SKI PATROL (1990) (MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray Review)

SKI PATROL (1990)

Label: MVD Rewind Collection (#45)

Region Code: A

Rating: PG

Duration: 91 Minutes 

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Rich Correll

Cast: Ray Walston, Roger Rose, T.K. Carter, Martin Mull, Corbin Timbrook, Leslie Jordan, Paul Feig, Stephen Hytner, George Lopez,  Deborah Rose, Tess Foltyn, Sean Gregory Sullivan, Yvette Nipar

Released in 1990 but feeling more like a mid-80's throwback, the PG-rated comedy Ski Patrol, from the creator of Police Academy. Set at the Snowy Peaks Lodge, a popular ski resort owned by Pops (Ray Walston, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) whose lease with the forest service is up for renewal. The resort and the titular Ski Patrol at said resort have had an impeccable record for years, but a crooked local real estate mogul named Maris (Martin Mull, Clue) is out to sabotage the renewal by ruining the Ski Patrol perfect record, with the help of popped-collar 80's asshole-type Lance (Corbin Timbrook, The Glass Shield) and his two blond-bastard cronies.

The main members of the Ski Patrol are the defacto leader by Jerry (Roger Rose, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives) with his easy-going Steve Gutenberg charms, Iceman (T.K. Carter, John Carpenter’s The Thing) who offers karaoke fun and celebrity impressions, explosives expert Martinez (comedian George Lopez) and goofball Ski Patrol hopeful Stanley (future big-time director Paul Feig, Three O'Clock High). What we get is basically a PG version of the ragtag group of cool-kids vs the nefarious snobs set on the snow-covered ski slopes with the cool kids having to save Pops' ski resort from the dastardly land developer. It's pretty stale stuff, even in 1990, but if you're a fan of that formula this delivers the pre-packaged goods in a way that is inoffensively fun. 

What the film lacks in R-rated crudity and nudity it sort of makes up for with 80's styled hijinks and goofy slapstick fun with a supporting cast that also features Stephen Hytner ("Kenny Bania" from Seinfeld), Deborah Rose (The Boneyard) as forest service Inspector Edna Crabitz, Tess Foltynas (The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them) as a sexy foreign exchange member of the ski patrol, Sean Gregory Sullivan (Class of 1999) as the a weirdo with multiple personalities named Suicide who lives by the credo "taste death, live life", Yvette Nipar (Doctor Mordid) as Jerry's wholesome love-interest Ellen, and the late Leslie Jordan (TV's Will & Grace) as the pint-sized ski patrol manager Murray.

The best stuff here for me is Paul Feig's dance-talent revelation, a corny musical performance of with Feig and  Carter performing "Dancing in the Street" at a talent show, and an on-going gag involving members of the Ski Patrol making the diminutive Murray think he's growing due to some growth pills that they give him. We also get, not one- but two (too many), Rodney Dangerfield impressions from both George Lopez and T.K. Carter. The comedy is pretty dated and a lot of it falls on it's face looking at now as an adult, but I loved it when it aired on cable TV in the 90's. We get some semi-impressive snowboarding and downhill skiing, but there's zero nudity (just some implied sex), and it's PG-rated, so it's not ripe with lewd humor either, but for a harmless PG-rated ski comedy it's fun stuff. If you're a fan of ski comedies, the Police Academy series, and stuff like Meatballs, Up the Creek, and Joysticks there's some fun to be had here. 

Audio/Video: Ski Patrol (1990) debuts on Blu-ray from the MVD Rewind Collection in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). It's a solid looking Blu-ray with a thin-layer of film grain, looking sharp and detailed with good color-saturation. Audio comes by way of English PCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, dialogue is clean and well-balanced, the songs sung by T.K. Carter and some tasty screaming guitar tracks on the soundtrack by the Steve Morse Band (Morse went on to play for rockers Deep Purple for two decades) sound terrific in uncompressed PCM. The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring a pair of vintage movie poster illustration, plus the first-pressing copies include a Limited Edition Slipcover featuring the faux shelf-wear and VHS rental stickers on it. . Inside there's a Collectible Mini-Poster featuring one of the artworks. Sadly the only extra is a theatrical trailer for the film. It's my understanding that MVD did attempt to get some extras for this release and they did not pan out, too bad. 

Special Features: 
 -Original Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork
 -Collectible Mini Poster
- Limited Edition Slipcover (First Pressing Only)

Screenshots from the MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray: 

Dancing in the Street

TRANCERS 4: JACK OF SWORDS (1994) & TRANCERS 5: SUDDEN DEATH (1994) (Full Moon Features Blu-ray Review)

TRANCERS 4: JACK OF SWORDS (1994) 

& TRANCERS 5: SUDDEN DEATH (1994) 

Label: Full Moon Features

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: R

Duration: 75 Minutes (Trancers 4) / 73 Minutes (Trancers 5)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: David Nutter 

Cast: Tim Thomerson, Stacie Randall, Ty Miller, Terri Ivens, Mark Arnold, Clabe Hartley, Alan Oppenheimer, Lochlyn Munro, Jeff Moldovan, Stephen Macht

Trancers 4 and Trancers 5 were shot back to back, filmed in Romania when Full Moon bought a studio and a castle over there. Looking to cash-in on the medieval charm of the castle the story is the continuing adventure of time-travelling future cop Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson, Trancers) as he attempts to rid the world of Trancers, but this time throwing him back in time to an alternate dimension, and changing things up a bit. Deth's boss Harris (Stephen Macht, The Monster Squad) sends him on a new mission, which he is only to happy to do after finding out his wife is dead. He is  armed with new gadgets by the Q-like Lyra (Stacie Randall, Puppet Master 4) before going, but the mission goes screwy from the start when an alien called a Solonoid hitches a ride in the time chamber, causing Deth to be marooned in an alternate dimension which is very much a medieval kingdom where Trancers rule over the peasants, calling themselves Nobles, lead by evil Lord Caliban (Clabe Hartley, TV's M.A.N.T.I.S.). Deth figures out what's happening in short order and joins a local group of freedom fighters called Tunnel Rats in an effort to thwart the Trancers, with the help of rebel ass-kicker Shaleen (Terri Ivens, Piranhaconda) and the evil Caliban's good-hearted son Prospero (Ty Miller, Slaughterhouse Rock).

In this alternate dimension the Trancers are much  vampiric in nature, much less the brain-dead zombies as seen in previous entries, and coming across as aristocrats with wizarding powers, which is a weird change, but I guess it's an alternate dimension so anything's possible and chnage can be good. A nice touch is that the physics of the alternate dimension have the effect of nullifying Deth's gadgets, his long-second watch actually slows him down instead of those around him, which gives us a corny but fun scene of Thomerson miming slow-motion movement during a battle while those around him try to figure out what he's up to.  for most of the film Deth does not have his gadgets to play with and has so do some swashbuckling swordplay and fisticuffs.

Both films are directed by comic book writer turned prolific TV director David Nutter (Disturbing Behavior) and certainly look cash-strapped but have fairly solid production values for a Full Moon production of this era. Shot on location in Romania we get the castle and rural location that feel authentic enough to sell the alternate dimension medieval period setting, and the costuming is pretty decent as well. One thing that hangs over the films are the heavy influence of Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, it definitely feels like Full Moon had access to a castle and pretty much said let's do AoD but as a Trancers film with Thomerson's Jack Death as a stand-in for Campbell's big-chinned Ash. The good news is that I love Thomerson, so I am down for it, but that it's a watered-down riff on Army of Darkness something you cannot dispute. We get Thomerson having a difficult romance with a medieval slave girl Lyra (Stacie Randall again), and even fighting an evil doppelganger at one point, but it's Thomerson so I loved it, even if it's a big step down from previous entries.  Another not-so-great aspect of it is the acting, both Clabe Hartley and Ty Miller are pretty flat in their roles, but Thomerson is awesome and carries the film, but if it were not for him this would be a dud, and that this storyline is stretched over two films seems pretty unnecessary, but they're still a pair of fairly entertaining b-flick that's worth a watch.

Audio/Video: Both films arrives on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features in 1080p HD widescreen (1.78:1) and look quite good. Grain is present if a but uneven in spots, and colors are generally pleasing throughout, and by far looks the best it ever has on home video. Audio comes by way of lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with no subtitle options, and it sounds fine if not exactly exemplary, the largely dubbed dialogue is delivered without issue and is well-balanced. Both films feature the Original Trancers Video Zone featurettes plus a selection of Full Moon Features Trailers, but sadly no Band/Thomerson commentary tracks, which would have been cool. 

GHOSTWATCH (1992) (101 Films Blu-ray Review)

GHOSTWATCH (1992) 

Label: 101 Films

Region: Region-Free

Rating: Cert. 12 

Duration: 92 Minutes 

Audio: English PCM 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Lesley Manning

Cast: Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Gillian Bevan, Sarah Greene, Craig Charles, Bríd Brennan, Michelle Wesson, Cherise Wesson

Ghostwatch (1992) aired on the BBC in Britain on Halloween night, October 31st 1992, reported in adverts to be part of BBC Drama's Screen One series, the production convinced thousands of people that what they were witnessing was real, given credulity by the presence of real-life BBC personalities Michael Parkinson and Mike Smith who host the show from the BBC studios, alongside paranormal expert Dr Lin Pascoe (Gillian Bevan); while intrepid reporters (and real life BBC personalities) Sarah Greene and Craig Charles, report "live" from the reportedly haunted London home of the Early family; single-mom Pamela Early (Bríd Brennan, Excalibur) and her young children, Suzy (Michelle Wesson) and Kim (Cherise Wesson). The family have witnessed unusual supernatural activity in their home, by way of a ghost that the family has dubbed "Pipes", poltergeist activity and one of the daughters receives scratches from the suspected entity, and were treated to some tantalizing footage shot in the home previously.

The broadcast starts off slow with lots of cutbacks to the studio presenters and paranormal expert occasionally taking phone calls, debating the merits of reported supernatural happenings, then cutting back to the home, which has been wired with remote cameras and microphones, to the crew outside and interviewing people in the area. It starts off pretty slow and playfully, gradually building tension with clever editing and sound design, and then going right off the rails with the supernatural activity that ingeniously expands to the BBC studio - which I thought was a nice touch. 

I don't think I'd even heard of the film till that last decade or so, it having been sort of swept under the rug by by the BBC for years following public outcry after it's initial airing by parents whose kids were traumatized and who were irate that the BBC would disguise a fictional ghost tale under the guise of a legitimate new-style program featuring real BBC presenters. I don't know if it would have fooled me in '92 when I was a teen, I would like to think it would have, but that idea of blurring the lines between fact and fiction is fucking genius. I could imagine that if Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes had done the same the outcry might have been similar here, pre-dating the fake-news epidemic of the post-2016 election by several decades, which adds a whole other layer of prescience to it. 

I first heard mention of this after my own viewing of the WNUF Halloween Special (2013), which was obviously quite influenced by this film in hindsight but which I was not aware of at the time. People in the know were quite fond of educating people like myself who had never seen Ghostwatch that this film existed and did it first. Having finally seen it I can say that it lived up to hype for me, I loved it, it's a very well-made made-for-TV ghost tale masquerading as a live TV broadcast. I can't say it genuinely gave me the chills though, watching it in my forties I am pretty jaded about such things, but I did appreciate the craft that went into it, the clever premise and execution, , and I especially appreciated how far ahead of it's time it was; pre-dating the found-footage craze of the early 2000's, fake news, reality TV, and the myriad ghost-hunting shows out there. 

Audio/Video: Ghostwatch (1992) arrives on region-B Blu-ray from 101 Films in 1080p HD fullscreen (1.33:1) looking pretty spiffy but still very much in the vein of a 1992 standard-definition TV broadcast, which maintains the vintage appeal of the seminal found-footage film. Audio comes by way of uncompressed English PCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles. It sounds quite good, it has source limitations that were inherent to the live broadcast nature of the film, but that sounds authentic to what I would expect.  

Onto the disc extras, we start off with a pair of audio commentaries; first up is the Audio Commentary with film historians Shellie McMurdo and Stella Gaynor. This is more of a I'm-a-fan-of-the-film type commentaries, which is cool, but it doesn't offer a lot of insight into the film. The second is a much more insightful Audio Commentary with writer Stephen Volk, producer Ruth Baumgarten and director Lesley Manning, which dives deep into the making of the film and what went into pulling this off, which is fascinating. 

We also get a brand new 48-min Do You Believe In Ghosts?, a 30th anniversary documentary on the Ghostwatch featuring writer Stephen Volk, producer Ruth Baumgarten, director Lesley Manning, and the directors of Host, Rob Savage and Jed Shepherd, who are huge fans of the film and say it was hugely influential on their film. It's a solid doc that explores the genesis of the film, shooting it, the stir it caused, how it was wept under the rug for years by the BBC, and it's long-lasting influence. There's also an archival extras by way of the 8-min Shooting Reality with director Manning who gives commentary over footage of the annotated script and production notes about the making of the film. 

The single-disc limited edition release arrives in an oversized Scanavo keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork with newly commissioned artwork by Thomas Walker, housed inside a Rigid Slipbox that is pretty dang weighty when you're holding in in your hands. Also inside the slipbox are two booklets, we get a 48-Page Booklet with writing on the film; ‘Extra Sensory Perception Management’ by Sarah Appleton, ‘Ghostwatch – As it Happened’ by Tim Murray and short story ‘31/10’ by Ghostwatch writer Stephen 

Volk. These examine the prescient nature of the film, as well as documenting the manufactured outrage over a dramatic horror tale disguised as mainstream television broadcast by tabloid meida, plus a tale from writer Stephen Volk (screenwriter of Gothic) that expands on the story of Ghostwatch. We also get a second booklet, the even more massive 124-Page Reproduced script, with annotations by director Lesley Manning, which is super-cool. Also tucked away are Set of Six Art Cards with more cool artwork by artist Thomas Walker. 

Special Features:

- ‘Do You Believe In Ghosts?’ - a brand new 30th anniversary documentary on the Ghostwatch phenomenon (48 min) 

- Audio Commentary with film historians Shellie McMurdo and Stella Gaynor

- Audio Commentary with writer Stephen Volk, producer Ruth Baumgarten and director Lesley Manning

- Shooting Reality by Lesley Manning (8 min) 

- Limited Edition Booklet: Includes ‘Extra Sensory Perception Management’ by Sarah Appleton, ‘Ghostwatch – As it Happened’ by Tim Murray and short story ‘31/10’ by Ghostwatch writer Stephen Volk

- Reproduced script, annotated by director Lesley Manning

- Set of Six Art Cards

101 Films give Ghostwatch (1992) a fantastic 30th Anniversary Edition with this gorgeously packaged Limited Edition release. To this day the film is still somewhat obscure in these North American parts, and I hope that their release, which is also getting a standard release version here in the U.S. December 13th, shines a light on this top-notch found-footage flick. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghostwatch-Limited-Blu-ray-Mike-Smith/dp/B0BBPY94CS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ghostwatch+blu-ray&qid=1667527693&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-3