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Nymphomania is EVIL’s Best Time! “Vixen!” / “Supervixens” / “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” (Severin Films / Blu-rays)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

VIXEN!  (1968)

In the untamed wilderness of British Columbia, a bush pilot named Tom picks up fares that give tourist, fisherman, hikers, and the like an experience of a lifetime in raw, Canadian countryside.  Also, an experience of a lifetime is when his clients and guests staying the night in his rugged cabin home meet his nymphomaniac wife, Vixen.  When Tom’s flying about to-and-fro, Vixen slips out of her clothes and into the comforting arms of varietal strangers of men and women alike.  Indoors, outdoors, land, water, men, women…for Vixen, sex is life, and she must take it whatever means necessary, even if that means conniving her way into sleeping with her motorcycling little brother Judd.  No Canadian Mountie can stop her from mounting him.  No lawyer can litigate his way out of her desiring deposition.  In fact, no one can resist the voluptuous Vixen at all except for one man, a negro named Niles, as Vixen’s racist belittlement seeds a strong ambivalence between them.

The first film in Russ Meyer’s “Vixen” trilogy, “Vixen!” is the 1968 produced feature directed by the man dubbed King Leer and The Fellini of the Sex Industry known as Russ Meyer.  The World War II combat photographer saw unequivocal carnage and death in his camera lens but his post-war vocation to become an eroticist earned him being one of the most prolific skin flick filmmakers ever between the 1950s to the 1980s.  With a penchant for heavy-chested women, Meyer’s “Vixen!” is uninhibition incarnate and is a pleasure-seeking good time when the prim-and-proper hubbub is put to the side in this Robert Rudelson penned philandering orgy of ogling based off an original story by the “Faster, Pussycat!  Kill, Kill” and “Motorpsycho!” director and infrequent concept collaborator and producer Anthony-James Ryan (“Black Snake”).  Meyers wife, Eve, served as associate producer alongside Richard S. Brummer and George Costello under the production companies of Goldstein Films, Coldstream Films, and Eve Productions.

SUPERVIXENS (1975)

Gas station attendant Clint maintains the steady pumping of gas and washing of windshields that pull up to be serviced, but his insatiable wife, SuperAngel, wants Clint back home for a little pumping of her own.  Constantly calling him at work and threatening the dissolution of marriage frustrates Clint to the point where their lovemaking turns heated and violent that results in Officer Harry Sledge to knock out Clint and trifle with SuperAngel’s coquettish whims after its all said and done.  Yet, Harry Sledge’s inadequacies release his true nature, a pent-up maniac who mercilessly murders SuperAngel and shifts the blame toward Clint.  On the run, Clint finds himself at the mercy of ride givers who either take advantage of his body and what little money he has or provide him a safe place to stay with a caveat of busty, horny temptations knocking down his spare room door.  Clint finally lands being a gas station attendant again with SuperVixen, a gas station inheritor running both the pumps and the hamburger grill, and he finally feels he’s back on his feet in life being in love with SuperVxen.  That is until Harry Sledge coincidently shows up at his gas pump.

Not so much a sequel to “Vixen!” as one would expect in an unaffirmed trilogy, “Supervixens” is Russ Meyer’s 1975 satirical sex-comedy busting at the seams into insanity and out of blouses.  A bigger cast with even bigger boobs, literal and figurative, plays upon a charade of Meyer’s troubled time through divorce that sees a little more violence toward women while still shitkicking characters with well-endowed powers of sexualized influence.  Unlike “Vixen!,” Meyer writes the film too, adding his flare of elongated exposition that in itself is a foreplay of phonics with its blend of sophistication, wit, and obscenity.  The RM (Russ Meyer) International presented film is produced by Meyer, Fred Owens, Charles Napier, Wilfred Kues, James Parsons, executively produced by Anthony-James Ryan, and filmed mostly in the vast Arizona desert.

BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS (1979)

Junkyard worker Lamar is a studios young man who wants nothing more than to earn his degree in smalltown America.  His wife Lovenia is studios in keeping her bed warm by sating her thirst for every man in said smalltown America.  Yet, Lovenia wants Lamar only and badly too but the one thing that wedges their sex life apart is Lamar’s obsession with the backdoor only and not being eye-to-eye intimate.    To try and fix their broken relationship of rear entries and unrestrained randiness, the two young lovers embark on a journey around town to seek salvation into solace of each other’s arms rather than meeting their needs elsewhere.  A gay marriage counselor/dentist with a kinky lesbian nurse, a radio evangelist busting out of her shirt to save souls, 14-year-old athletes being taught adulthood with hands on experience, junkyard and garbageman rendezvous and scrappy scandals, all play a part in working out Lamar’s kinks and sedating Lovenia’s nymphomania. 

Now this Meyer entry has more sequel components.  “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” has even more sexploitation satire shrouded by a saturation of sordid sleaze in what would be essentially Russ Meyer’s last theatrical feature-length film.  The 1979 production really goes into the pubic bush of pushing public boundaries with sexualized situations, intermingling faith with sexualized fervor, and expressing a provocation freedom only in the way Russ Meyer could deliver it.  The story is conceived by Meyer but is written by none other than Roger Ebert under the penname of R. Hyde in what was the last of three feature film collaborations with the director behind “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Up!”  Meyer’s RM Films International solely presents the Richard S. Brummer, Fred Owens, and Russ Meyer coproduced “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” shot, yet again, on harsh terrain of the American west in arid and rural portions of California.

CAST

All three films center around one sex-driven consumed woman and one hapless in-one-way-or-another man.  Each of the principal lead actress are made up of parts Russ Meyers admires the most: buxom, curvy, and beautiful.  Each provide their own eccentricity to the role despite their common core theme of nymphomania.  In the titular role of “Vixen!” is the Meyer discovered topless dancer Erica Gavin, sporting D cups that were typically, and funny enough, just a tad small for the Russ Meyer usual collective of busty babes.  Gavin’s envelopes herself completely into the promiscuous role that preys upon men like a shark whiffing a solitary drop of blood to get the olfactory senses working overtime.  Gavin devours her counterparts on screen as a saucy, sassy seductress with hips that hypnotize and a chest that chastises chastity with extreme prejudice.  And speaking of prejudices, “Vixen!” paints an obscene vocabulary depiction of the only black actor through the vile and vicious name-calling by the Vixen herself.  Between the verbal bigotry, U.S. military draft dodging, unpopular Vietnam war beliefs and communism, Meyer disguises 1960s socio- and political topical matter underneath a large rack of sexploitation but does evoke the black character Niles (Harrison Page, “Carnosaur”) as a costar rather than a supporting actor.  Super Angel in “Supervixens” can also be rancorous but not in a prejudice sense; instead, the actress Shari Eubank portraying Super Angel has an impatient demeanor for her rather unhurried beau Clint and what also separates Gavin and Eubank in their respective roles is that Eubank has a dual performance in the most irony of names being a malicious tease as Super Angel and being sweet as pie as Super Vixen.  The contrast between the two women also mirrors a resemblance of what once was even to the detail of Clint obtaining his old job back at a new gas station but their arc as couple must face the formidable Harry Sledge as the peak they both must overcome, representing as perhaps a metaphor, coupled with some sly editing and intention, in being an older version of Clint heading toward impotence, anger, and confusing sexual orientation.  The uninhibited nude dancer and adult film starlet Kitten Navidad led the charge in the third film, “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens,” as the uber-compulsive sexual Lovenia.  Before starring in the stags “Bodacious Ta Tas” and “Eat at the Blue Fox,” amongst others, Navidad ran rampantly new in swanky, silly, softcore in front of the camera lens of her then husband Russ Meyer.  Lively and lovely, with large breasts and a hairy bush, Navidad sparks a wide grin under her Latina charm as well as portraying a promiscuous housewife gone wild in a starkly different demean that’s more toon in its titillating manner when compared to “Vixen!” and “Supervixens.”  “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” is the only film in the trilogy to be a sequel, and barely at that, with returning characters of “Supervixens” helpful farmer Lute (Stuart Lancaster, “Starlet!”) and his lovely Austrian wife SuperSoul, played by another adult and genre actress Uschi Digard (“Ilsa:  She Wolf of the S.S.,” “Superchick”).  The three films round out the cast increasingly with Garth Pillsbury, Jon Evans, Robert Aiken, Peter Carpenter, Michaenl Donovan O’Donnell, John Furlong, Charles Pitt, Henry Rowland, John Lazar, Fred Owens, Glen Dixon, Ken Kerr, Patrick Wright, Robert E. Pearson, Michael Finn, Don Scarborough, Aram Katcher, and DeForest Covan with sexploitation and adult industry regulars Vincene Wallace (“A Sweet Sickness”), Deborah McGuire (“The Young Secretaries”), Colleen Brennan (“China and Silk”), Christina Cummings, Ann Marie (“For Your Breasts’ Only”), June Mack, Sharon Hill (“Dawn of the Dead”), and Candy Samples (“Fantasm”).

OVERVIEW

From the flowing creeks and tall pines of British Columbia, Canada, to the arid desert rocks and scantily scenic hardscapes of the western U.S. deserts, Russ Meyer had a fondness for the coarse-nature of the great outdoors put up adjacent to the delicate, soft-skin beauty of voluptuous women prancing, dancing, jumping, skipping and fornicating to the beat of oversexualization, perversion, and the problems that rouse from the unfettered arousal.  Meyer’s interests not only laid with gigantic melons and the overall less-is-more clothing on women, but the director also had a fondness for rural, smalltown settings, a subtle paradoxicality to pepper German aspects into the story’s vast and bosomy berth despite his World War II veterancy, and he really tackled sociological issues of race, orientation, and, of course, a broad spectrum of general sexuality too taboo for much of puritanical America.  Yet, Meyer had an eye for what makes cinema alluring and not only from a taboo and bare skin angle but from the angles of which he shot and a stylistic eye to match to create and edit unforgettable compositions.  An eclectic medley of angles, quick coherent edits, a witty, sarcastic, and philosophical dialogue, a swanky and swinging instrumental soundtrack, and the vibrant, sultry, and pulpy coloring of pinks, reds, blues, yellows, and other fuzzy posh palette colors come together in a beautiful mesh of fast-paced filmmaking that tells about the fast-and-loose times, an exaggerated parallel of the rather an unmentionable underbelly most were too ashamed to mention or even think positively minutely about in that era.  Today, sex is more fashionable but 40-50 years ago, Russ Meyer foresaw a future of polyamory in a fun, lightful, sexy, if not borderline sleazy and perverted, way sewn into an alternate universe of risk and reward told in meta fashion.

If you must take one thing away about Severin Films is that the boutique label knows how to restore and package lost treasures.  Such is the case with Russ Meyer’s broad bare-bosom view of Americana cinema with the Vixen trilogy.  These Russ Meyer Bosomania films are restored and scanned in 4K on the worldwide debut of an AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD50 and presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio except for “Vixen!” which is shown in the European aspect ratio 1.66:1.  Noted on the back covers, “Vixen!” print scanned in 4K from the original negative is restored by MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, “Supervixens’” print is restored by Severin Films in conjunction with The Russ Meyer Trust with the 4K scanned print originating from The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens’” weathered-worn print was painstakingly restored by Severin Films as well with cooperation from The Russ Meyer Trust.  Between 1968 and 1979, there’s more than a subtle difference in image presentation, style, and quality, as expected, whether be Meyer growing as a student of cinematography, film stock upgrades, or just plain print wear and tear.  “Vixen!” has a more muted color palette but nowhere near being totally vapid as Meyer uses less colorfully charged lighting and shadow work that results in an organic image with some inconsequential anemic and barely perceptible damaged frames sporadically throughout.  Details are generally favorable and kind to early colorists, touched up I’m sure in the restoration to pop it out some.  “Supervixens” and “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” do color-pop tremendously, punctuated by Meyer’s stroke of lighting and editing genius to have each scene be enthralling to behold and be aggregated into a class known as the Russ Meyer magnum opus.  Meyer is the David Lynch of the sexploitation subgenre, seducing with sordid and satirical sex-driven maniacs and a peculiarity of situations and themes that often run silent in the general population.  The latter two films are scot-free of print wear which is surprising since “Ultra-Vixens” is noted to have been weathered, which is a true testament to Severin’s dedication to the restoration.  All three films have an ENGLISH LPCM Mono mix of fair fidelity that’s akin to the skin soundtracks of a burlesque-like Benny Hill show.  “Vixen!,” once again,” strays from the pack with glam swing revelry and sultry notes of passion herald in by a smooth piano, percussion, and guitar.  Dialogue renders nicely through from all three films accompanied by more of the near slapstick Foley rather than environment din.  “Vixen!” does emit a bit of an echo is certain scenes, more evidently so when Vixen argues or persuades to get what she wants, and you can hear her dialogue again in like a soft breath underneath.  English closed captioning is available for selection.  Several hours of special hours have been compiled for this set, beginning with “the “Vixen!” allotment that has a second, censor prologue cut of the film in from the theatrical re-release, an archival audio commentary with Russ Meyer, a new audio commentary with Erica Gavin, new interviews with Gavin and Harrison Page in Woman…Or Animal?, a television interview of Russ Meter and Yvette Vickers on the David Del Valle hosted show The Sinister Image, Entertainment… Or Obscenity? Is the Marc Edward Heuck historical and present look at the Cincinnati Censorship Battles against Russ Meyer and his films and rounds out with the feature’s trailer. “Supervixens'” special features include an archival audio commentary with Russ Meyer, an interview between Mike Carroll and Russ Meyer Russ Meyer Versus The Porn-Busters, an interview with The Return of Harry Sledge Charles Napier, S1E5 with Russ Meyer on The Incredibly Strange Film Show, a TV spot, and the trailer. Rounding out the extras on “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Dixens” came another archival feature-paralleling commentary with Russ Meyer, The Latin Brünhilde interview with actress Kitten Natividad, an Ellen Adelstein interview with Russ Meyer on her 1979 talk show, a much later and new/current interview with Ellen Adelstein, and the theatrical trailer. All three Amaray cases share the same color scheme of a black case contrasted with a red border on the cover with an inner black border surrounding a still or a retro one sheet with taglines and pulled quotes from past reviews. There are no other tangible elements with the disc pressed roughly with the same primary image. The region free Blus are not rated and have respective runtimes of 71 minutes (“Vixen!”), 106 minutes (“Supervixens”), and 93 minutes (“Beneath the Valley of the Dolls”).

Last Rites: To experience Russ Meyer’s Vixen trilogy is more than these words can ever express. You just have to dive right into the voluminously, voluptuous vixen world and the best, polished way to do it is with Severin’s Russ Meyer Bosomania restored 4K scans!

“Vixen!” Available Here on Blu-ray!

“Supervixens” Available Here on Blu-ray!

“Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” Available Here on Blu-ray!

The Apex Predator of the Sea is Now the EVIL From Beyond the Stars! “Space Sharks” reviewed! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Your Daily Dose of Sharksploitation with “Space Sharks” on DVD!

Interstellar scientists voyage home after discovering and retrieving a new species of shark and carnivorous plant from the planet Crypt-X.  When a rogue meteoroid field strikes the hull and sends their ship careening toward the Nevada desert, only one human survivor emerges from the wreckage to face off as the only resistance against a deadly combinational species of highly technological and predatory sharks and the piranha-like swarm of hungry vegetation.  At the same time, a group of recovering addicts are led onto a scenic desert trail for a spiritual nature hike while a conspiracy theorist, toyed with by clandestine organizations, makes his way west to locate the crash and uncover the truth connecting the space sharks with every other conspiracy theory known to man.  Man versus space shark versus killer plant in an extraterrestrial showdown on Earth’s terrain and only one will survive in what’s surely be a massive Government coverup.

Tornadoes whip man-eating sharks through the air in “Sharknado.”  Engineering virtuosos yet undead World War II Nazi soldiers ride monstrous, flying sharks to wreak havoc on modern civilization in “Sky Sharks.”  Now, outer space is no longer quiet and safe as a newly, deadly breed of predator is brought to Earth in “Space Sharks.”   Director Dustin Ferguson, a director with an oeuvre of low-budget horror going back as far as 2010, pens and helms the adjunct indie horror-comedy under his pseudonym of Dark Infinity and his latest is to infinity and beyond being right up there at the top of the schlockiest of sharksploitation.  Filmed and around Burbank California, doubling with no much likeness to the deserts of Nevada near the Grand Canyon, the team behind “5G Zombies” and “Amityville in the Hood” SCS Entertainment in a co-joint effort with Wild Eye Releasing, who also distributes the title, releases “Space Sharks” with Wild Eye Releasing’s founder Rob Hauschild producing and associate produced by Julie Ann Ream and Joe Williamson.

For all of roughly five minutes and a couple of lines of dialogue, Eric Roberts secures top bill on this what’s sure to be lost in the sharksploitation pit of nonsense.  The once formidable 1980s and 1990s star, and brother to the high-powered and elegant Julia Roberts, “Best of the Best” and “Runaway Train” star has ebb-and-flowed vertically between mainstream Hollywood films and the lowest-of-the-low indies.  “Space Sharks” is definitely in the latter category and doesn’t showcase much of Roberts’ given talent that has in recent years strayed to the more eccentric in a countless number of Dick, Jane, and Harry productions.  Longtime scream queen Brink Stevens is another familiar who you’ve might not even known existed in the film if it wasn’t for the credits.  Playing the nature hike leader but enveloped under the shade of a large sun hat, hidden behind large black sunglasses, and, too, with very little screentime, Stevens comes and goes like the snap of a finger.  Other cult film actors are added to this ridiculous recipe with Mel Novak (“Game of Death,” “RoboWoman”) and Scott Schwartz (“A Christmas Story,” ‘Café Flesh 2”) folded into a cheap, B-movie run cast batter of Ferguson regulars to give this tasteless schlock some spice.  If “Space Sharks” had to select a true principal lead, Allie Perez (“Amityville Emanuelle”) would be the closest as the lone surviving scientist with arms training to fend against the upright and muscularly athletic sharks while trying to make her way home to dad, Mel Novack, but tasked to protect desert lost civilians Nick Caisse (“Apex Predators 2:  The Spawning”), Traci Burr (“Death Bitch”), Janet Lopez (“Liza: Warden from Hell”), Ben Anderson (“Witchblossom”), Breana Mitchell (“Cocaine Couger”), Daniel Joseph Stier (“The Clown Chainsaw Massacre”), Christine Twyman (“It Wants Blood!”) and Joshua Mooney (“Axed to Pieces”) from being chum. 

An “Alien” and “Predator” rip-off integrated into the multifaceted farce that has become sharksploitation.  As premises go, “Space Sharks” has a promising plotline of a newly discovered, extraterrestrial species of shark being returned to Earth for scientific, governmental weaponization or examination and then runs amok the desert when things go terribly South.  That story is far more lucid than previous low-rent, quick-produced features of a supernatural shark emerging jaws first out of a toilet bowel.  Also, the way the trailer was cut had “Space Sharks” perk ears of interest with a very similar appearance to “Street Sharks,” a mid-1990s Saturday morning, animated television series of muscular man-eaters that were half-man, half-shark heroes running around beating up bad guys on a weekly basis.  Then, we see the film and we were wrong, dead wrong.  “Space Sharks” is a half-cocked mashup of too much, too little of unwanted knockoffs and crisscrossing ideas.  Computer-generated designs of the brawny tech-sharks are not terrible for budget but do borrow quite an uncomfortable bit from our favorite jungle and urban hunter, the Predator, with heat vision, cloaking ability, and the methods of skinning and suspending corpses upside down.  The pull from “Alien” is more subtle with an opening credit title that comes about in the same gradual style as the Xenomorph films.  Ferguson is no stranger in his cache of flattery and audiences likely wouldn’t have minded the echoes that entail if it wasn’t for the nonsensical chasing of conspiracy theories, a space mission stemmed with little-to-no details, explanation of tiny alien sharks grown to be elite hunters, man-eating plants, giant spaceship crash that befell no concern, zero character developments, dynamics, and arcs, and a story edit too perfunctory to keep focus.  

“Space Sharks” invades retail shelves with a Wild Eye Releasing DVD. The MPEG-2 encoded, upscaled 1080p, DVD5 houses essentially the encircling feature presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The upscale barely registers with a mid-range decoding rate at approximately 5 Mbps. Textures are not as defined inside the context of tangible captured frames whereas any post-production object, computer generated with commercial animation software, is about as backwards realistic as an early 90s source coded video games, such as the blockiness, square-pegged Doom or Duke Nukem 3D. “Space Sharks” has an ungraded, unpolished overlay that leaves colors desaturated or muted and the compression seizes control with blatant aliasing issues when characters run around like free range chickens evading foxes. The long opening through galaxy is the best “Space Sharks” will get that exposes colors, multi-shaped object, and an ease of poorly rendered animation burden with a rather decent composition of visuals and soundtrack to kick off the film. The English language stereo 2.0 mix too rides that sliding scale of independent filmmaking with a low-frequency, heavily saturated audio mix that can’t harness and real in isolated elements, and without that even diffusion of sound, every exterior noise maker attaches itself to the dialogue and the intended ambient sound. Dialogue renders through anemically but has enough strength to be heard and intelligible, even if what’s scripted is not. English subtitles are not available. DVD unfolds as a feature-only product with an al carte selection of Wild Eye trailers that are usually on every Wild Eye home video releasing, special features withstanding. A time warping 70-minutes runtime has this just over hour long feature feel much longer in is unrated, region free format.

Last Rites: Simply put, if you’re looking to watch something jawsome, “Space Sharks” is more space junk and not worth going anywhere near its orbit.

Your Daily Dose of Sharksploitation with “Space Sharks” on DVD!

Your Hopes and Dreams Come Down to Beating an EVIL Fitness Center in a Workout Marathon! “Heavenly Bodies” reviewed! (Fun City Video / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Move Your Butt to this Fun City Edition of “Heavenly Bodies” on Blu-ray!

Working 9-to-5 has a secretary, Samantha quits her grinding job to pursuit her passion of owning her own dancercise studio.  Leasing a vacant building with her girlfriends, they form Heavenly Bodies to let the craze of group dancing and aerobics take hold of all those interested.  The success of her rapidly flourishing business persuades her to audition to host a regional workout show while at the same time juggling being a single mother and decrypting feelings for a new man in her life.  After winning the audition, Samantha is targeted by fellow finalist and rival aerobicize instructor from a bigger fitness center having felt deserving to be the television host.  With her relationship heading for the rocks and her fitness studio building being bought outright by the larger investor, Samantha insists on an all or nothing dancercise contest against the rival studio heads, challenging her best versus their best in an hours long workout made for the TV world to see.

Dancercise.  A craze I know all too well watching my mother high-knee kick, arm-twirl, and run-in-place to the programs hosted by Jane Fonda and Denise Austin right in the middle of our living room.  “Flashdance,” “Footloose,” and “Dirty Dancing” are just some examples of the dance centric subgenre that swept through the 1980s.  In the middle of that mix is 1984’s “Heavenly Bodies.”  Written-and-directed by Lawrence Dane, an actor, who had more of a horror lining with roles in “Scanners,” “Happy Birthday to Me,” and “Seed of Chucky, who tried his hand being behind the camera, co-wrote also his first script alongside Ron Base.  The Canadian feature was co-produced by Stephen J. Roth and Robert Lantos, both of whom shared a string of erotic dramas early in his career with “Paradise” starring Phoebe Cates and the sex-comedy “Scandale” but the two parted and became more mainstream on their paths with Roth financing “Scrooged” with Bill Murray and “Last Action Hero” with Arnold Schwarzenegger” while Lantos partnered off-and-on with fellow Canadian and body-horror director David Cronenberg on “eXistenZ,” “Eastern Promises,” and “Crimes of the Future.”  “Heavenly Bodies” is a production of Producers Sales Organization, Moviecorp VIII, and is one of the few less erotic features from Playboy Enterprises.  

Leading the casting headline like her character Samantha leading a group in a dancercise routine is Cynthia Dale.  The “My Bloody Valentine” actress with curly shoulder length brown hair, an infectiously joyful smile, and killer dance body is the heart and soul of what makes “Heavenly Bodies” truly worth watching.  Her long take choreographed dances are breathtakingly fun and gracefully executed, full of energy and sizzle with the camerawork angles that move along every part of her kinetic body.  Samantha embodies the strong, independent single mother who do it on her own terms after setting passion aside once for a man, her son’s father, and is determined to not make the same mistake twice nor back down from being intimidated, but her arc is to change, to fall in love again, and to make sacrifices for not only the sake of her dream but to let someone else into her heart by being flexible and compassionate to their needs.  That person ends up being Richard Rebiere (“Happy Birth to Me”) as the football player who falls for Samantha after his team’s instructed to attend her classes to shape up.  The duo is pitted up against an established, powerhouse fitness center managed by Jack Pearson (Walter George Alton, “10”) and his head aerobics instructor Debbie (Laura Henry) to marathon their way to the last person standing in a 8-versus-8 fitness free-for-all, not to forget some scandalous moments of smooching, swindling, and woman abusing in between.  Pam Henry, Cec Linder, and Patricia Idlette, round out the principal cast with a slew of backup dancers working their butts in shape and officiating contests. 

You think Playboy Enterprises, you think erotic, romantic sleaze with dumbed down dialogue, a half-cooked story, and jazzy, yet soulless soundtrack coupled with candle lit moments and insignificant drama a la carte.  That’s not the case here.  Yes, “Heavenly Bodies” has moments of tenderness between dancer Samantha and football star Steve and fleeting glimpses of nudity, but those bare skin moments are more of a garnish than a main course as the story dishes being a dramedy with a killer soundtrack and a solid acting from main street, legitimate actors, and liberal art performers.  Articles on the film accuse it of being a “Flashdance” imitator and I would be so bold to accuse the authors of those articles to have never seen “Flashdance.”  Dancing along to a hot track does not equivalate two features that share no other plot similarities.  “Heavenly Bodies” stands, or rather dances, on its own two peppy feet in its whimsical nature of an aerobics showdown that determines the fate of a single woman, single mother, and single business owner to topple the threatened-felt commercial giant in a desperation attempt to save face and be relevant. 

Fun City Video steps up to release a new, debut high-definition transfer of “Heavenly Bodies” on an AVC encoded, 1080p, BD50.  The film has been out-of-print for over three decades but now there’s a 4K scan and restoration of the original 35mm internegative presented in the widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  The new transfer is absolutely gorgeous and rejuvenates the dance-craze 80s right before our very eyes.  Hyper facticity of detail has remarkable texture and color, diffused nicely over all aspects of costume from the leg warming socks to the diversity hued headband assortments, and punctuated distinguishably when sweat soaks shirts and skin.  The grain has natural analog appeal with no hints of DNR or other types of video smooth over or manipulation.  Original elements appear mostly damage free with an occasional dust speckle here and there.  The sole English LPCM stereo 2.0 is suitable mix for this originally at home, premium cable title that pumps and spreads layers through a dual channel output.  Dialogue renders cleanly without a confluence of popping or hissing along the audio.  The integrated soundtrack has stepping and staying power, full-bodied to frenzy synthesizing sound and catchy ballads and motivation lyrics.  Faint crackling or interference in the background but nothing worth really concerning over as there are plenty of other elements audio senses with attune to.  English subtitles are optionally available.  Special features under a fluid menu of one of more ramping up dance scenes includes a new Cynthia Dale interview, a new feature-length audio commentary track with Atlanta based film programmer of cult and late-night cinema and podcaster Millie de Chirico and Jeffrey Mixed, aka Jeffrey Nelson, co-creator of the horror media label Scream Factory, and an image gallery.  The clear Amaray case showcases a retro vibe of multiple boxy colored lines underneath a framed, perspiring Cynthia Dale in low side crouch of her promotional shot for the film’s one sheet.  The reversible side has more artistic illustration of the same post with a tagline and Samatha striking anther aerobic pose in opposite.  The white disc is pressed with a two-tone, darker emphasized silhouette of a dancercise group.  A 15-page one-part faux channel guide, one-part essay by Cinema Studies academic Nathan Holmes is a nice touch of 80s nostalgia and historical context on dance movies of the era.  The region free release is rated R and has a 90-minute runtime.

Last Rites: By no means is “Heavenly Bodies” horror or sleazy sexploitation this reviewer usually injects right into his caustic-cinema arteries, but the Lawrence Dance directed, Cynthia Dale danced cult film embodies eighties elegance this guy grew up in. Those with similar nostalgia enthusiasms or those who find room in their hearts for ridiculous-raving, dancercising dramedies can’t miss out on this intense workout wonderment.

Move Your Butt to this Fun City Edition of “Heavenly Bodies” on Blu-ray!

To Do EVIL or To Do Good? “Men of War” reviewed! (MVD Visual / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Men of War” are Men now in High Def! See It Here!

Living like a pauper on the frozen street of a snow Chicago, ex-special forces soldier Nick Gunar has no desire to return to his former life, but when he’s referred a mercenary job to visit an island off the South China sea, he’s assured by the man that referred him, his fatherlike former colonial, that there will be no bloodshed in his all for show and intimidation situation that needs more finesse than firepower.  His mission is to assemble a team and negotiate with armed persuasion to get the unwilling, combative locals to sign over the rights to a mineral rich underground cave system.   Gunar’s expected confrontation turns out to be a small village of unarmed men, women, and children, peacefully refusing to sign over their land for excavational exploitation of their ancestral home.  While Gunar weighs his morality, a second team lead by Gunar’s more ruthless brother-in-arms, Keefer, sets to make sure the job is completed one way or another. 

Set off the coast of Thailand, “Men of War” is the 1994 U.S. mercenary action film that induces the ethics and morality question of armed-to-the-teeth hired guns against a small village of mostly helpless residents going to sit with an honorable conscious.  Perry Lang, actor in such films as “Teen Lust,” “The Hearse,” and “Alligator” who then turned director in the early 90s, helmed his sophomore picture after directing Catherine O’Hara in “Little Vegas” four years prior.  “Men of War,” which had a working title of “A Safe Place,” is penned by a trifecta of writers in “The Howling’s” John Sayles, “Demon Knight’s” Ethan Reiff, and Reiff’s longtime screenwriting partner Cyrus Voris.  Seasoned writers and an upcoming director garnered studio funds by Moshe Diamant and Stan Rogow to take a chance on the abroad militant-action subgenre that was dwindling at the time of the mid-90s.  Mark Darmon Productions Worldwide, in association with Grandview Avenue Pictures, served as coproduction studios with Arthur Goldblatt, Andrew Pfeffer, and David C. Anderson producing.

The big name that attracted financial support and give the title a boost was Dolph Lundgren who, at that time, was one of the biggest action stars of the late 80s into the 90s with “Rocky IV,” “Masters of the Universe,” “The Punisher,” and “Universal Soldier” all under his 6’ 3” Swedish, muscular frame topped with blonde haired and gentle blue-eyes.  Lundgren tackles his next role as conflicted mercenary looking to get out of the game all together as former special forces soldier Nick Gunar.  Perhaps one of the more complex roles Lundgren has portrayed in his career, Gunar fights the uphill battle of a pressurized existence that always leads him back to what he does best, being a soldier of fortune.  Yet, the well-trained combatant’s heart has softened and changed to not be an elite killer anymore and his new mission, assigned to him by venture capitalist Lyle (Perry Lang) and Warren (Thomas Gibson, “Eyes Wide Shut”) and referred by Colonial Merrick (a true typecasted bad guy in Kevin Tighe of “K-9”), will put his trained tactics and newfound compassion to the test.  However, for obvious cinematic reasons, things will not go as smooth as Gunar obliviously hopes with nudges from a diversely skilled team of assembled gung-ho comrades, deceived by those he’s trusted, and antagonized vehemently by an unstable, former fellow special forces brother-in-arms Keefer, played by one of my favorite Aussie actors, the late Trevor Goddard (“Mortal Kombat,” “Deep Rising”).  Lundgren usually brings with his large and imposing self to the table with every role he slips into, but Gunar feels different partly because of two very different reasons:  Gunar lacks defining confidence and maintains the fierce façade to keep the assignment afloat under the aforesaid pressures, but Lundgren doesn’t look physically all there as he appears hunched over for a better part of downtime scenes.  “Jurassic Park’s” B.D. Wong plays the village wisecracking’ spokesperson Po who welcome Gunar and his team’s arrival with respect and with a little humor.  Wong’s cavalier style for Po works to cut tension and to showcase the natives as peaceful and unassuming but steadfast in their beliefs.  “Embrace of the Vampire’s” Charlotte Lewis, as Loki the the native island single mother and love interest to Lundgren, is the second credit name of the film yet has perhaps the shortest screen time of all the characters that fill out “Men of War” with Tony Denison (“Wild Things 2”), Tommy “Tiny” Lister Jr. (“The Fifth Element”), Thomas Wright (“Tales from the Hood”), Tim Guinee (“Vampires”), Don Harvey (“The Relic”), and Catherine Bell.

Cast ensemble of familiar faces makes “Men of War” easier to digest when considering the threadbare sensical plot.  If taking the trouble to hire mercenaries to negotiate the signature surrender of property, the company investors might as well have used extreme force instead of finesse as the good Colonial Merrick suggests to Gunar.  “Men of War’s” setup is not very sexy to establish a radical rational to plot against the native denizens, fast-forwarding and skirting through the first act’s purposed goal and recruitment of characters is sullied by that dilution of plot device.  The recruiting montage is what hurts the most that shows Gunar travelling across the globe to handpick past acquaintances for his team, but the history markers are not in place to establish characters behaviors, past or present undercurrents, or anything that really ties them together or tears them apart which eventually happens when a line in the sand is drawn.  Even Keefer’s neglected volatile bad juvenile behavior is crucified by zero backstory substance.  “Men of War” bravely relies on the future to flourish and does so quite well by creating a dichotomy between a paid duty and a moral deed, especially when falling in love with a native girl is involved.  Explosions, bullets, and various kinds of melee skirmishes rock the story’s intended searching for inner peace theme and there’s no shortage or pulled punches with the pyrotechnics or squib-popping gunplay.  Perry Lang and producers make no qualms about the product their peddling by offering a detonating spectacle on a wafer-thin plot to razzle-dazzle on the silver screen and that’s okay. 

Coming in as title number 62 on the MVD Rewind Collection, a boutique banner for MVD Visual, is “Men on War” on a new Blu-ray release that’s an AVC encoded BD50, presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio and high-definition 1080p. This one looks pretty darn good for a 2K scan of a well-kept 35mm film. Picture retention shows just how clean as a whistle it is with no sign of a damaged original print. There also appears to be no issues with compression, such as banding or macroblocking, to gunk of visuals in what is a clean sweep of texturized objects from skin to fabric, even the island jungle setting has a rich green and a variety of sedimentary rock and soil to a real organic coloring that creates the tropical paradise around as seen on vacation brochures. When cinematographer Rohn Schmidt (“The Mist”) does go for more aesthetic, “Men of War” turns into panoramic escapism brilliant with warm colors and a composition too impressive for the likes of a picture teetering between being a B- and A-lister. The English language dialogue comes with two lossless audio options: A DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound and a LPCM 2.0. An explosive film requires free range fidelity and “Men of War” and its sound design package prowls the ambit of discharging and cannonading that hit fast and hard. Dialogue runs through-and-through clean and clear without interrupt or folly against it, as well as being layered properly to have heavy volley suppress the dialogue to a muffled scream. The score of Gerald Gouriet (“Grand Tour: Disaster in Time”) has a pretense of a militaristic stanza that wonders into an idealistic romance choon which downgrades to a pedestrian level at times but there’s also a hint, or even possibly sampling, of Alan Silvestri lurking in the mix from the score of “Predator” when Lundgren stealthily storm the beach with his team. A Spanish 2.0 stereo is available and English and Spanish subtitles are available for toggle. For the MVD release, Perry Lang provides a new, from his living room introduction. The remainder of the special features are archival pieces, such as An Unsafe Place: Making Men of War, a brief doc with Dolph Lungren enthusiast Jérémie Damoiseau going over the genesis of the film, raw footage and dailies from the feature, a photo gallery, and the theatrical trailer. If looking for tangible collectibles, you’re in luck because, like most of the MVD Rewind Collection catalogue, “Men of War” comes with a cardboard O-slipcover with printed faux VHS rental stickers and a mini folded poster of the slipcover image tucked inside. The clear Amaray Blu-ray mirrors of slipcover and has a reversible composition. Region free with a 103-minute runtime, the MVD release is not rated.

Last Rites: An ensemble of colorful characters spearheaded by the towering Dolph Lundgren and shot in the serenity beaches of Thailand lends “Men of War” to be a luxury good of the cinematic armament rhubarb and the presentational transfer by MVD, on their Rewind Collection, breathes fresh and favorable for a solid screening of campy chaos.

“Men of War” are Men now in High Def! See It Here!

The Blind Leading the EVIL. “Oddity” reviewed! (Acorn Media International / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Oddity’s” Blu-ray from Acorn Media International is Here!

Dani Timmins spends many nights renovating her and her husband’s new country home.  While her psychiatrist husband Ted works long nights most nights at the mental hospital, Dani spends her time in solitude and isolation to fixup their future home.  When a strange man knocks on her door and warns someone is inside her house, Dani must make the difficult decision to either trust the stranger into her home or dismiss his warnings as subterfuge to get inside.  The next day Dani is dead, brutally murdered.  A year later, Ted and his new girlfriend reside in the country home and Darcy, Dani’s twin sister with retrocognition abilities, arrives at the country home with supernatural suspicion toward the couple, bringing with her a trunk containing a family heirloom of a life-size wooden mannikin.  Threatening to expose him, Darcy appetite for blind justice is stronger than Ted’s need to convince her otherwise when the plot against her sister thickens beyond the plane of the corporeal world.  

“Oddity” is the 2024 release supernatural haunt and golem thriller from “Caveat” writer-director Damian Mc Carthy.  The sophomore feature from the Ireland born filmmaker is a mishmash of culture inspired heavily on the Jewish folklore of the inanimate, human formed material being commanded to animate a task, such as being bewitched for wicked transgressions and this commingles with twin superstitious beliefs of extrasensory connection, and, I’m going to stop your train of thought right there, just because this is an Irish production with an Irish actress playing twins doesn’t make this a movie about the derogatory Irish twins concept.  Filmed in the County Cork, Ireland, “Oddity” is produced by “Come to Daddy” producers Evan Horan, Katie Holly, Laura Tunstall, and Mette-Marie Kongsvad with Lisa Kelly as co-producer and Keeper Pictures and Shudder serving as co-productions presenting as a Shudder Exclusive film.

Carolyn Bracken (“You Are Not My Mother”) dons the double role of twin sisters Dani Timmins, murdered housewife to doctor Ted Timmins, and Darcy Odello, a blind psychic who owns an oddity emporium called Odello Oddity, as partly in the title.  When we think of twins in films, we think identical down to the very last mannerism and hair fiber, but for Dani and Darcy, they’re similarities are in blood and face structure alone.  The differences are stark with Dani sporting dark, long hair whereas Darcy’s is nearly white and cut pixie short., Dani’s health is more intact whereas Darcy’s afflicted with blind caused by a brain tumor, and the aforementioned results in Darcy’s gift whereas Dani lacks in that department.  Lastly, Darcy exudes more confidence for a blind woman who’s able to read the room without her known unnatural ability, possessing a separate superhuman knowledge left without the power of sight.  While Bracken only plays Dani for a short period of time a lot can be said between the two women who are portrayed perfectly contrasted; yet a connection between forms an invisible bond through Darcy’s practice of learned witchcraft that involves the wooden manikin.  Opposite Bracken is Gwilym Lee as Ted Timmins, a man unable to escape the haunting of his deceased wife and start again with new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton).  Lee’s an absolute pragmatic when it comes to being psychiatrist Ted Timmins in a good display of when a rational doctor plays a rational plan on how to do something irrational and while Timmins and Bracken share not a ton of screentime together within either of Bracken’s dual roles, the thick tension formed between their characters is palpable wrought.  Yet, the real award-winning performance should be handed to Ivan de Wergifosse, the unsung face and movements of the wooden man.  Menacingly still like a large Pinocchio doll ready to come to life at any second, Wergifosse’s golem movements erratically alter the tone of drama-thriller to creature-thriller, coupled with an intense sound design that will resonate in nightmares.  “Oddity’s” principal cast fills out with Steve Wall (“Dune:  Part Two”) as an unscrupulous orderly and Tadgh Murphy (“Boy Eats Girl”), who really does have an artificial eye, as the red flagging mental patient.

A confluence of componential folklores doesn’t stale “Oddity’s” unique brand of Mc Carthy storytelling.  Shrouded deep in shadows, an underlining sense of intense dread, and colorful in diverse characters, the film truly represents the meaning of the title despite its adopted resources and, to be honest, that’s how most stories survive nowadays when the familiar is rebranded with fresh frights dwindling every second.  Sometimes, being too novel can have the reverse consequences of being too odd for most general fans.  “Oddity” provides balance with a slow burn buildup by chopping out exactly what happens to Dani, creating a cliffhanger right at the beginning to get the investigative wheels turning.  Where I do believe Mc Carthy suffers to retain a truth uncovered is in the story’s predictability.  We already know who the bad guy and we’re just waiting to see how he did it.  That takes a good chunk of suspenseful whodunit away from the narrative when it’s practically spelled out for you.  The mysteriousness around witchcraft and the supernatural twin sibling bond, coupled and accentuated with the manmade blunt force apathy, carries the weight, and can overshadow what’s missing and purposefully omitted to keep a sense of the unknown palpable. 

Acorn Media International presents “Oddity” on an AVC encoded, 1080p high resolution, BD50. Mc Carthy and director of photography Colm Hogan’s first collaboration together in a horror feature that results in the graveness of blanketing shadows and an aged, speckled, and muted color scheme solemnity. Graded in undertones of green, blues, and yellows, “Oddity” contrasts nicely and frighteningly against an object, like the brown wood of the mannequin, is in juxtaposition of the norm.  Detailing is superb around said golem with tree notices and grooves despite looking like a man in a suit in certain angles.  There’s also finesse detailing around skin textures, costuming, such as Darcy’s intricate green and white outfit, and other concepts implemented into the story’s narrative, such as Tadhg Murphy’s false eye that’s been accentuated with a bright iris or the leathery strap around another patient’s ravenous mouth.  The British and Brogue English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 courses through the individually marked rear, side, and front channels for full surround effect of the mannequin’s wailings and joint creeks, relying more on the discordant higher pitches than minor chord LFE to scare wits.  Oppositely, an earnest and tense stillness is achieved when all sound ceases to exist without the faint hint of interference and or other noticeable popping, humming, or generated soft noise.  English subtitles are available under the static menu selection.  Special features include a behind-the-scenes with cast and crew, a storyboard to screen vignette of one’s scene’s storyboard conceptual illustration compared to the final scene’s cut, and the the making of the wooden mannequin told through an image gallery.  The standard release comes in a thicker than normal North American Amaray Blu-ray case with Darcy and the wooded mannequin in spiritual positioning cloaked partly in darkness, similar to the shadow work in the film.  Inside does not contain any inserts or other physical accompaniments but there is a more detailed facial depiction of the mannequin’s face on the disc pressing.  Hardcoded for region B PAL playback, Acorn Media’s Blu-ray clocks in at 98 minutes and is UK certified 15 with no certification qualifications but the story has violence, strong language, and intense situations.

Last Rites: “Oddity” may not feel like nothing new but it’s nothing new done well in its reenvisioning of folklore and the standard horror tropes to give this Damian Mc Carthy’s filmmaking career an open door and a blank check to scare us with something far more novel and next level in the Irishman’s films yet to come.

“Oddity’s” Blu-ray from Acorn Media International is Here!