EDDIE MACON'S RUN (1983) (Blu-ray Review)

EDDIE MACON'S RUN (1983) 

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment 
Region Code: A
Duration: 95 Minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Jeff Kanew
Cast: John Schneider, Kirk Douglas, Lee Purcell, John Goodman, Tom Noonan, Gil Rogers

Eddie Macon's Run (1983) teams-up screen legend Kirk Douglas (The Fury) with current TV star John Schneider, the latter of whom was smack dab in the middle of his popularity on the hit TV show The Dukes of Hazard (1979-1985). In it Schneider plays the titular character who after physically assaulting his payroll skimming boss Mr. Herbert (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski) is sent to prison for what seems a bit excessive for a little dust-up. When we catch-up with Eddie he's been incarcerated for a few years already, and we're show through flashback - there are a lot of flashbacks - that Eddie has already managed to escape prison once, attempting to get back to his wife Chris (Leah Ayres, The Burning)and their little boy Bobby. During which he was captured by bounty hunter Carl 'Buster' Marzack (Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory), but not before knocking the bounty hunter upside the noggin leaving a scar. 

As this film opens Eddie's incarcerated in Texas and is partaking in a prison rodeo event, where we find him sneaking aboard a departing cattle truck where he lays low for a few hundred miles away, eventually getting off at a designated spot in Texas where he recovers a bag full of street clothes, a pair of running shoes, and a map of the Texas desert. It's revealed, again through flashback, that he and his wife have been plotting this second prison escape for awhile now, with Eddie reading up on survival techniques and mapping out a route to Mexico in the prison library. His plan is to literally run across the Texas desert into Mexico, where he will be reunited with his wife and child and they will presumably live happily ever after South of the Border. 

When the aging bounty hunter hears news of Macon's latest escape he takes a personal interest in the re-capture, interviewing his cell mate and checking out his reading list at the library. Now he has a good idea of where Macon's headed and he plans on intercepting him, still smarting from that knock upside the head. Macon sleeps during the day and runs cross-country at night, but occasionally he finds trouble, like an angry cottonmouth snake during a river crossing, and then a pair of vigilante cattle ranchers who mistake him for a cattle rustler, 
menacingly played by Jay Sanders (My Boyfriend's Back) and Tom Noonan (Manhunter), not to mention their nut-job girlfriend (Lisa Dunsheath, The Prowler) who cannot wait to hang the fugitive as soon as possible, she is absolutely ecstatic at the notion. He manages to escape, but just barely, and only after gravely injuring the demented brothers after they try to hang him.

Later on during his fugitive journey Marzack seems poised to have the felon in his sights, literally, but gets thrown a curve ball when Eddie intervenes to stops a rape in progress. He saves a woman named Jilly (Lee Purcell, Necromancy), who turns out to be the niece of a Texan politician, initially taking her as a hostage, but along the way she makes it quite clear that she's gonna help him get where he needs to go, even getting him off the hook when they are pulled over by a cop. This new relationship with Jill is a bit complicated, she is clearly sexually attracted to him, and he to her, but he makes it clear that he's married and in love with his wife, so I give him a lot of credit, Purcell is a smoke-show stunner with eyes that just pull you in, Eddie is definitely a principled man with a strong will, if it had ever been in doubt now we know. This dynamic was some of the best stuff in the film in my opinion, way better than any of the stuff with is wife, they have a lot of chemistry together.  

As the steadfast formula goes the bounty hunter eventually catches up with the fugitive in Laredo and there are a few heated encounters, culminating in a car chase through a cemetery with cool car turnover. How it all pans out is a bit on the predictable side, I saw it coming early on, and it's as saccharine as I'd expected, but it's still a solid watch. 

It's no surprise that Kirk Douglass is so damn great, I love his exaggerated
facial expressions, he's funny but also a bit of gruff asshole who is willing to work outside the colored lines with multiple shades of gray, it's great stuff. The guy was ancient back then, but still spry, and only died recently at the vintage age of 103, he truly was the Charles Atlas of Hollywood. The real takeaway for me was how great John Schneider was, he was terrific as Clark's dad on TV's Smallville, but I am surprised that he did not a bigger movie career after this, he had good range and had the looks for sure. It was also great to see a very young John Goodman, this is even before he appeared in C.H.U.D., playing a piece of shit oil rig boss, it's a small but pivotal role. 

Audio/Video: Eddie Macon's Run (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment licensed from Universal Pictures. It's great see these minor catalog title get a Blu-ray. It does look like this is coming from a dated existing master, but it's solid. The source is in good shape and colors are fine, black levels are solid, though it doesn't have the nuance a newer scan would have afforded it. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. Everything is crisp and clean, dialogue and the score are well balanced, and there were no distortions I picked-up on. The film has a score from Norton Buffalo (Blood Beach) and Mike Hinton, including a few country songs sung by film's star John Schneider.

There are no extras, just a static menu with the option to turn on the English subtitles. The single-disc release is housed in a standard keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, the disc itself features an excerpt of the same key art. The spine is a bit busy-looking with images on the top and bottom portion of the spine, surrounding a bunched-up logo. 

Eddie Macon's Run (1983) is not the sort of catalog title that gonna burn the house down but it's cool to see it arrive on Blu-ray. I'd never seen it before and thought it was an engaging watch with a solid cast, it's a cool fugitive thriller, well worth watching if you're a fan of either Kirk Douglas or John Schneider, or just a fan of forgotten gems.  

More Screenshots from the Blu-ray: 

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017) (Blu-ray Review)

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017) 

Label: Warner Bros.
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13 
Duration: 118 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly

Synopsis: This compelling, original adventure tells the story of a diverse team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers uniting to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as it is beautiful. Cut off from everything they know, the team ventures into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle between man and nature. As their mission of discovery becomes one of survival, they must fight to escape a primal Eden in which humanity does not belong.

I was a fan of Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), it was epic, adventurous and I loved the era it was set in - it was a love letter to the original King Kong, but it was a bit pacey at times, it was a slow-burn and it took a long damn time to even get to Skull Island and the titular Kong, and some of the special effects work was wonky, for example, those brontosaurus type creatures were a little rubbery looking, but I still love the movie a bunch. Now here comes Kong: Skull Island - a new take on the myth of Kong and set in a new era, the Vietnam era, and with it they bring in more than a tinge of cool Apocalypse Now influence on aesthetic and tone, the gritty 70s is a great era for this one. 

The film opens in '44 with an American fighter pilot going down in combat along with his Japanese counterpart - both are downed and stranded on the island, and both seem to want to continue the fight on land that began in the air - chasing after each other on the beach and deep into the jungle, intent on killing one another until they are interrupted by the titular Kong! 

Forward to '73 we have a Monarch government agent named Bill Randa (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski) who hires a former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston, Avengers: Age of Ultron) to guide him and his expedition team of scientist to a place called Skull Island, a mysterious island located somewhere in the South Pacific. Transporting the expedition to the island is a Vietnam War helicopter squadron led by Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel Jackson, Pulp Fiction), they're also joined by war photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) who has served time "in the shit".

They arrive on the island with no small amount of bad weather, the island is hidden away by a seemingly impenetrable storm front, and begin to immediately place explosive charges around the island to assist in mapping the subterranean composition, going on a "hollow earth" theory favored by Randa and his team. No sooner have they started dropping explosives and fucking the pristine island up than they are besieged by a 100 foot tall ape who destroys/kills most of the team, smashing the helicopters like toys, scattering the survivors into two separate groups, everyone is in shock - no one's seen this sort of thing before. 

The groups begin traversing the island and the team encounters the island's indigenous people who are known as the Iwi, they also encounter the WWII soldier from the start of the film, Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly, Boogie Night)who has become an indoctrinated member of the tribe, and we learn slowly what became of his Japanese counterpart. While most of the group hope to get off the island by travelling to a predetermined drop-off point Colonel Packard becomes obsessed with destroying this new enemy, having failed in Vietnam he seems sort of cracked, and won't leave the island until Kong is destroyed, and he doesn't seem to care if it ends up killing everyone.

The island is a gorgeous place, green, lush and terrifying, and wouldn't you know it, the damn place is lousy with killer creatures, the monstrous ape seems to be the least of their worries. The group find themselves assaulted by a bamboo-stalking giant spider, encounter a gargantuan water buffalo, a nightmarishly huge octopus, and a race of subterranean creatures called "Skull Crawlers", as they are named by Marlow. These are the main threat found on the island, Kong is a sort of gatekeeper that maintains the balance on the island, but Col. Packard's vengeful quest against the massive ape threatens that equilibrium of the island, and the skull crawlers which have been mostly kept below ground begin emerging at an alarming pace. 

The creature action here is awesomely entertaining, fearsome and outrageously large creatures face off against the humans and with Kong, the visual spectacle is absolutely fun stuff and the digital artistry is phenomenal. I do love most of the creature designs, I think Kong looks awesome, they don't go out of there way to over-emote Kong the way Jackson's King Kong did, but he has a great range of rages. The giant octopus and spider are great, but the main baddies the "skull crawlers" didn't quite do a lot for me, much how I didn't care for the MUTO in the recent Godzilla (2015) movie, but they're decent enough that I didn't hate the movie for them, in fact I loved it. 

I think adding the Vietnam war-theme to the movie kept it fresh, we've seen quite a few incarnations of King Kong since the original, and I love the Apocalypse Now aesthetic, the shots of the helicopter squadron in action, they're mirrored aviator glasses adding a certain coolness to the proceedings, reflecting certain scenes of action and horror. The PG-13 movie is never frightening, this is a straight-up action-creature feature, there are no frights, but there is some epic monster action, and loads of tiny human being picked-off by bizarre threats, including some sort of saw-billed birds, and of course by Kong. 

Blu-ray Special Features: 
- Director’s Commentary
- Creating a King: Realizing an Icon (12 min) HD
- Creating a King: Summoning a God (13 min) HD
- Monarch Files 2.0 (8 min) HD 
- On Location: Vietnam (6 min) HD
- Tom Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveler (7 min) HD
- Through the Lens: Brie Larson’s Photography (2 min) HD
- Deleted Scenes (4 min) HD 

This movie gave me pretty damn near everything I wanted to see from a new Kong flick, it got to the action quickly, it offered a plethora of one-dimensional characters who do what they gotta do, and there's plenty of creature action, so good on director Jordan Vogt-Roberts for bringing Kong to the big screen with the action I craved and some cool visuals. Sure, it's loaded with the pre-requisite amount of Blockbuster bullshit, but as mindless, stuff your mouth with popcorn summer blockbuster goes this was a fun one, I didn't even mind that I cannot buy Hiddleston as a man-of-action, he's just not that guy, but he has charisma to spare. The movie is loaded with tasty classic 70's rock, including "Down On The Street" by Iggy and the Stooges, a seriously badass song for a seriously badass monster flick!



Disclaimer: This release was sent to us courtesy of Warner Bros. for review on the site.