Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

It’s quite the ambition, for Czech director Karel Zeman to take his love of Jules Verne books, and make a film of one in the style of the intaglio engraving illustrations contained therein. Despite Invention for Destruction being sixty years old, he pulls it off far better than you might expect. Which is, to be frank, something of a double-edged sword.

If you’ve heard about this but never seen it – released in America as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, it’s regarded as Czechoslovakia’s most successful film ever, but wasn’t as big internationally as implied – then you probably understand it as an influence on the likes of Jan Švankmajer and Terry Gilliam, but Vynález Zkázy (to use the film’s original Czech title) isn’t nearly as chaotic as you’d predict. Rather, instead of a jumble of techniques potentially creating something incoherent, Zeman very deliberately chooses his methods and marries all of them together superbly in service of his vision. Layering engraved lines across both sets and ‘live’ backgrounds to produce his ‘living pages’ visuals, his film combines live action, found footage, simple 2D and more complicated 3D animations, plus any number of other processes, all superimposed upon and within one another in order to bring the story to life.

The result is, quite simply, astonishing; Invention for Destruction does literally look like somebody has opened the pages of a book and transferred them directly to the screen. The attention to detail beggars belief, actors interacting quite freely with what you would assume to be fake sets and backdrops. And the story – a simple tale told from the perspective of a professor’s assistant, who along with the professor has been kidnapped and taken to a secret island so that the villainous Count Artigas can make use of their invention, a devastating new explosive – while more than pertinent to the times, feels like nothing so much as an old Flash Gordon serial remade.

In order to service the filmmaking, however, the script has been pared back about as far as it could go, with the characters and performances rudimentary to say the least. So for all of Zeman’s wonderful evocations – this is regarded as the birth of steampunk – the narrative itself is rather less involving.

The restoration, though, is as gorgeous as the pictures it supports, with the team involved making the effort to scan the individual elements and recombine them wherever possible. There are a number of short features about the making of the film and its refurbishment too, but the real delight here is the inclusion of two of Zeman’s short films, one a brief examination of a writer’s inspiration, the other a delightful if dark historic epic told with children’s puppets. All in all, an extraordinary set.

Extras: An Appreciation by John Stevenson, two short films, featurettes on the film, its special effects and restoration, trailer.

INVENTION FOR DESTRUCTION / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: KAREL ZEMAN / SCREENPLAY: KAREL ZEMAN, FRANTIŠEK HRUBÍN, JÍŘÍ BRDEČKA, MILAN VACHA / STARRING: LUBOR TOKOŠ, ARNOŠT NAVRÁTIL, MILOSLAV HOLUB, JANA ZATLOUKALOVÁ / RELEASE DATE: 19TH NOVEMBER

To those of us around during Cliffhanger’s initial release in 1993, it’s a little baffling to think that 25 years have passed since Renny Harlin’s Sylvester Stallone starrer hit the big screen. And now, much like the first three Rambo movies, Cliffhanger has been given a new 4K Ultra HD release.

With the action taking place in the Rocky Mountains, Stallone’s Gabe Walker is a mountain ranger who is dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy. Said tragedy saw the girlfriend of BFF Hal Tucker (Michael Rooker) fall to her deep ‘n’ snowy demise. Despite swiftly becoming an ex-ranger after that tragedy, we fast forward eight months down the line to Walker finding himself once more having to scale the proverbial and literal mountain. When a group of climbers put in a distress call to report being stranded at the top of the snowy peaks, Walker happens to be in the right place at the right time to wind up persuaded to help out in the rescue mission by on-off lover Jessie (Janine Turner). Not only does this see Gabe having to build bridges with Tucker – who holds him responsible for the death of his girlfriend – but it soon becomes clear that these stranded souls aren’t quite what they seem. In fact, the John Lithgow-led group are actually a bunch of no-good sorts out to snaffle themselves a $100 million payday, but whose plane crash-landed on the mountain top. Cue dramatic music!

Of course, one of the main selling points of Cliffhanger has always been its visuals and cinematography. And with a new 4K restoration, said visuals look even more jaw-dropping. As explained during the bonus material included here, the movie was shot in the Italian Alps – and that stunning locale and the extreme stunt work is given extra oomph in the 4K transfer. Even now, in 2018, Cliffhanger features some absolutely spectacular moments that rank up there as some of the finest cinematography ever committed to film. The plot, though? Largely paint-by-numbers for its time, and even more-so to this day. That’s not to say that Cliffhanger isn’t a picture that will keep you entertained, mind, for it’s totally unbelievable plot is counteracted by the stunts and scenery, and also a villainous turn from John Lithgow that pulls just a tad from Alan Rickman at his most treacherous.

Where the bonus material is concerned, what we have here is a selection of special features that have all been seen on previous releases of Cliffhanger. The highlight of the bunch is the Stallone on the Edge making-of that plays like a parody of sorts these days, even though it was done in a straight-faced manner back in ’93.

If you’re a Stallone fan and a 4K enthusiast, this is a must-see for the sheer wonderment of the visuals. If you’re one of those who can take or leave Sly and is nonplussed on 4K, there’s really not much on offer for you here.

Special Features: Two audio commentaries / “Stallone on the Edge” making-of / Special effects featurettes / Storyboard comparisons / Introduction from Renny Harlin / Deleted scenes

CLIFFHANGER – 4K UHD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: RENNY HARLIN / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL FRANCE, SYLVESTER STALLONE / STARRING: SYLVESTER STALLONE, MICHAEL ROOKER, JOHN LITHGOW, JANINE TURNER, LEON ROBINSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Hitchcock has a lot to answer for. Prior to Vertigo, Dial M for Murder and, of course, Psycho, nobody had ever made the connection between sex and death on screen in quite such a pronounced and, more pertinently, stylised way – and we’ve been witnessing the fictional murders of emancipated women in often rather hokey detective thrillers ever since. The Italian giallo movement began with a picture named after one of Hitch’s (Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much), and by the 1970s the genre was making the link between the libido and murder far more explicitly than the master was ever able to.

Fortunately, some of these films still retained Hitchcock’s sense of style, and while The Case of the Bloody Iris (or Why Those Strange Drops of Blood on Jennifer’s Body? according to a more literal translation) isn’t exactly steeped in quality, it is at least cheap and cheerful in an enjoyably creative way.

A collaboration between director Giuliano Carnimeo and writer Ernesto Gastaldi (who previously worked together on Cloud of Dust… Cry of Death… Sartana is Coming; these translated titles are nothing if not evocative), The Case of the Bloody Iris stars Edwige Fenech as Jennifer, a beautiful and full-breasted (an important requirement) young woman running away from a spiritual marriage to a bullying husband with an obsession for group sex. She and fellow model Marylin (Quattrini) move into an apartment where another young model has recently been murdered (like, the previous day), only for it to quickly become apparent that the murderer is not just a serial offender, but also one who specifically targets young, beautiful, full-breasted and free-thinking women, and even more specifically, ones who live in that particular apartment.

So okay, it doesn’t get much more pulpy and contrived than that, as the straight playing cast – including George Hilton, one of Carnimeo’s various Sartanas – are only too aware. Gastaldi thus arranges an array of potential suspects, including the bitter widow and her crippled son from the apartment on one side and the predatory lesbian and her violin-obsessed widower father from the apartment on the other, plus Jennifer’s new architect boyfriend, for a detective team much like the pair from An American Werewolf in London (surely referencing this) to wade through before the inevitable surprise showdown.

The dialogue, sound recording and acting are variable, ranging from pretty poor to, well, not especially good – but you’re not here for the quality, and if soft-focus sex to a sub-Morricone soundtrack and topless wrestling tick your boxes you’re all set. The pleasant surprise is the photography and editing, which emulates Hitchcock after a fashion that would later be a big influence on Brian De Palma, and manages to keep the interest piqued even when the plot runs out of coherence.

Sadly, even in this new 2K restoration, the picture still isn’t up to much, but there are a couple of nice in-depth interviews included, and on the whole this is perhaps one of the better examples of the genre.

Extras: interviews with George Hilton, Paula Quattrini

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: GIULIANO CARNIMEO / SCREENPLAY: ERNESTO GASTALDI / STARRING: EDWIGE FENECH, GEORGE HILTON, PAOLA QUATTRINI, GIAMPIERO ALBERTINI / RELEASE DATE: 19TH NOVEMBER

The late Italian director Bruno Mattei packed a hell of a lot into a 50-year career at the coalface of Italian exploitation, churning out copycat cash-grabs from nunsploitation and women in prison flicks to zombies, cannibals and every sci-fi fad you could shake a bloody stick at. His reputation has yet to garner the critical reappraisal his countryman Lucio Fulci has achieved from beyond the grave, but with labels like Arrow and 88 Films continuing to dredge the toxic lake of 70s and 80s grindhouse sleaze, it may only be a matter of time before the man who gave us the likes of Shocking Dark: Terminator II (1989) and Women’s Prison Massacre (1983) gets the full Fab Press treatment.

Rats: Night of Terror is a fine example from Mattei’s 1980s imperial phase: a low-budget, post-apocalyptic potboiler about a crew of fashion-conscious bikers doing their level best to survive one night against an army of irradiated man-eating rats. If that sounds gratuitously entertaining, you’d be right. Mattei cheerfully borrows his ragtag band of characters from The Warriors and, er, Godspell and lifts the zombie template for his script, which substitutes red-eyed rodents for shambling corpses. There’s plenty of ratty nastiness too, all wonderfully pre-CGI and much of it quite well done, without ever hitting Fulci-levels of ickyness. That said, fans of 80s video rental gore will be delighted with the deaths on offer, including a woman in a sleeping bag suffering an intimate invasion of the ratty kind that concludes (some time later) with the hairy herbert emerging from her mouth, and a bloke so full of rats he suddenly explodes like an HGV tyre… Kaboom!

The interiors are seriously impressive for a Mattei production, having recently been vacated by Sergio Leone’s opulent Once Upon a Time in America, and it’s all lit and framed with a familiar Italian artistry that flies way above the script and performances, all of which are terrible. Lead actor and stuntman Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (a coiffured ringer for Bee Gee Barry Gibb) and Henry Luciani as his chief rival, Duke, are a boggle-eyed pair of hams, but it’s obvious how much fun they and the rest of the cast are having trying to pretend 50-odd docile rats are truly menacing them. This joie de vivre is carried over to the main extra feature interview wherein a well-preserved Dell’Acqua and his fellow cast member Massimo Vanni ebulliently recall the 1984 shoot and their hot-tempered director while trying not to dissolve into fits of generous laughter.

A very nice package from 88 Films includes a limited-edition slipcase and a delightfully lurid poster of the cover art, featuring loads of rats and some blokes in gas masks. It’s the kind of thing your significant other will almost certainly tear down from the wall should you ever put it up. There really is no accounting for taste.

RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: BRUNO MATTEI / SCREENPLAY: BRUNO MATTEI, CLAUDIO FRAGASSO, HERVE PICCINI / STARRING: GERETTA GERETTA, OTTAVIANO DELL’ACQUA, MASSIMO VANNI, ANN-GISEL GLASS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Dangan Runner, aka Non-Stop, is Sabu’s directorial debut. First released back in 1996, this slightly bonkers comedy-drama effort has now been given a swanky new Blu-ray release by Third Window Films. So, let’s take a look at this new release and see if it’s worth picking up.

In its simplest form, Dangan Runner is a slightly odd, slightly quirky movie about a trio of losers running through the streets of Tokyo. There’s Yasuda (Tomorowo Taguchi), a bumbling sort who is ridiculed at every turn, whether that’s in the kitchen he works in or by the ex-girlfriend who gave him the boot. And it’s this bumbling that kickstarts our story, when his plan to rob a bank and change his fortunes goes array after he forgets to bring a mask. From there, he heads to steal a mask from a small store, only to be spotted by junkie and failed rock star turned clerk Aizawa (Diamond Yuaki). It’s with this that we’re then off to the proverbial races, as Aizawa chases Yasuda… only for a third wheel to join the action. Said third wheel is Takada (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a lower level member of the yakuza who is owed money by Aizama.

Still with us? Good. But surely Dangan Runner is about more than simply three fellas chasing after each other, right? Right. You see, as this chase plays out, we’re given flashbacks to each of these central characters’ backstories. Each of the trio are vastly different and have lived totally different lives, yet all have their crosses to bear and their problems to deal with. Even with the clear differences at the fore, however, there are certain similarities in this triumvirate’s tales, not to mention Sabu makes sure to include sprinklings of humour in each of their lives regardless of the desperate nature of each of their situations. Oh, and then there’s one of the most, err, unique sex scenes committed to film.

While the prospect of three chaps jogging from street to street might not instantly grab your attention, Dangan Runner is a frenetic and fun romp of a movie. The energy of the picture is clear for all to see, with Sabu and editor Shinji Tanaka creating a film whose true highlight is its pacing and brisk beats. The fact that Dangan Runner clocks in at just over the 80-minute mark also serves to create a brisk environment for what is a simple yet engaging premise.

In terms of bonus content, the audio commentary from Jasper Sharp is likely the standout in how it highlights Dangan Runner’s importance in the resurgence of Asian cinema in the ‘90s – something which is further backed up by Tom Mes’ video essay. And for those of you who are lucky enough to pick up one of the first 1,000 copies of this release, there’s an utterly stunning collectable slipcase for the Blu-ray.

Dangan Runner is a thrillride that is nothing if not relentless, and it marked the start of what has proved to be quite the impressive career to date for Sabu.

Special Features: Audio commentary / Video essay / Interview with Sabu / Original theatrical trailer

DANGAN RUNNER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: SABU / STARRING: TOMOROWO TAGUCHI, DIAMOND YUKAI, SHINICHI TSUTSUMI, AKAJI MARO, REN OSUGI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

There was much disappointment from fans when Bruce Campbell announced he would be “retiring” Ash Williams, his much loved protagonist from the Evil Dead franchise, and with that, the third and final series of Ash Vs Evil Dead has arrived on DVD and Blu-Ray. STARBURST followed the travelling shots one last time.

Following the defeat of the Necronomicon at the end of series two, Ash has settled back into civilian life, taking over the hardware store of his late father in Elk Grove, Michigan. However, Ruby (Lucy Lawless) has some unfinished business with the famed Book of the Dead, which has wound up on the US equivalent of The Antiques Roadshow – she steals it back and plans to use it to finish off Ash once and for all. In order to do so, it requires the death of Ash’s offspring: cue the appearance of Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill), whom Ash must save, along with trusted comrades-in-arms, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago). Will Ash succeed in saving his daughter and the world, or will it succumb to the Deadites?

As with any final series, some people may not look at a series objectively as nostalgia and affection for a series may cloud our judgement; so is it a worthy send off? In short, yes-ish. Season Three has everything we have come to expect from both this series and the franchise overall: we have Ash fighting pretty much anything that has been possessed whether it be decapitated bodies in a funeral home or a porn mag (it has to be seen to be believed!), you have Kelly and Pablo who are given their own narratives in which they fight their own (metaphorical and literal) demons. On top of that, there is a nice cameo from Ash’s father (Lee Majors) who’s there to help from the other side. The snag is that the whole thing feels slightly repetitive of the first series; where the second series evolved as a story from the first, the third retreads old territory. So overall, does Ash gets the finale that is right? Yes. However, has affection hidden some of the flaws in some episodes? Yes as well.

ASH VS EVIL DEAD: SEASON THREE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR AND SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: BRUCE CAMPBELL, DANA DeLORENZO, RAY SANTIAGO, LUCY LAWLESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Anyone who saw Sergio G. Sánchez’s well-regarded psychological ghost story The Orphanage will know what to expect from his latest offering as writer/director. Set in the rural gothic heartland of late 1960s America, The Secret of Marrowbone is a creepy, claustrophobic exercise that builds its mystery well and is frequently gorgeous to look at but ultimately feels like an aperitif for a main course that should have been much tastier.

A mother leaves Britain with her four children and moves to America, where they set up residence in her childhood home (the eponymous Marrowbone). She wants the family to rebuild their lives and leave the past behind, and before she dies she makes her eldest son Jack promise to keep his brothers and sister together inside the house, not revealing her death until he turns 21 and is legally able to care for them. The siblings manage to keep their mother’s passing a secret for several months but, when Jack falls in love with a local girl named Allie and attempts to arrange transfer of the house, Marrowbone’s haunted past is stirred up yet again. Between a ghost in the attic and some cursed money their mother took from their father, sinister events escalate. The siblings have always believed their abusive father is dead and bricked up behind the wall, so is he the spectre the youngest brother sees inside a mirror? Or is their father actually alive, and plotting his revenge? When the town lawyer becomes suspicious and blackmails Jack to get his hands on the family fortune, the Marrowbone secret fractures in the grimmest, most macabre way possible.

It’s hard to write a proper synopsis of The Secret of Marrowbone because, like many good ghost stories (or is it a ghost story?), if you pull on the wrong thread the whole thing starts to unravel. What doesn’t cause Marrowbone to unravel are some fine central performances, especially George MacKay as Jack and The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy as Allie (whose performance is so good that the film seemed to slow down every time she leaves the screen) but, although it’s certainly heavy on atmosphere, The Secret of Marrowbone telegraphs too many of its scares to be properly unsettling. It has all the trappings this kind of excursion needs, but Sánchez has forgotten one thing – the most effective ghost stories are also very, very simple. Unfortunately, there’s so much going on here that the whole melange becomes slightly confused, and when the big reveal arrives it’s not really much of a surprise. In fact, most seasoned horror fans will probably see the twist coming after the first act.

Still, it looks great, the cast is solid, and you might find yourself glancing nervously over your shoulder at least once or twice during the couple of hours it takes to unfold. With a few less ingredients, this could have been something special… a bit like The Orphanage, which also badly over-egged its pudding.

THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: SERGIO G. SÁNCHEZ / STARRING: GEORGE MACKAY, ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, CHARLIE HEATON, MIA GOTH / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 19TH

If you’re looking for something a little less computer generated for your kids this Christmas, this English language version of the 2017 French film Le Grand Méchant Renard et Autres Contes might be just the ticket. On the other hand, children raised on frenetic fare like Hotel Transylvania might find it a little slow and simple, despite the fact that you’re getting three (short) stories for the price of one.

Of course, it’s not as CG-phobic as it looks; the characters and background might be hand-drawn but the animation itself was done on computers. But this is definitely a production at the more traditional end of the market; if you enjoyed Renner’s previous big-screen outing Ernest et Célestine, you’ll know what to expect. Originally conceived as a series of half-hour episodes for television, Benjamin Renner and his team added a linking conceit and released the film theatrically, and now it’s out on DVD with the likes of Adrian Edmondson, Bill Bailey and Celia Imrie doing the UK dub.

The stories take place in and around a farmyard, the eponymous fox (New) presenting a wraparound ‘theatre production’ which, frankly, doesn’t add an awful lot. In ‘A Baby to Deliver’, a lazy stork crashes into the yard claiming to be too badly injured to carry on and deliver its package, thus leaving it to pig (Edwards) and his two rather hare-brained associates, rabbit (Edmondson) and duck (Bailey), to get baby Pauline to her new parents in Avignon. Next up is the title story, in which fox and his friend wolf (Goode) hatch a plan to steal some eggs and raise the chicks till they’re plump enough to eat, until the newborns imprint upon the fox as their ‘mummy’, that is. Finally we’re back with pig, rabbit and duck, who accidentally destroy a plastic Santa which they mistake for the real thing, and then believe it’s up to them to save Christmas.

There’s nothing too taxing or too involving here, just a very modest set of slightly farcical plots involving some not terribly bright farm animals, and it’s all good-natured fun, mostly dwelling on misunderstandings and fortuitously contrived happy endings. But that’s not to say Renner and his cohorts haven’t been inventive enough to keep things moving along, and the characters are such archetypes of children’s fiction they pretty much write themselves.

The English-language cast does a reasonable job with material that isn’t designed to stretch them, and while the character animations are somewhat basic (and at 12 fps), they’re also endearing in their awkwardness. The backgrounds, however, are mostly quite gorgeous watercolour-style paintings – and the extra feature, in which a handful of children interview the cartoon’s creators (albeit in French, with subtitles), is terrific.

Extras: making of

THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: BENJAMIN RENNER, PATRICK IMBERT / SCREENPLAY: BENJAMIN RENNER, JEAN REGNAUD / STARRING: BILL BAILEY, ADRIAN EDMONDSON, JUSTIN EDWARDS, MATTHEW GOODE, CELIA IMRIE, PHILL JUPITUS, GILES NEW / RELEASE DATE: 26TH NOVEMBER