HARLEQUIN (1980) (88 Films Blu-ray Review)

HARLEQUIN (1980) 

Label: 88 Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Cert.15
Duration: 96 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD (2.39:1)
Audio: English PCM 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Simon Wincer
Cast: David Hemmings, Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: For fans of Ozploitation it is the likes of MAD MAX (1980) or even the trash-tastic TURKEY SHOOT (1982) that may first pop into many a horror hound's mind - however, the cycle offered so much more and never is this clearer than with the surrealist shocks of HARLEQUIN (1980) a true genre standout that was also released under the more ominous moniker of DARK FORCES. In this oddball mix of sci-fi, horror and political espionage (yes, you read that right) a mysterious healer appears in the abode of a leading American senator who finds that his terminally ill son is quickly cured of his leukaemia. The appreciative politician opts to keep this puzzling presence around... although all is not as it seems. With a cast that includes such acclaimed thespians as Robert Powell (TOMMY) and David Hemmings (DEEP RED), the thrills come thick and fast in this genuine curiosity that, once seen, is hard to forget - exactly what one might expect from a script penned by the legendary Ozploitation hand Everett De Roche (LONG WEEKEND, PATRICK, ROAD GAMES, FORTRESS)!

The somewhat surreal political thriller Harlequin (1980) begins with Deputy Governor Eli Steele spearfishing in coastal waters when he goes missing, neveragain to resurface, despite being surrounded by secret police. In his absence Senator Nick Rast (David Hemmings, Deep Red) is moved into a position of power, at home Nick's wife Sandra (Carmen Duncan, Turkey Shoot) grows distant from her husband who has been increasingly consumed by political aspirations. At home she cares for their terminally ill son Alex (Mark Spain, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), but she's been informed by the family physician that further treatments will only prolong the boy's suffering. Enter a mysterious Rasputin-type character named Gregory Wolfe (Robert Powell, Asylum) who infiltrates the senator's guarded compound disguised as a party clown during the boy's birthday party, seemingly curing the boy's illness with the wave of his hands. Wolfe fast forms a friendship with the young boy, andsoon begins romancing his attrractive mother. The senator doesn't really raise an eyebrow about any of this, being distracted himself with his own side-lover and career aspirations, aligning himself with dark political forces who would rather the influence of Wolfe be eliminated.

This is a 80's modern Rasputin sort of story, with the magical healer casting a strange spell over the family, a multi-faceted political thriller filtered through weird fantasy, it's a weird mix but I found it refreshing in how odd it was. Powell is really channeling his inner David Bowie here as the mysterious healer, and Hemmings does good work as the conflicted politician, he's not the most attentive family man but he comes off as more a cog in the wheel in the service of bad men, more so than straight-up evil. The story has some nice intrigue and melodrama about it, the performances are strong, but also a little strange, owing the strange mix of political intrigue and surreal fantasy. The special effects are a little wonky at times, a lot of the optical special effects are sorely dated, but also charming in their own vintage way/ It's hard not to love it when Wolfe throws a cymbal at a pigeon perched atop a man's head at a party, slicing it in half!  

Audio/Video: Harlequin (1980) arrives on Blu-ray from 88 Films in 1080p HD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen - it looks faithful to the source, filmic but inherently soft with heavily filtered lensings. The source here looks to be a print, or at something less than original film elements, so there's only so much to be done with it. It leans towards the softer side and doesn't have a lot of depth and clarity, but is still considerably sharper and cleaner than my Elite DVD version of the film, released under the alternate release title of Dark Forces. 

Audio comes by way of an English PCM 2.0 stereo, the track is solid if unremarkable, very minor hiss can be heard in the track at times, dialogue is typically clear though a few lines of spoken dialogue can be lost in a few of the action sequences when things get slightly chaotic. The Brian May (Nightmares) score sounds very good in the mix, optional English subtitles are provided.

Special features kick off with a vintage audio commentary with director Simon Wincer and producer Antony Ginnane, speaking about the influence of Rapsutin the Mad Monk and the real-life disappearance of an Australian Prime Minister on the story. They also touch on the cast and producing the film and putting it into context of where the Aussie film scene was at during this time. 

Cult-film writer/critic Kim Newman shows up to discuss the exploitation cinema of Australia in the wake of Mad Max, and the body of work by writer Everett De Rocha in particular. It's a sort of meandering conversation as his usually are, but I do love hearing him wax-on about cult-cinema, always a welcome presence, describing Powell's turns as a Rasputin performance with a bit of Charles Manson thrown in. 

We also get a vintage six-minute interview with Robert Powell and David Hemmings with Hemmings pointing out the similarities to the Rasputin story, plus fifty-minutes of extended interviews with Director Simon Wincer, Producer Antony I Ginnane, Screenwriter Everett de Roche, and Actor Gus Mercurio from Mark Hartley's Not Quite Hollywood doc. The last of the disc extras is a trailer for the film. 

The single-disc release comes housed in an oversized clear Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring a pair of theatrical artwork options, There's also a limited edition o-card (slipcover) if you ordered directly from the website, also included with the limited edition version is an 8-page booklet with writings on the film from Calum Waddell focusing on the work of prolific screenwriter Everett de Roche (Patrick) and touching on the new wave of Aussie exploitation.  

Special Features: 
- Limited Edition O-Card slipcase [First Print Run Only]
- Limited Edition Booklet notes by Calum Waddell [First Print Run Only]
- Destruction From Down Under, An Ozploitation Retrospective: Interview with Kim Newman (15 Min) 
- Archive Interview with Robert Powell and David Hemmings (6 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Director Simon Wincer and Producer Antony I. Ginnane
- Cast and Crew Interviews with Director Simon Wincer, Producer Antony I Ginnane, Screenwriter Everett de Roche, Actor Gus Mercurio (50 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 

Harlequin (1980) is a tough slice of ozploitation to nail down, it's not the over-the-top actioner or bloodfest you might expect from an ozploitation film, it's a quirky political intrigue movie with fantasy leanings, it's an oddball mixture but the film did cast a bit of a spell on me. The new region-free Blu-ray from 88 Films looks and sounds good, the extras are probably a little better than the actual film in my opinion, but if you're looking for something a little bit different the film delivers just that. 

RUN, CHRISSIE, RUN! (1984) (Umbrella DVD Review)

RUN, CHRISSIE, RUN! (1984)

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: ALL (PAL) 
Rating: M
Duration: 87 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1) 
Director: Chris Langman
Cast: Annie Jones, Carmen Duncan, Michael Aitkens, Nicholas Eadie, Red Symons

Synopsis: Run, Chrissie, Run! (AKA Money Hunters and Moving Targets) is a thriller about a 15-year-old Chrissie (Annie Jones, Neighbour) and her mother Eve (Carmen Duncan, Turkey Shoot) who must suddenly leave their peaceful, suburban existence and run for their lives. Hounded by an assortment of threatening characters bent on rape, revenge and murder. Chrissie and Eve try to shake off their pursuers in a deadly game of cat and mouse which ends when they realize they must stand and fight. Having learned terrible secrets of her mother's past and the identity of her real father, Chrissie becomes a much wiser young woman as old scores are settled in a final cataclysmic shoot-out! 

This odd slice of ozploitation opens in London where IRA bomber Michael Riley (Michael Aitken) refuses to kill a man when the mark's wife and kid arrive on the scene, refusing to kill a woman and child a scuffle ensues with Riley's associate whom he ends up shooting dead when he refuses to let the hit go. In the aftermath Riley finds himself on the run from the IRA and ends up in Sydney Australia where he tracks down an old flame named Eva (Carmen Duncan) who is now a single-mom with a teenage daughter named Chrissie. The seemingly average mom turns out to have been a German bank robber in her past, and Riley is there to collect a considerable amount of money she has stashed away from her former life as a bank robber. 

Eva wants no part of Riley's plan which involves her and her daughter running off with him, she gives him the slip in a borrowed car with a bag full of cash and a sawed-off shotgun, but has an encounter with a gang of punks in a muscle-car out in the open road. Eva blasts the punk's car with her shotgun and leaves them in the dust, but one of the punks named Toe (Nicholas Eadie) ends up teaming with a assassin named Terrier (Shane Briant) who has been called-in to kill Riley, they track Eva and her daughter down to a hotel in hopes of drawing out Riley. 

This one is a bit all over the place, it has elements of a road movie, a on-the-run thriller, an outback action film and a mob movie, and while it has a few fleeting moments it also tends to drag quite a bit, it's very low energy in it's pacing and editing. Highlights include a brief car chase through an outdoor fruit market and the punks tail-gating Eva and her daughter at high speed which brought to mind a myriad of ozploitation films like Mad Max and Fair Game, but doesn't even come close to garnering the same thrills and energy. The main drawback here it's directed very workmanlike, it lacks the visceral style I've come to expect from better, vintage Aussie exploitation films, so it's a bit of let down. 

Audio/Video: Run, Chrissie, Run! (1984) arrives on all-region PAL formatted DVD from Umbrella Entertainment as part of their Ozploitation Classics line-up, framed in full-frame and looking to have been sourced from a vintage video master, the image is smeary, dark and colors are dull, but overall not too shabby considering the lackluster source, it's also slightly marred by minor video source  flaws. Audio comes by way of an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track, like the video it's limited but serviceable, there are no subtitles.

The single-disc releases comes housed in a clear DVD case with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the disc itself featuring an excerpt from the same artwork, which featuring an nice illustration of punker Toe and Eva, with Toe looking a bit like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. 

Special Features: 
- Original Australian home video trailer

Run, Chrissie, Run! (1984) is a lackluster and disjointed low-budget slice of ozploitation, I'd place it in the lower-tier of only just tolerable outback thrillers, but it was nice to cross another title from the Not Quite Hollywood! watch list.   

TURKEY SHOOT (1981) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

TURKEY SHOOT (1981)

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region-FREE

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 93 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith

Cast: Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Roger Ward, John Ley, Lynda Stoner, Gus Mercurio, Carmen Duncan, Steve "Crusher" Rackman, Michael Petrovich, Noel Ferrier

Brian Trenchard-Smith's Turkey Shoot (1982) a ridiculous Australian update of the classic man-hunt movie The Most Dangerous Game with some trashy women-in-prison tropes and and dystopian future stuff thrown into the mix for some added entertainment value. Set in the once futuristic sounding year of 2000 the government doesn't care much for dissent among the people, you're either a non-questioning member of society or you are interred in one of the prison camps where you are subjected to a nightmarish blend of social re-education and behaviour modification including physical punishment, rape and brutal murder.

The most notorious of the concentration camps is Camp 47, which is where we catch up with three subversive members of society sent for rehab, there's an innocent shopkeeper Chris Walters (Olivia Hussey, Black Christmas), a suspected whore Rita Daniels (Lynda Stoner) and repeat dissident Paul Anders (Steve Railsback, Lifeforce) notorious for having previously escaped from the other camps. The prison facility is run by sinister character warden type character Charles Thatcher played by actor Michael Craig (Vault of Horror), a role that could have easily been over-the-top but the actor keeps it pretty straight-faced, which works quite nicely against Railsback who seems to be off on another planet as the unbreakable subversive Anders, we have yet again another overly intense character from Railsback, which is a lot of fun, he keeps it entertaining.Olivia Hussey as the innocent seems a bit frazzled, not sure if that's her character or just her, it's noted on the special features she was deathly afraid of the Aussie wildlife, whatever the reason her fear translates well on-screen, but the woman just cannot handle weaponry, she looks pretty damn ridiculous firing a mounted 50 cal rifle.

Thatcher has a pair of henchmen who enforce the camp rules, the brute Ritter (Roger Ward, Mad Max) and the whip-wielding Red (Gus Mercurio, The Blue Lagoon), both of whom taunt and brutalize the subversives interred at the camp for fun. Ritter at one point makes an example of a young woman whom he nearly beats to death when she cannot recite the camp mantra, another is burned alive after an escape attempt, while Anders is made to stand in a narrow cage under a large weight which threatens to crush him. All this prison camp stuff is just foreplay to the real meat of the movie - the titular turkey shoot - a manhunt sponsored by Thatcher for the benefit of his wealthy friends. We have Secretary Mallory (Noel Ferrier, The Year of Living Dangerously), and VIPs Jennifer (Carmen Duncan, Harlequin) and Tito (Michael Petrovich, The Exorcism of Hugh). Each of the VIPS, including Thatcher, select a prisoner from camp to hunt for sport with the understanding that if the prisoner is able to evade the hunters until sundown they will have earned their freedom and entrance back into society. The chances of the unarmed prisoners making it till sundown seems pretty damn slim, but they have little 
opportunity to complain.

The weapons of choice used by the hunters include a paralyzing pistol, a crossbow with explosive-tipped bolt, and then there's my favorite of the bunch, a nutty looking man-beast named Alph (Steve "Crusher" Rackman) who looks a bit like Mr. Hyde with his top-hat! Once the prisoner's are released the game is on and as you might expect the tables are turned as the hunters become the hunted. The ensuing violence is action-pack, weird and loads of fun as the some of the hunted are killed-off in a myriad of gruesome ways and the wealthy cronies get a proper comeuppance, culminating in an action-packed air strike by the government. 

Turkey Shoot is not a flawless movie by any means, the special effects can be a bit goofy but the b-movie action and carnage is straight-up entertaining from start to finish, though some of the early camp scenes do go on for a bit too long, basically a vignette of scenes modelled after women-in-prison movies. Some of it is played for thrills and some just seem to be comedy, such as when the half-man, half-beast circus freak bites off the pinky-toe before giving his victim a fatal back-breaker wrestling move, it's just goofy stuff. Carmen Duncan as the deadly huntress with a crossbow is a lot of fun, filled with murderous desire and list, sending one bolt after another into the flesh of her victims with so much delight. There are some nice moments of gore peppered throughout, we have a pair of hands chopped off at the wrist which is done very nicely, the after image of the victims hands pulled up inside his sleeve not so much, ha ha. someone else meets their end when they are sliced in half by the plow of a bulldozer, screaming in pain as his lower half and entrails slide down a tree. Not all the effects are as effective, but Trenchard-Smith front loads this one with plenty of action and b-movie carnage. 

Audio/Video: Turkey Shoot arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films looking very nice, uncut and restored from the original camera negative, offering an eye-popping presentation of this Ozploitation nutter. A few minor blemishes here and again by way of white speckling but otherwise very nice, a little on the soft side at times but colors are solid, black levels are nice and skint ones look accurate, I only wish there'd been more of Olivia Hussey bare-skin to properly judge, ha ha. audio comes by way of an English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo track that is also solid and renders audio crisp and clean, free of distortion, the Brian May score, dialogue and sound effects come through strong, there are no subtitle options. 

Onto the extras we have what appear to be all the bonus content from the old Escape 2000 DVD from Anchor Bay including the Brian Trenchard-Smith commentary plus a 10-minute interview with BT-S in one of his patented Hawaiian short. They also carry-over the  24-minute Blood and Thunder Memories featurette with actors Michael Craig, Roger Ward and Lynda Stoner, the latter of whom doesn't exactly seem to love the movie, scoffing at the idea that it is a cult-classic, not a phrase she seems to appreciate. They also have the Escape 2000 Alternate Title Sequence and the original theatrical trailer for the movie.

Severin have brought a new wave of extras for their Blu-ray, beginning with 77-minutes of extended interviews with Brian Trenchard Smith, Antony I. Ginnane, Steve Railsback, Lynda Stoner, Roger Ward, Gus Mercurio, Bob McCarron from director Mark Hartley's awesome Not Quite Hollywood doc, which are all focused on Turkey shoot. If you have not seen the doc 
it is mandatory viewing for b-movie and cult cinema fans. 

The Ozploitation Renaissance – round table discussion with director Brian Trenchard-Smith, producer Antony I. Ginnane and Ozploitation cinematographer Vincent Monton regroups the creative trio who brought us the movie as they discuss the ozploitation heyday and the various films they worked on, from the early sexploitation movies through to the nadir of the scene, more good stuff.  

Special Features:
- Not Quite Hollywood Extended Interviews with Brian Trenchard Smith, Antony I. Ginnane, Steve Railsback, Lynda Stoner, Roger Ward, Gus Mercurio, Bob McCarron (77 Mins) SD 
- The Ozploitation Renaissance – round table discussion with director Brian Trenchard-Smith, producer Antony I. Ginnane and Ozploitation cinematographer Vincent Monton. (26

minutes) HD
- Turkey Shoot: Blood and Thunder Memories – featurette (24 minutes) (24 Mins) SD
- Brian Trenchard-Smith Interview (10 minutes) (10 Mins) SD
- Audio Commentary with Director Brian Trenchard-Smith
- Turkey Shoot Trailer (3 Mins) SD
- Escape 2000 Alternate Title Sequence (2 Mins) SD
- Blood Camp Thatcher Alternate Title Sequence (2 Mins) SD (Easter Egg) 

Turkey Shoot is everything you would expect from a Ozploitation update of The Most Dangerous Game, a sleazy, action-packed slice of b-movie perfection. The Blu-ray from Severin looks mighty impressive and is stuffed with value-added extras, a very high recommend for b-movie fanatics who crave some mondo exploitation in HD.