THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING (1989) (MVD Rewind Blu-ray Review)

THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING (1989)

Label: MVD Rewind 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 88 Minuutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, English PCM Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Jim Wynorski
Cast: Heather Locklear, Louis Jourdan, Dick Durock, Sarah Douglas

Synopsis: After her mother's mysterious death, Abigail Arcane (Heather Locklear) travels to the Florida swamps to confront her resurrected evil stepfather Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan). In an attempt to stave off the effects of aging, Dr. Arcane, assisted by Dr. Lana Zurrell (Sarah Douglas), combines genes from various swamp animals and human beings, creating an army of monsters known as Un-Men. When Abby arrives, Dr. Arcane is hell-bent on taking his own stepdaughter's life in the name of science... that is until she is rescued by SWAMP THING in this must-see sequel to the original cult classic and based on the award-winning DC Comics series!

Believe it or not The Return of Swamp Thing is produced by the same guys whom have produced all the Batman movies since Tim Burton's 1989 film, even stranger these guys chose b-movie schlockmeister Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) to direct this DC comic property, a seven-years-later sequel to Wes Craven film. The film resurrects the evildoer Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan, Octopussy) from the frist film - which if you saw the first film is quite a feat - he's once again is in the swamps of Georgia doing evil stuff, this time creating a race of half-man, half-animal "un-men" - to what end I am not quite sure, it's all very Island of Lost Souls in a way. Arcane's stepdaughter Abigail(Heather Locklear, TV's Melrose Place) comes to visit her estranged stepfather in the swamps hoping to reconcile what happened to her late mother, she having mysteriously died recently at Arcane's plantation mansion. 

Arcane still has an army of mercenaries working for him, in addition to chief science types, we have the albuterol-sucking Dr. Rochelle (Ace Mask) and  Lana Zurrell (Sarah Douglas, Superman II) who oversee the creation of his genetically spliced un-men, offering an  array of mutant monstrosities to watch, we get animal/human hybrids of an elephant, a leech, a cockroach, what looks to be an armadillo, and a guy who looks like the cannibalistic madman from Anthropophagus (1980), I am almost certain that it's an homage to that character. When the film opens we catch-up with a group of DEA agents looking for illicit moonshine stills in the swamps, but the only thing they find, unfortunately for them, is leech-man, and this is where we're re-introduced to Swamp Thing (Dick Durock, Raw Deal) who shows up just in time to save at least one of the agents, and right away I was blown away by the design of the new suit, looking very close to the Bernie Wrightson design from the comics, a vast improvement over the man in glorified garbage bag from Wes Craven's first film, The suit this time out is nicely detail molded with roots and vegetation deeply detailed, the face is really what sells it though, the character can emote like we've never seen before - but despite this awesome design I couldn't help but snigger a bit when the character spoke - gone is the original voice of Dick Durock, and what we get in it's place is sort of funny sounding charmer of a voice, it's a strange choice. 

Not that strange choices are rare in this film, it's a stumper in a lot of ways, but I like the direction of it, Wynorski is going for a camped-up comic film with plenty of over-the-top strangeness and a bucket-load of cool - though only briefly seen - practical make-up appliances for the un-men, the only one to get any real screentime is the leech-man, who battles the green much hero twice, both time are awesomely fun and the action is on-point.

Some other fun cheesiness include the completely unnecessary inclusion of two adolescent kid characters hellbent on getting a picture of Swamp Thing to sell to the tabloids, they seem like they're rejects from Hal Roach's Our Gang (The Little Rascals) shorts, the freckled ginger kid particularly. While they're not necessary characters I never once regretted seeing them onscreen. Then we have two of the mercenaries working for Arcane by way of Miss Poinsettia (Monique Gabrielle, Penthouse Pet December '82) and Gunn (Joey Sagal, (Barb Wire) brother of the more famous Katie Sagal (Married With Children)) who two of the more significant of the baddies, they have a scene where they compare scars, you know, like in Jaws, with wounds ranging from wounds in Nicarauga to a bite mark from a Motley Crue concert), just silly stuff like that.

Back to the main characters I have to say I think Louis Jourdan is really awful here, he gives the strangest performance, a mix of odd expressions and what looks to be boredom, the guy doesn't seem to want to be there, and who can blame him, he probably loathed that this is where he was at in this point and time in his career, this being his second to last film appearance. To that point there's a humorous anecdote on the extras wherein Wynorsky points out that Jourdan refused to say a characters nickname as it referenced breasts, and the director retorted with "weren't you just in a film called Octopussy?", causing the aging star to storm off the set, so that could not have helped I guess. Then there's Heather Locklear, a blond cutey for sure but she is playing this for laughs with some quippy/pun-laden dialogie that seems like a different film altogether, but it made me laugh and groan in equal measure, such as her character being is a dyed-in-the-wool vegetarian and somehow this should make us believe she would fall in love with ol' swampy, gotta love it. Anyway, this subplot allows for a weird oral-sex joke and some hallucinogenic dream-sex, I shit you not. 

The Return of Swamp Thing is just a fun film, it's super-corny and comic book-y, but not in the Alan Moore sort of way, which I would love to see actually filmed, the Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing is epic and would make for a fucked-up and gorgeous film, maybe someday, but definitely not with the this sequel or the Wes Craven original. This sin;t one I've seen before so I didn't have any nostalgic love for it, so I was kinda surprised I loved it so much first time around. 

Audio/Video: The Return of Swam Things (1989) arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD from MVD Rewind with a new 2K transfer from unspecified elements. Whatever the source the grain is nicely managed, and the source is near flawless, there's no print damage I can see aside from some minor white speckling. Colors are nicely saturated and sharp looking without looking to bright and vivid, the greens of the swamp and the mucky hero really shine. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 and a stereo LPCM track, there are no subtitle options. The stereo track is well-balanced and is my preferred viewing option but the surround track sounds great, especially during the opening credits scene with Creedence Clearwater Revivals "Born on the Bayou" blasting along, as I had never watched this before I was really surprised when that popped-up on the soundtrack! 

Onto the extras we get the original Jim Wynorski audio commentary from old Image DVD, plus a brand new commentary from Director Jim Wynorski, Composer Chuck Cirino and Editor Leslie Rosenthal, a great revisit that touches on the shooting locations, gimmicks used to the film, the score and production anecdotes about the cast and crew.  Exclusive to this release are about 40-min worth of new interviews with Director Jim Wynorski (17 min), Editor Leslie Rosenthal (9 min), Composer Chuck Cirino (7 min), and Lightyear Entertainment Executive Arnie Holland 5 mn) which are loose and fun. Additionally we have a series of TV spots, two littering PSA featuring Swamp Thing and the two kids, which notably features Dick Durock's real voice. There's also a 5-min promo real, 8-min of TV promotional clips, an HD trailer, an image gallery,   

The 2-disc release comes housed in a clear dual-tray Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the two options are similar and I preferred the MVD Rewind framing of the a-side, the b-side is the same key art with a tan border and some small differences, like the annoying "Blu-ray + DVD" blue banner at the top, the b-side also noting that this is the  30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition of the film. The discs themselves are simple white backgrounds with black logo-ed lettering. Also included is a one-sided mini-foldout poster of the MVD Rewind a-side artwork. This release also includes a limited edition slipcover with the usual MVD Rewind Collection patina of worn=packaging and rental store video stickers, it has some nice shelf appeal, and in spine-numbered - this being number five. 

Special Features: 
- Brand-New 2K High-Definition Transfer
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition (480p) DVD presentations of the main feature
- Original 2.0 and 5.1 Stereo Audio (Uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- NEW Audio commentary from Director Jim Wynorski, Composer Chuck Cirino and Editor Leslie Rosenthal
- Original Audio commentary from Director Jim Wynorski
- NEW Interview with Director Jim Wynorski (17 min) HD 
- NEW Interview with Editor Leslie Rosenthal (9 min) HD 
- NEW Interview with Composer Chuck Cirino (7 min) HD 
- NEW Interview with Lightyear Entertainment Executive Arnie Holland 5 mn) HD 
- Original Theatrical Trailer (New HD Transfer from original 35mm materials) (1 min) 
- 6 Promotional TV Clips (8 min) SD
- 2 TV Spots (2 min) SD
- 2 Greenpeace Public Service Announcements (1 min) SD
- 1989 Promo Reel (5 min) SD 
- Photo Gallery (accompanied by Chuck Cirino's film's score) (2 min) HD 
- Collectible Mini-Poster
- MVD Rewind Trailers: Black Eagle (2 min) HD, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (2 min), Savannah Smiles (3 min), D.O.A: A Rite of Passage (4 min) 

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) is a fun, trashy super-hero film, b-movie superman Jim Wynorski knows his cheese and this one is ripe with the best kind of cinema fromage, and that they nailed the design of the creature is pretty damn sweet. The film is a far cry from the Alan Moore run from the comics that I would love to see but when I think about it, I'll revisit this long before I revisit the over-serious original film, MVD Rewind knocked it out of the park with this one with a surpsingly nice A/V presentation and oodles of new extras and nice packaging. If you're a fan there's a lot here to love, and if you're not fan, well  I don't think we can be friends, I know it ain't good, it's awesome!

FIRESTARTER (1984) (Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

FIRESTARTER (1984) 
Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Duration: 115 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS--HD MA Mono with Optional English subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Mark L. Lester 
Cast: George C. Scott, Heather Locklear, Louise Fletcher, Art Carney, David Keith

Firestarter (1984) was a movie I discovered during its lengthy run on 80s cable TV, I would plop down on the floor in front of the TV to watch it anytime it aired. But, that was back in the 80s, I'm quite a bit older now, and I haven't watched it in years, and with the way that youthful nostalgia works I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold up, but good news, Firestarter is still a good watch.

As a Stephen King adaptation this is a fairly faithful to the source material, we have a gifted youngster Charlene "Charlie" McGee (Drew Barrymore, Santa Clarita Diet), with the power of pyrokinesis, the ability to produce fire without the aid of a flame, which is cool. Her father Andy (David Keith, White of the Eyes) is a telepath who can "push" people into doing things against their will, they are both on the run from a secret government organization known as "The Shop", baddies who want to perform experiments on Charlie, to weaponize her. The Shop is run my Captain Hollister(Martin Sheen, Badlands), and when his standard-issue agents fail to apprehend the super-powered duo Hollister enlists assassin Agent John Rainbird (George C. Scott, The Changeling)to recover the pair by an means necassary. 

Firestarter is sort of a superhero origin story at a time when superhero movies were not as commonplace as they are today, a story with telepaths, gifted youngsters, secret government agencies sort of smacks of the X-Men franchise, and truly the father/daughter on the run storyline is mirrored by the recent film Logan (2017). Another way to see it might be Stephen King's Carrie by way John Farris's The Fury, two movies which were brought from the page to the big screen in spectacular fashion by director Brian De Palma, and while this adaptation doesn't rise to the level of Carrie (1976) it's right up there with The Fury (1978) in my opinion, sharing very similiar themes.

The movie holds up nicely, it's a fun watch, with Drew Barrymore anchoring the whole shebang as the gifted child, apprehended and coerced into honing her pyrokinetic abilities by the baddies. Barrymore has some nice depth about her, she was already a damn fine actress at such a young age. Keith David as her father is good, I've always like him, his concern for his daughter comes through in the performance, but he can be a bit wooden, but overall he turns in a good performance. Martin Sheen as the head of the shop is good, a menacing presence, but not too over-the-top. Then we have the venerable George C. Scott, unfortunately playing a native American assassin, which is silly. Somehow Scott rises above the sorely miscast role, sporting a ponytail and an eye patch, a disturbing character with some truly unsavory plans for Barrymore's young character, while it's never spelled out in black and white it always seemed to me to hint at pedophelia, so creepy. 

At The hop Barrymore's Charlie is kept locked away, sequestered from her father, fake-friended by Rainbird masquerading as a kind-hearted orderly, coerced into showing off her alarmingly frightful abilities, climaxing with young Charlie firing it up full throttle after a tragedy, burning the place to the ground in a rather fulfilling series of scorching scenes. Barrymore anchors the movie, but I think it's all the cool fire stunt work that sticks with people, with plenty of fireballs and baddie agents going up in flames real nice, these are real people on fire, old school stuff that now would be done digitally. 

The movie has a a lot of heart, the father-daughter story is strong, the government agency makes for good baddie, and there's just enough back story peppered into the film to give it some added depth, including flashbacks to Andy's college days, where he volunteered in an experiment in which students were dosed with a hallucinogenic drug called LOT-6, a drug which gave Andy his telepathic abilities. This is also where Andy met Charlie's mother, Vicky (a bright-eyed Heather Locklear, TV's Melrose Place), who also acquired the telepathic ability to read minds, with the two later giving birth to Charlie, who in turn inherited her own special powers. 

Audio/Video: Firestarter (1984) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory framed in the original widescreen scope (2.35:1)  aspect ratio, sourced from a brand new 2K scan of the interpositive. The 2K scan breathes new life into the image, beginning with not having been egregiously DNR-scrubbed as the previous barebones Universal Blu-ray was. With the nicely managed grain we get some good fine detail, with decent depth and clarity. The image appears a bit brighter, colors are more robust, the forest greens are vibrant, skin tones look more realistic, and the image is sharper. On PQ alone this is already a significant improvement. 

The lone audio on the disc is an English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track, and it sounds fine, the dialogue and sound effects are crisp and clean. The Tangerine Dream core comes through with a nice resonance, but I think it would have benefitted from a surround sound mix. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Onto the extras we have an audio commentary with director Mark L. Lester flying solo, he's a bit soft spoken and there's some dead space, but it's good stuff, I think having a moderator would have livened it up a bit. The center piece on the extras is a 55-min making of doc, featuring interviews with director Mark L. Lester, actors Freddie Jones and Drew Snyder, stuntman/actor Dick Warlock and Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream. Lester covers a lot of the same ground on the commentary track, recalling coming to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis following the success of his film Class of 1984 (1982), writing the script with writer Stanley Mann, shooting in a non-union state to keep costs low, shooting the fire stunts, and the score.  He also speaks about the casting, bringing big names into the movie, also dropping that Heather O'Rourke (Poltergeist) was in the running to play Charlie. Actor Drew Snyder who played one of The Shop agents recalls Lester being a good director, a creative guy, and working with the stuntmen on-set, including a fire stunt he did, which was the one and only fire stunt stunt of his career. According to him the stuntmen would go to local bars after hours and brawl with the locals. Freddie Jones, who played Dr. Joseph Wanless, doesn't seem to remember a whole lot about the shoot, other than being warned not to wander around town and being intimidated by George C. Scott. Actor/Stuntman Dick Warlock (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)speaks a bit about working with Barrymore, and the fire stunts. Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream speaks a bit about the process of recording the score, and an odd meeting with producer Dino de Laurentis. Sadly there are no interviews with the main cast, that being Martin Sheen, Drew Barrymore or David Keith, which would have kicked the extras up a notch.

Johannes Schmoelling shows up again for a 17-min interview, speaking about scoring Michael Mann’s movie Thief (1981), which is how they began their decades long career scoring movies, before going into a bit more detail about creating the Firestarter score.  Extras are finished up with a 3-min performance of “Charlie’s Theme” by Johannes Schmoelling on piano, theatrical trailers, TV spots and a gallery of production images, the press kit, and poster art from various territories.

The Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream comes housed in a standard blue blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, one side is a new illustration and the other is the original movie poster image. The release also comes with an 0-ring (slipcover) with the new illustration from the CPR Group.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the inter-positive film element
- NEW Audio commentary with director Mark L. Lester
- NEW Playing with Fire: The Making of FIRESTARTER – featuring interviews with director Mark L. Lester, actors Freddie Jones and Drew Snyder, stuntman/actor Dick Warlock and Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream (55 min) HD 
- NEW Tangerine Dream: Movie Music Memories – an interview with Johannes Schmoelling (17 min) HD 
- NEW exclusive performance of “Charlie’s Theme” by Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream (3 min) HD 
- Theatrical Trailers (4 min) HD 
- Radio Spot (5 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (6 min) HD 

80s scorcher Firestarter (1984) holds surprisingly well, thanks to the compelling story and a solid cast, further enhanced by the ethereal synth score from Tangerine Dream. The new Collector's Edition Blu-ray looks and sounds great, the image upgrade is significant and the nearly hour long making of doc is good stuff, fans of 80s sci-fi thrillers and Stephen King adaptation should be very pleased with this release, recommended. 3.5/5

SCREEN CAPS

Having already sold my Firestarter Blu-ray from Universal all I had on hand to compare the Scream Factory Blu-ray to was the Universal DVD (2008), which is not a fair comparison, but here you go, for the sake of comparison. 

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