VIBES (1988) (Mill Creek Entertainment Blu-ray Review)

VIBES (1988) 

Retro VHS Blu-ray

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 99 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Ken Kwapis 
Cast: Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Julian Sands, Peter Falk, Steve Buscemi, Michael Lerner

Late 80's adventure-comedy Vibes (1988) stars Jeff Goldblum (The Fly) and 80's pop-star Cyndi Lauper as gifted-psychics Sylvia Pickel and Nick Deezy, who meet at the Department of Para-Normal Studies, an institute that studies psychic abilities, a project lead by Dr. Harrison Steele (Julian Sands, Warlock). They find themselves recruited by a mysterious con-man named Harry Buscafusco (Peter Falk, TV's Columbo) to travel to South America to find his partner who disappeared while looking for a legendary lost city of gold. Along the way they find danger, love, and possibly the secret alien-origins of all psychic powers on Earth!

What Vibes really boils down to is a comedy adventure film with oddball romantic leanings that comes off as a pastiche of ideas borrowed wholesale from way better films like Romancing the Stone and Ghostbusters, without having the spark of either. It's not awful but it's the sort of light-substance fluff that you forget about only a few minutes after you've just watched it. Goldblum's character is a psychometrist who can tell you all about an object by simply touching it, while Lauper is a spirit-medium with an invisible ghost-friend and the gift of astral projection, with their gifts being both a blessing and a curse. My favorite stuff is Deezy finding out that his longtime girlfriend has been cheating on him with a hockey player after touching her underwear while their in bed together, and then a co-worker forcing his hand on a plate of cooked fish to find out if it's fresh. It's all corny stuff played for laughs but not all that funny, but Goldblum and Lauper do their best the the uninspired material.

We do get a cool cast of supporting characters at least, we have Julian Sands as a duplicitous professor, Michael Lerner (Barton Fink) as a doomed adventurer, and Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski) briefly appears as Lauper's degenerate gambler boyfriend, plus we have the lazy-eyed charms of Peter Falk slumming it here but seemingly having fun. The pairing of Goldblum and Lauper is only alright, he's typical early-era Goldblum in that he's quirky, and Lauper is appropriately loud and brash, but the pair have little physical chemistry on-screen, though I did like when they would verbally insult each other. When the film culminates in a long building smooch between the two there's absolutely no spark between them at all, zero chemistry in that regard. 

Vibes is a threadbare film built on the back of better movies, but if you're into light-weight late-80's comedies with a supernatural tinge it's worth a watch, it has some entertainment value, particularly if you're an 80's film junkie.

Audio/Video: Vibes (1988) arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. Generally the image looks pleasing with some modest depth and clarity, but the encode struggles to properly resolve darker scenes containing heavy layers of fog wafting through them, looking a bit noisy in comparison to other scenes, but colors saturation is strong and the blacks are solid. 

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, dialogue is crisp and clean with some good use of the surrounds during atmospheric and more action-packed moments of zaniness, the score, from late composer James Horner (Krull) sounds great, as does the Cyndi Lauper tune "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)". 

As with many of the retro VHS-style Blu-ray releases from MCE there are no extras on this one, we get only a static menu with the option to watch the feature with or without English subtitles. The single-disc release comes housed in a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring original movie poster artwork. The retro VHS-style slipcover features a different original movie poster artwork, with the back of the slipcover featuring another cooler, original movie poster artwork, which is the option they should have used on the front, it's the better option. That artwork is also featured on the disc. 

THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS (1985)

THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS (1985) 

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 93 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Freddie Francis

Cast: Timothy Dalton, Jonatahan Pryce, Twiggy, Patrick Stewart, Julian Sands, Stephen Rea, Phyllis Logan, Lewis Fiander, Beryl Reid, T.P. McKenna, Sian Philips

SYNOPSIS:
Based on Dylan Thomas' original screenplay, this shocking horror-thriller stars Timothy Dalton as Thomas Rock, a brilliant young anatomy professor in 1820s Edinburgh. At first accepting only the cadavers provided him for study – those of a few hanged criminals per year – Rock eventually recruits two grave robbers (Jonathan Pryce and Stephen Rea) to secure a better supply of corpses. Coming to the gory conclusion that they will earn more the "fresher" the corpses, the two begin committing murder and delivering warm bodies to the doctor's lecture chambers. Also starring Julian Sands, Patrick Stewart and Twiggy, The Doctor and the Devils brings classic chills from start to finish!

REVIEW: 
The macabre story of grave robbers Burke and Hare came to my attention at a very young age with a viewing of the Robert wise directed chiller BODY SNATCHER (1945) starring horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi on one of the double-feature TV matinees on WPIX. The idea of disinterring  recently deceased corpses for use at a medical school was so ghoulish to me, it had never even crossed my mind at that naive age that such a thing could exist. It was by introduction to autopsy, dissection and grave robbing. 

Here we have a thinly disguised retelling of Burke and Hare from Hammer veteran director Freddie Francis (TALES FROM THE CRYPT) with a script originally penned by Dylan Thomas and doctored up by Ronald Harwood. The names have been changed for some reason, as the grave robbing duo we have Jonathan Pryce (BRAZIL) as Robert Fallon and Stephen Rea (THE CRYING GAME) as Timothy Broom our grave dogging entrepreneurs who supply Dr. Rock (Timothy Dalton, HOT FUZZ)  a fresh supply of corpses for dissection at the medical school. Dr. Rock is a man of science and deplores that he is restricted to using the corpses of hanged criminals which number very few. This is why he turns to buying corpses from the grave robbers. Dalton as the doc is a pretty pompous guy who deplores the "moralists" who would limit his access to fresh corpses thereby limiting his knowledge of human anatomy. We also have an appearance from former modelling sensation Twiggy as a whore with a heart of gold, who turns out to be a love interest for doc Rock's cohort played by Julian Sands (WARLOCK).  

It's a decent arrangement at first as he now has access to more corpses but consumed by greed the grave robbers turn to murder to procure fresher corpses  for which the doc pays handsomely. When a few of the corpses turn out to be familiar faces and not quite cold the doc turns a blind eye to the corpse-snatchers but the medical community and villagers are less willing to do so as you might imagine. 

As a period drama set in Scotland in the  early 1800s the film is successful but is woefully drab and earth tone, it definitely puts you right in the dreary city of Edinburgh and it feels authentic but what do I know? I wanted to love the film but the familiar story has been told onscreen several previously times and this is inferior to many. There's not a lot new under the sun in respect to the story, we have the science-driven doc and the morally corrupt corpse-snatchers and a parade of unfortunate victims who end up on a dissection table - that's pretty much the crux of the story.

This is more a period mellow drama than a Gothic thriller and this one just lacked the spark and gruesomeness of previous incarnations, the cast is decent but one-dimensional and this version adds nothing to the lore, it's a decent watch but not a high recommend. I say skip this and take in the aforementioned Val Lewton produced BODY SNATCHER (1945) or THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (1960) starring Peter Cushing (TWINS OF EVIL) and Donald Pleasance (HALLOWEEN) which are far superior productions. 

BLU-RAY:
THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS (1985) debuts on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in the original widescreen scope aspect ratio with a transfer I would assume provided by 20th Century Fox. The HD upgrade is sharper with nice color saturation but the image is not a stunner unfortunately, perhaps owing to the gloomy aesthetic of the film with dim lighting. The stereo English language DTS-HD Master Audio is well balanced with optional English subtitles. 

Extras include a dry but very informative audio commentary from Author And Film Historian Steve Haberman who touches on the real life story of Burke and Hare plus the various filmed incarnations of the story. There's also a new Interview with Executive Producer Mel Brooks, Producer Jonathan Sanger And Former Brooksline Development Executive Randy Auerbach and a theatrical trailer for the film. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Commentary With Author And Film Historian Steve Haberman
- New Interview With Executive Producer Mel Brooks, Producer Jonathan Sanger And Former Brooksline Development Executive Randy Auerbach (19 minutes)
- Theatrical Trailers (2 minutes)

VERDICT:
A decent watch but not one of my favorite interpretations of the story, a bit too much of a period drama and I think I was looking for something darker and more macabre. Not without it's 19th century charm but not something I will need to revisit anytime soon. if you have a keen interest in the Burke and Hare story and don't need it to be as lurid as previous incarnations might get more enjoyment out of this one. 3 Outta 5 

DVD Review: Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (2004)

Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (2004)

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region 0 PAL
Rating: 15 Certificate
Duration: 94 mins
Video: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: English 2.0 Stereo, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Director: Paco Plaza
Cast: Julian Sands, Elsa Pataky, John Sharian
Tagline: Based on the true story of Spain’s most gruesome Werewolf murders.

Synopsis: In 19th Century Spain, a travelling seller with a woman in every town is the keeper of an ancient secret. This handsome, charming ladykiller may also be leaving a trail of bloody murder in his wake that the locals attribute to “the Werewolf of Allariz”. Barbara lives with her sister, isolated in the deep forest. Her happiness comes when the mysterious seller comes to call, but why has he no fear of the wolves that lurk under the darkening trees and what does he keep hidden from view inside his wagon?

Film: Paco Plaza's Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt is based on a "true story" of "the Werewolf of Allariz" a mid-1800's serial killer named Manuel Blanco Romasanta who was tried for the murder of over a dozen people. In a turn that echos elements of Perfume: The Story of Murder (2008) he would use his victims fat to manufacture soap. When tried for the heinous murders he claimed to be the victim of lycanthropy. Yup, he said that he was a werewolf. Okay, I'll allow it. 

The Romasanta of our story is portrayed by Julian Sands, an actor who comes with baggage, not all of it good either. I find him a bit much typically but fondly recall his work in Warlock (1989) and Boxing Helena (1993) but then I remember Dario Argento's torturous The Phantom of the Opera (1998) and suddenly I don't feel so charitable. Thankfully Mr. Sands is quite excellent here and tosses us a winningly restrained performances.

Romasanta is a travelling salesman who roams the countryside in a covered wagon peddling trinkets from village to village, winning the hearts of women and then tearing them out. In his wake he leaves behind a bloody trail of corpses so savaged that the locals assume it is the work of wolves and place a hefty bounty on their skins decimating the animals. Things are going well for him until the cunning Professor Phillips (David Gant) discovers scapel marks on the victims corpses and things start to fall apart. Romasanta is involved with a woman but the darkness within him consumes her as well. Afterwards he persues her younger sister, Barbara (the stunning Elsa Pataky from Fast Five) who comes to suspect Romasanta in not one but three of her sisters deaths. 

So, is this a werewolf film? Well, it's definitely not a traditional one like I've ever seen. He's a serial killer afflicted with lycanthropy, there's little doubt he believes this and while there is a pretty fantastic werewolf transformation it's something that could be left to interpretation. While it's not the most gore-tastic film it is satisfying bloody and twistedly horrific. It's tense, artfully shot and gorgeous to watch though it does stray into the realms of courtroom  thriller and romantic melodrama fear not for this is a very entertaining film. If you, like I, let this film slip by unnoticed do yourself a favor and check out this elusive Gothic werewolf flick, you can thank me later. 

DVD: The film gets a very nice 2.35:1 anamorphic scope aspect ratio transfer with great colors and black levels. This is a nice looking film with an amber hue throughout, definitely a visually pleasing film of. We get both English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 options. For the purpose of this review I did not check out out the Spanish 5.1 but the English 2.0 sounded great, no distortion and nice separation. A bit perturbed by the fact there's no English 5.1 but I digress. There's a nice selection of supplemental materials including 2 reversible sleeve art options with original artwork and new Tom 'The Dude Designs' Hodge artwork. Check out a post from the DD blog where Tom writes about the illustration HERE. There's a fold-out poster with the DD artwork plus an 8 pg. booklet with new writing from author/critic and Arrow regular Calum Waddell all housed in a white keep case. Okay, that's the packaging extras, but what do we have in the way of special features? I'm pleased to say there's a nice array of High Rising Productions features including a 20+ minute interview with executive producer Brian Yuzna who discusses the early success of Fantastic Factory and it's demise once things got rolling, interviews with the director, cast and composer, deleted scenes, and a S/FX design featurette. A very well stocked DVD.

Special Features:
- Romasanta: Lycanthropes, Lunacy and the Last Days of The Fantastic Factory (21:49) 16:9
- Making Romasanta: Interviews with Paco Plaza, Julian Sands, Elsa Pataky and John Sharian. (5:22)
- Interview with composer Mikel Salas (3:22)
- Deleted Scenes with intro/commentary by director Paco Plaza (12:25)
- A featurette on the S/FX design in Romasanta (8:51)
- Original Trailer(1:40) Letterboxed
- Booklet ‘Sex, Sun and Sinful Celluloid’ by author/critic Calum Waddell
- Reversible sleeve of original and commissioned artwork by Tom Hodge.
- Double-sided fold-out posters with commissioned artwork by Tom Hodge

Verdict: I do love a good lycanthropy film and Paco Plaza's take on the genre is fairly unique. The Gothic period setting, great cinematography, the psychological thriller elements, a very fine transformation scene and good acting really push this film along. It goes from horror to thriller to court room drama pretty adeptly and manages to be quite entertaining along the way. This is a film that will grow an audience over time, particularly after the success of Plaza's [REC] (2007) and [REC] 2 (2009). The question remains how would I rank this among my werewolf werewolf films? I'll say it's more entertaining than Wolfen (1981) while not ascertaining the glory of either An American Werewolf in London (1981) or The Howling (1981), it rips the throat from The Wolfman (2010) and howls at the moon alongside Dog Soldiers (2005). 4 outta 5

 
Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt is available as a single disc edition or you can grab the FANTASTIC FACTORY PRESENTS 4 DVD boxset which also includes Faust: Love of the Damned (2000), Beyond Re-Animator (2003) and Jack Sholder's creature feature Arachnid (2001).