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!

Blu-ray Review: PUPPET MASTER III: TOULON'S REVENGE (1991)

PUPPET MASTER III: TOULON'S REVENGE (1991)

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 86 Minutes
Video: 16x9 Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Director: David DeCoteau
Cast: Guy Rolfe, Ian Abercrombie, Sarah Douglas, Walter Gotel, Kristopher Logan, Matthew Faison, Aaron Eisenberg, Richard Lynch
Tagline: When good puppets go bad.

Synopsis: After learning that Andre Toulon's puppets have no strings and seem to have a life of their own, Dr. Hess, a WWII Gestapo henchman, sends his officers to kidnap them. During the melee, Toulon's wife Elsa is killed, but the puppets fight back and escape with their leader. Toulon creates a new puppet, Six Shooter, models Blade after a pasty-faced Nazi and uses Elsa's essence to create Leech Woman. The army is ready. Body part by body part, revenge will be theirs…

Flm: The third installment of the Puppet Master franchise is a period-piece, a prequel taking place three years after the start of Puppet Master ...huh? Whatever. The year is 1941 in Berlin during WW2. Dr. Hess (Ian Abercrombie, Army of Darkness) is a Nazi scientist in the service of the Third Reich. He's been tasked to create a serum that will create an army of undead zombie soldiers. He's had a modicum of success but the serum is too unstable and in an early scene we see a corpse jump off the operating table Re-Animator style and wreak havoc. Hess is overseen my Major Kraus (Richard Lynch, Bad Dreams) from the Gestapo. Kraus's driver Lt. Stein (Kristopher Logan, The Rocketeer) is an amateur puppeteer and attends a puppet show for children presented by Andre Toulon and his wife Elsa (Sarah Douglass, Superman 2). During the puppet show a marionette of Adolf Hitler is fired upon by a new puppet called Six Shooter, modeled after the American gunslingers. He's got six arms and six guns, it's a great character design and he has a great Jack Nicholson laugh that I just love. The Lt. who sounds a lot like Marvin the Martian sneaks around after the show and witness the puppets being fed their serum by Toulon and that they seem to be alive, unassisted by strings. When he reports this to Krauss and Hess the next day Kraus immediately takes an SS squad to Toulon's residence to arrest the puppeteer for treasonous acts. Hess convinces Kraus that he must speak with Toulon to gain his secrets of reanimation. Kraus agrees but then kills Toulon's wife Elsa after she spits in his face in defiance. As Toulon is being transported away the two soldiers guarding him are killed by Tunneler and Pinhead allowing him to escape and plot his revenge. It's a great shot when Tunneler drills his way through the back of the driver's seat and through his chest, quite bloody. 

This film has a lot going for it. Setting it during WW2 in Berlin is a good choice and it's a great backdrop for the film with some excellent sets and dressings. The acting is superb from the key players. Richard Lynch (Bad Dreams, Laid to Rest) as the despicable Major Kraus is inspired, he's a wicked villain. Ian Abercrombie as the Nazi scientist Hess is also great casting. You get the feeling he's being forced into working for the Reich and he seems genuinely amazed by the work of Toulon, in fact, he redeems himself towards the end of the film. You may recall Abercrombie as Mr. Pitt, Elaine's boss from the TV 's Seinfeld. Then there is Guy Rolfe (Dolls, Mr. Sardonicus) as Andre Toulon, easily the best Toulon I've seen so far in the series, no disrespect to the venerable and beloved William Hickey from the first entry. Also noteworthy is the appearance of Walter Gotell as the Nazi General Mueller who played "General Gogol" in several 007 entries, his character loves frequenting Nazi whores and his scene in a tub being bathed by topless Nazi tramps is just wonderful. 

There's very little I did not enjoy here. The setting, the acting, the special effects - all great stuff. Highlight for me include the origins of Blade and Ms. Leech and the rest of the puppets, great stuff. Let's not forget the awesome introduction of Six Shooter and that we find out why the Nazi's are pursuing Toulon at the start of the first film. A goof of sorts would be the inclusion of Jester in the film whom we saw Toulon create in the first film which the ending of this entry more or less sets up.

Blu-ray: While previous Puppet Master III VHS and DVD editions did not suffer quite as much as earlier Puppet Master II releases they were not great either; cropped images that were dark, murky and standard-definition with artifacting. Much like the new Puppet Master II Blu-ray the film is presented in it's original anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 encoded image transferred from the original negative and remastered in high-definition with all new color timing and color correction. The results are revealing, like seeing the film for the first time. I've seen this film several times in it's many VHS and DVD incarnations and it's always been the same fullframe standard-definition transfer, cropped, soft, murky and lacking any fine detail. What we get with this Blu-ray release is a pleasingly crisp anamorphic presentation with a pleasant amount of natural grain left intact, with that though we also get a fair amount of digital noise but overall this is quite wonderful stomps previous SD transfers with vivid saturated colors, natural skin tones, decent black an acceptable amount of fine detail.

On the audio front we get a newly created 5.1 sound surround mix but it's Dolby Digital and not lossless audio. That said while it's not overly dynamic it is not lamented by the same compression issues and the dialogue, score and effects sound quite good. Still the lack of a lossless audio option is a disappointing oversight.

Some of the bonus content is mirrored from the Puppet Master II Blu-ray beginning with the  Introduction (2:35) from creator Charles Band filmed on the set of the forthcoming Puppet Master 10 in which the  auteur discusses the difficulty getting the early Full Moon films on Blu-ray and what's coming next in 1080p. There's the same Killer Puppet Montage (1:52),  a Rare Puppet Master Toy Promo (1:30) and same eight Full Moon trailers in HD widescreen. New content(sorta) is a vintage episode of Full Moon's video magazine VideoZone.

The center-piece of the bonus features is a newly recorded audio commentary with director David Decoteau and writer C. Courtney Joyner that's informative and entertaining - these guys are movie fiends and happily recollect their time on the Universal back lot and the classic film that were also brought to life there, it makes for some good listening. A lot of the commentary is scene specific and follows what's transpiring onscreen but they also veer off with fun production anecdotes, DeCoteau talks a bit about arguing with Charlie Band over the opening scene being a bit too graphic, remembering that Band is actually a bit squeamish, at least back in the day. The two also offer fond remembrances of Lynch, Abercrombie, Rolf, and Gotel all of whom have since shuffled off this mortal coil. They also discuss Lynch not being the first choice of actor to portray Kraus, originally the part was intended for Ralph Bates (Taste the Blood of Dracula)  but he died before production. They also discuss Lynch disfigurement which occurred during a 'Nam protest in Central Park during a "controlled" burn with rubbing alcohol but it got out of control, they also dismiss that the incident had stemmed from a drug-induced state which is what I had always been told. It's a good commentary and really adds to the enjoyment of the film, good stuff. 

Special Features: 

- Brand new Introduction by Puppet Master creator Charles Band (2:35)
- Brand new 2012 Audio Commentary by writer C. Courtney Joyner director David DeCoteau
- VideoZone (25:30) 14x3 
- Killer Puppet Master Montage (1:52) 4x3
-Rare Puppet Master Toy Promo (1:30) 4x3
-HD Full Moon trailers:
Puppet Master (1:38) 16x9
Castle Freak 2:15) 16x9
Zombies vs Strippers (1:19) 16x9
Demonic Toys 2 (1:15) 16x9
Evil Bong 3 (1:00) 16x9
Gingerdead Man 3 (1:02) 16x9
Killjoy's Revenge (1:39) 16x9
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2:06) 16x9 

Verdict: Of the the first three installments of the Puppet Master series Toulon's Revenge inches out Puppet Master as my favorite. The acting is just really superb from a seasoned cast. Guy Rolf's portrayal of Toulon is the best of the bunch, I cannot imagine anyone else capturing the essence of Andre Toulon the way he did here. Despite the films modest budget the WW2 era sets are well rendered and shooting on Universal's back lot didn't hurt either, the film definitely has a sense of time and place. The stop-motion effects are really good though I think they may have been a bit better in Puppet Master II which I would attribute to special effects wizard David Allen directing that film. Full Moon's new remastered high-definition transfer is great stuff, it's amazing to see this film in widescreen for the first and I am definitely looking forward to more Puppet Master entries as well as Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak and The Pit and the Pendulum in 1080p widescreen. 
4 Outta 5