DANGEROUS MEN (2005) (Blu-ray Review)

DANGEROUS MEN (2005) 

Label: Drafthouse Films 
Release Date: April 22nd 2016 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 80 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: John S. Rad
Cast: Melody Wiggins, Kelay Miller, Bryan Jenkins, Coti Cook, John Clure, Carlos Rivas, Lawrence McNeal III

Synopsis: After Mina witnesses her fiance's brutal murder by beach thugs, she sets out on a venomous spree to eradicate all human trash from Los Angeles. Armed with a knife, a gun, and an undying rage, she murders her way through the masculine half of the city's populace. A renegade cop is hot on her heels, a trail that also leads him to the subhuman criminal overlord known as Black Pepper. It's a pulse-pounding, heart-stopping, brain-devouring onslaught of '80s thunder, '90s lightning, and pure filmmaking daredevilry from another time and/or dimension. Blades flash, blood flows, bullets fly and synthesizers blare as the morgue overflows with the corpses of Dangerous Men.

Sweet Jesus, what did I just watch? Dangerous Men is a twenty-six years in the making L.A. crime thriller that defies expectations and logic at nearly every turn, the movie begins proper with two young lovers having a pleasant walk on the L.A. beach when they are accosted by two very bad bikers. The end result of the encounter is that the woman's lover and one of the the attackers lay dead and the beach, with the nearly-raped woman leaving with her new found biker friend - who keep in mind just murdered her fiance - to enjoy a meal at a restaurant before engaging in some awkward naval and knee kink back at a hotel room. Fear not though, this young woman has not fallen in love with said biker who murdered her lover, she is merely gaining his trust so that she can pull a knife out of from between her ass cheeks and stab him to death! 

Afterward she is picked-up by a businessman type who attempts to rape her, oops, bad move. She manages to turn the tables on the would-be rapist and before you know it she has a knife pressed up against his cock, leaving him stranded nude  in the desert while she drives off with his car. The camera lingers on him for way too long as he wanders nude through the barren landscape, speaking aloud to himself as he contemplates his poor life choices. This is the start of Dangerous Men, a weird movie made by a madman, a mind-melting shot on 35mm film that sort of recalls the ludicrous lo-fi cinema of shot-on-video schlock we saw in the '80s, chock full of uncomfortable nudity, plenty of stabbings, and strange tangential sub plots that come and go without rhyme or reason, this is just an oddball slice of cinema, one that at certain times just drops characters and follows others with little to no logic, sort of akin to Richard Linklater's Slacker. 

The movie was started in the '80s and that seems to be where the near-rape revenge story comes into play, this is the part that I enjoyed the most as our heroine goes on a one-woman murder spree, shooting and stabbing her way through a series of rapey-men. Melody Wiggins as Mina has a certain wide-eyed charm about her, she's not quite as wooden as many of the non-actors in the movie, but at about the 45-minute mark she disappears from the movie, in her place we follow her fiancee's brother who is investigating the death of his brother while attempting to clear Mina's name, her having been named as a suspect in the man-killing  murder-spree, which devolves into a crime-thriller revolving around an elusive criminal mastermind named Black Pepper - though White Pepper may have been more appropriate, the dude is a blond mullet headed dude in workout pants and a bandana, the guy screams '90s cheese from every pore.

Throw traditional narrative and movie making concepts out the door, this one is marching to an '80s and '90s beat all it's own, along the way there is more attempted rape with the expected repercussions, plenty of revenge, more bad bikers and enough awful-staged action to numb your mind to just how bad this movie is. Describing it is near impossible without sounding like a madman, theres a certain dream logic in the way the scenes flow into one another without any transitional material. One moment were following Mina, the next watching Black Pepper make-out with his girlfriend while they watch an exotic belly-dancer before heading to the bedroom where we are treated to more knee-kissing and some muff-diving, there's a brief chase and hen the whole thing comes to an abrupt freeze-frame end, and not one of those cool 70's shocker endings either, its more like waking up from a weird dream just before you get to the good part. it's just over, role credits, leaving you dazed and confused.

This temple of cinematic awful was directed by John S. Rad, a former Iranian architect who immigrated to the US after the Iranian Revolution in '79, soon after he set out to make his own L.A. based crime thriller and this fevered mess was the end result, an unintentionally hilarious revenger that was made over a period of nearly 30 years by a cast of unknowns who probably wish this movie would have never seen the light of day, particularly actress Melody Wiggins whom according to some of the interviews and commentaries does not wish to be associated with the movie in any way she never thought this would get an official release, clearly she underestimated the resolve of John S. Rad, who in 2005 finally got his slice of D.I.Y weirdness into a few theatres in in L.A., garnering a cult-following when a few choice taste-makers in the schlock community found it to their liking, and thus we have this Blu-ray release from cult connoisseurs Drafthouse Films. 

The movie arrives on Blu-ray from Drafthouse films framed in 1.85 aspect ratio with a nice layer of fine film grain and some decent fine detail, with only a smattering of grime, grit and minor print damage. It may not be the most eye-popping HD you've ever seen but for what this is the presentation looks fantastic, The only audio option is a Dolby Digital Stereo and that lossy option does just fine, dialogue and sound effects comes through clean, while the John S. Rad composed synth score, which is also delightfully awful, sounds cheese-tastic.  

Drafthouse have given this surreal revenge-thriller quite a gorgeous Blu-ray release, the disc comes housed in a Criterion style clear Blu-ray case with a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the Drafthouse artwork and the charmingly awful original theatrical poster artwork. There's a 16-page booklet with the only documented full-length interview with John S. Rad, plus a DRM-free HD Digital Copy of the movie, the code for which comes on a collectible insert card featuring a cartoon version of White Pepper. 

Extras on the disc include the mini-doc 'That's So John Rad' about the film and its original 2005 theatrical release, including an interview with the director's daughter who reveals some peculiar things about her auteur movie maker father, including that he threatened her with a gun for talking with a boy against his wishes and punishing her by taking her car, which she did not realize until years later he used in this movie, pushing it off a mountain in a scene. 

There's also an interview with director of photography Peter Palian who has actually directed a few movies I am familiar with, namely the Samurai Cop movies, he reveals details about the director style, how cheap he could be when it came to feeding the cast and crew, and his easy recipe for tomato juice. Additionally there's a fun audio commentary featuring Destroy All Movies authors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connelly who know a thing or two about trash cinema, and they're perfect for this commentary. The last of the extras a trailers for this movie and a selection of other Drafthouse Films releases. 

Special Features:
- 16-page booklet featuring only documented full-length interview with John S. Rad
- Audio commentary featuring Destroy All Movies authors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connelly
- That's So John Rad - An original documentary about the film and its original 2005 theatrical release (27 Mins) HD 
- Rare footage of John S. Rad appearing on local access television (48 Mins) HD 
- Interview with director of photography Peter Palian (11 Mins) HD 
- Original Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins) 
- Dangerous Men Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) HD 
- Dangerous Men Teaser (1 Mins) HD 
- Drafthouse Films Trailers: Miami Connection (2 Mins) HD, Ms. 45 (1 Mins) HD, Roar (2 Mins) HD, Trailer War (1 Mins) HD 
- DRM-free HD Digital Copy

Dangerous Men (2005) is a movie custom made for trash cinema connoisseurs and bad movie lovers, if I did not know that this movie was an actual relic from the past I might have assumed it was a contemporary movie that was riffing on cheesy, so-bad-they're-good cinema from the '80s, but in my opinion you cannot craft something this weird by design, it's too weird to be planned, this is the sort of stuff that just happens in a vacuum outside of the mainstream. This release from Drafthouse is top-notch, made with love, and a fine tribute to the demented John S. Rad and his dream of making a movie in America. 

ROAR (1981) (Blu-ray Review)

ROAR (1981) 

Label: Olive Films
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Region Code: A 
Rated: PG
Duration: 102 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen ( 2.35:1)
Director: Noel Marshall
Cast: Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, Noel Marshall

Synopsis: Writer/director Noel Marshall stars as Hank, a doctor and outspoken naturalist in Africa who allows lions, tigers, cheetahs, and other big cats to roam freely around his remote estate. While away protecting animals from poachers, Hank’s family—including Marshall’s real-life wife and daughter, Tippi Hedren (The Birds) and Melanie Griffith (Working Girl)—arrive at his home and are stalked by the massive lions that have overrun the house. 

Sometimes you finish a movie and you're just dumbfounded, completely bowled over by what you have just watched, there are no words that will adequately express what you're feeling, so you just sit there slack-jawed... and you watch it again, because you cannot believe what you just watched could be true. 

Director Noel Marshall's Roar (1981) is just such a movie, in fact this is one of the most WTF! viewing experiences of my entire movie-watching life, trust me, this is a whopper of a movie. The story itself is pretty threadbare as described by the brief synopsis, there's just much to it on paper or on screen, and once you realize what you're actually watching you won't care about the story anyway, you won't care about the many storytelling shortcomings of the movie because you're watching what could have potentially tuned out to be a gruesome when animals attack movie, you're watching one of the most ill-conceived movie ideas and execution in all of cinema history. 

Noel Marshall and his real-life wife Tippi Hedren (The Birds) along with Tippi's daughter Melanie Griffith (Joe vs the Volcano)  and Noel's sons John and Jerry Marshall raised dozens of wild cats in their Beverly Hills home from cute cubs to fearsome adulthood. When the cats outgrew their Beverly Hills home they moved to a ranch outside of the city, which is where they would eventually shoot this movie. You can clearly see the insanity of this film as Marshall and the family improvise scenes with untrained African lions who do not take direction very well, there are so many scenes of the cast being overpowered and clawed by these fearsome cats that I find it difficult to believe no one was killed during the production. You can see the terror in some of their eyes of the cast as the camera rolls. In an early scene you see one of the cats take a bite out of Marshall's hand, blood trickling from the wound on screen, his clothes shredded by claws. In another a very youthful Melanie Griffith is mauled by a big cat who sits on her back and claws her face, the wound required over a hundred stitches and reconstructive surgery. There's no acting in this movie in the traditional sense, just improvised scenes of human surviving from one scene to the next, it's just crazy stuff. 

Tippi Hedren was thrown from a elephant's back fracturing her leg in one scene, which is of course captured on film. It is stupefying just how uch insanity and danger this family endured to make this nutty movie. I laugh when I think about Hedren speaking of the horrible tortures she endured while akin The Birds with Alfred Hitchcock. with Hitch hurling birds at her during the bird attack scenes, but watching this I have slightly less compassion about her grievances with Hitchcock. At least he didn't throw her in with into a scene with dozens of untrained lions, tiger, jaguars and cheetahs, nope, she did that to herself. I am serious when I say you can see the fear and terror in their eyes throughout the movie, there could not have been a day on set where the cast and crew did not firmly believe that someone would die, I was scared for them thirty-years after the fact watching it on my TV screen. 

On the surface the movie seems to have a kiddie-friendly family adventure quality about it, it sounds almost Disney in it's conception, except that the actors are appearing alongside clawed big cats who could at any moment chew their face off or shred them, and while that didn't exactly happen it should be noted that there were over 70 documented cases of animal attack during the making of the movie. Cinematographer Jan de Bont (Speed) was severely mauled and scalped during one of the attacks, and he was crazy enough to come back and finish the movie after that! Not sure what kind of drugs they were on while making this one, but whatever they were, they must have been worth dying for. 

Audio/Video: Roar arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films in the original scope (2.35:1) aspect ratio, and as crazy as the movie is in conception and execution cinematographer Jan de Bont camerawork looks pretty good, considering each and every frame was shot under threat of constant mauling by lions. The print used for the HD transfer looks pretty good with minimal issues, just the occasional white speckling. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio sounds good. 

Cinematographer Jan de Bont

Onto the bonus features we have a great commentary with actor John Marshall and Tim League of Drafthouse Films. What looks to be a vintage making of doc with the participation of the cast and crew, with Tippi breaking down at one point when she begins to discuss what she had to give up to raise money for the project. The meat of the extras are a fantastic Q/A with Cast and Crew at The Cinefamily in L.A. on May 17th 2014 with star John Marshall,  sound mixer Courtney Goodin, editors Ted Nicolaou and Larry Carroll moderated by Harian Belove of Cinefamily and Christian Parkes of Drafthouse Films. There's so much great stuff is brought up during it. Marshall recalls what it was like raising the big cats from cubs in their Beverly Hills home, while the crew speak about just how weird and dangerous a shoot it was, what a character Noel Marshall was, some great stories from on set about the dangerous cats and the flood that nearly scrapped the movie. There's also a gallery of photographs and the essay that Tim League drafted about the movie and what a strange one it is. 

Special Features:

- The Making of Roar (33 Mins) HD

- Q/A with Cast and Crew at The Cinefamily, Los Angeles,  CA May 17th 2014with star John Marshall,  sound mixer Courney Goodin, editors Ted Nicolaou and Larry Carroll moderated by Harian Belove of Cinefamily and Christian Parkes of Drafthouse Films. (40 Mins) HD 

- The Grandeur of Roar, an essay by Tim League

- Photo Gallery (6 Mins) HD 

- Audio Commentary with John Marshall and Tim League 

I could never truly describe how weird and absurd this movie is, how dangerous this looks, and how the cast and crew made it through the shoot without the loss of life or limb. There needs to be a movie about the making of this movie, but you know it would be made with loads of digital effects and animated lions, because no one is crazy enough to do what Noel Marshall and his family were willing to at the time, that would just be crazy, and that's why it's such a fascinating watch, because it's true. Half way through my viewing I the Werner Herzog doc Grizzly Man came to mind, I could imagine a young Timothy Treadwell, the doomed nature enthusiast who is the subject of that movie. I imagined him as a young boy maybe watching this movie and loving the idea of being one with nature, to live among the ferocity of nature and survive it. If you've seen Grizzly Man you know it didn't turn out so well for Treadwell or his girlfriend, watching this you realize how close this crazy family came to being maybe starring in their own family snuff film. WTF.