gorgeous naked form cannot save this formless sci-fi flop from it's mediocre fate.

The effects are not too shabby for 2000, some nice use of miniatures and digital artistry make for a few decent shots of spacecraft but the cosmic backdrop is given short shrift in my opinion, this is not the most attractive space odyssey, you just never get a feel for the wonder of space and space travel. 

The film went through all sorts of development weirdness and director Walter Hill removed himself from the project when the studio demanded test screenings and re cuts, afterwards both Jack Sholder was brought in to do re shoots and Francis Ford Coppola was brought in to re-cut it, with so many cook in the kitchen it's no wonder this is a muddled mess. 

On the plus side James Spader proves to be a pretty decent hero in the film with some quiet intensity and there are a few decent action sequences, but much like Tunney's welcome and pointless nude scenes these few moments of fun don't add up to a very good film at the end of the day.

Blu-ray: The Blu-ray from Scream Factory features the extended R-rated cut and not the PG-13 theatrical version. The image is expectantly sharper and more detailed than the previous standard definition DVD with strong color saturation and a nice layer of fine film grain but it just doesn't have the depth and clarity of a big budget, modern science fiction film in my opinion.  

The audio offers up a choice of DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo and a 5.1 surround option. Dialogue, score and effects are nicely balanced with some good atmospheric use of the surrounds. 

Onto the bonus content we have a making-of doc featuring interviews with producer Daniel Chuba, co-director Jack Sholder, and stars Robert Forster and Lou Diamond Phillips who all speak quite honestly of their experience making the film. Chuba explains the the film was originally intended as a low budget scrappy sci-fi thriller but that once it fell into the hands of the studio it became a big budget nightmare plagued by daily re writes and studio interference. Director Walter Hill eventually walking off the project, at which time Jack Sholder - director of THE HIDDEN -  was brought in to do re-shoots and re-edit the film. Apparently he didn't fare too well and just a few days into his re edits none other than Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER) was brought into finish the film. A pretty textbook example of too many cooks in the kitchen, and let me tell you this sci-fi bouillabaisse is just bland as can be. I only wish they could have got the participation of Walter Hill and Francis Ford Coppola to comment on their experiences, that would have been quite a watch. 

Perhaps providing some insight into the original intentions of director Walter Hill we are provided with fifteen minutes of deleted scenes that hint a darker film.  We have a tiny bit more of Robert Forster, an autopsy scene of a crew member, an extended sequences with Spader on the Titan where he encounters another survivor, and more of the final showdown on the Nightingale, nothing too fantastic. There is also alternate ending that is feverishly awful featuring a bit more of our villain and a slightly different outcome for our protagonists and a darker finish. 

Lastly we have a strange trailer that pitches the film as a sort comedy sci-fi thriller with a soundtrack featuring Sugar Ray and Three Dog Night, clearly the studio had no idea how to market this mess of a movie. 

Special Features
-The Making Of Supernova - New Interviews With Actors Lou Diamond Phillips And Robert Forster, Producer Daniel Chuba And Filmmaker Jack Sholder HD (25 Minutes)
- Deleted Scenes HD (15 Minutes)
- Alternate Ending HD
- Theatrical Trailer HD (2 Minutes) 

Verdict: Not an awful film but a very bland viewing experience and not one I would look forward to re visiting again anytime soon. I might re watch the making-of documentary again because the story behind the film is far superior to what ended up on the screen, not a film I can recommend. It's a bit of head scratcher why this was chosen to receive the coveted Scream Factory treatment over so many others. I think I would have preferred to see this released as a double feature disc paired with something else, on it's own it just doesn't do a lot for me.