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Believe it or not.. but Mankillers (1987) is getting re-released on both dvd and blu-ray !
This is another Slasher//Video release distributed through Olive Films. Release date is set for September 13th.
Posts: 2204 | From: The Netherlands | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
Last year, Slasher//Video also released Shock Em Dead, Killer Workout, and Deadly Prey. They're upfront about the quality of these releases with a disclaimer on the back cover, which says 'it's not sourced from an HD master, but remastered from PAL beta SP and upconverted to blu-ray and dvd specifications'.
Oh well.. at least Shock Em Dead came fully loaded with an array of pretty cool extra's, plus it's always good to have these titles available again, so we can finally see what we've been missing out on all those years ago. Posts: 2204 | From: The Netherlands | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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For those who missed out on the limited edition from Midnight Legacy in 2011..
Alien 2 ; On Earth (1980) is available again through UK's 88Films !
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Hi imawalkingcorpse! How are you?! I have Grandview USA on VHS.
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Coming to Blu Ray later in the year from US label Code Red is the 1982 Women In Prison drama The Concrete Jungle Starring Jill St. John and Tracy Bregman.
Have this on Dvd And I'd say it's a good one of it's type which is not as camp as many W.I.P drama's and has quite a gritty,depressing feel to it all!
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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I don't know if this has been mentioned, but Arrow is releasing a special edition DVD/Blu Ray of Joe Dante's 'Matinee'. The features look a little bland at the mo, but any features for this movie in a DVD/Blu combo set would make it worth it.
I know it's not an 80's movie, but I grandfather it in as I always felt it was an honourary 80's movie.
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Matinee is a wonderful, overlooked, small film that perfectly captures its era and the films of William Castle. It's Joe Dante's best film and a real love letter for movie buffs.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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It really is. Dante has a great way with portraying youth. He manages to weave an unpretentious ode to childhood with his love of those early horror movies seamlessly. Like so much of Dante's post Gremlins output it just didn't seem to be as big a hit as it deserved to be.
It always makes me weep thinking what could have been had he been allowed to actually finish Explorers.
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Yeah, Explorers is a really sad cinematic basket case. I know that Dante was trying for a really special, evocative depiction of youth, but the first three-quarters of the movie, while not bad, are slow. Then in the last 20 minutes, the kids get to the alien spaceship, and it is so out-of-nowhere and weird, like a reel dropped in from another movie. And then it basically ends. It just comes to a screeching halt. I remember seeing it in a theatre back in 1985 and being really disappointed, no make that angry. Here's this slow-burn build up to what. Nothing. I know a lot of people like it, but I consider it be one of those artistically misguided disasters that only a really good director can make like Coppola's Jack, DePalma's The Bonfire of the Vanities, Cimino's Heaven's Gate, and Refn's Only God Forgives.
[ 15. July 2016, 15:16: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Gotta say, as a kid I *loved* the first two thirds (the bulk of what they cut when he was forced to hack a version together came from the first section of the film). When they get to the spaceship the film becomes an homage to the rubber aliens and vintage TV talk from his youth that Dante loves. In Matinee the same thing is brilliant, but in this it just doesn't fit. It is definitely his only 'incomplete' feeling film. But considering what the studio did I'm not surprised. I don't know if what he was going for would ever have worked, but it would certainly have made for a better movie experience.
The original shooting script is a very very different beast. It goes for more of an existential thing, where I don't think you ever see the aliens, but the kids go to another planet and play baseball. I have a copy but I don't remember it that well.
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You hit it. Explorers feels incomplete. Matinee perfectly synchronizes the growing up in the 60s plot with the William Castle homage, and it's brilliant. I especially love the way John Goodman and his film Mant! parallel the hopes and fears that people had back in the 60s. I'm a fan of Dante, and he's made some wonderful, beloved films, but this little one is my favorite. It really is special.
Explorers would have been better as a more existential piece. Robert Picardo is one of those guys who is great in any part, but even he can't save the rubber aliens joke ending.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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I always thought Exlorers would have worked better as a kind of junior 'Contact'. They didn't really make enough of the two separate 'pulls' of the Ethan Hawke character. His crush on Amanda Peterson was highlighted at the start, and then doesn't go anywhere (partly due to what they cut, and partly due to shifting the focus to the aliens). I don't think the rubber aliens could ever have been satisfying, but I would really love to see the movie Dante could have made had he been given the time. I think he had a chunk of rough shot material, another chunk he hadn't had he chance to shoot, and they were still kind of writing the final act as they went. When the studio moved up the release date he had to just use what he had. Scenes that I would have killed to see as a kid wound up being cut (for one reason or another). There was a birthday party scene, a revenge on the bully scene, more fleshing out of the family dynamics of all the boys, a little more of the **** Miller character, and so on. Dante tried to locate some of the footage a few years ago but said he thinks it must be gone. It's my holy grail to see, but I never will... only the teasing pictures remain!
I think Dante feels Matinee is something of a personal film. He was a horror movie lover at the same time as the film is set. There's an interview with him on YouTube where he says some of the stuff in the bedroom (magazines and stuff) were his personal childhood belongings.
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Chopping Mall, of course, to those in the know, is a classic 80s exploitation film. And I like Blood Diner too! I agree, JRir. Lionsgate is so hit-and-miss. I hope that they at least have nice transfers.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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I love Chopping Mall but have never seen Blood Diner though it's definitely one I would like to check out!
Lions Gate have a huge library of horror yet to be released to Blu-ray so I hope this is just the start of things and that we will see many more titles to follow!
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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Yeah, Lionsgate has tons of stuff that I can't even keep track of, including things that they have the rights to that they didn't originally release. As I said, they are fairly hit-and-miss on transfers, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. I wish they paid a little more attention to their DVD/Bluray holdings.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Coming to Blu-ray from Shout Factory later in the year:
Dead Ringers (1988) with Jeremy Irons Dead of Winter (1987) with Mary Steenburgen Dreamscape (1984) with Dennis Quaid and Kate Capshaw Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988) Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) and Slumber Party Massacre III (1990) To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Also, The Abyss (1989) is confirmed for a 2017 release after being recently remastered for 4K.
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Dead Ringers should look great in Bluray, all gray and cold looking, same with Dead of Winter.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Seems like Lionsgate is bringing the Vestron Video label back to life.
Chopping Mall will be their first release, and Blood Diner their second, plus it is rumoured several other titles are being prepared for blu-ray releases, including The Return Of The Living Dead 3 !
It actually does look like they've put that little extra loving care into these releases.
I read about the Vestron revival and hope that they will release more stuff. It´s such a great label and the vhs tapes are rare items.
I´m especially looking for to see Blood Diner. Only seen it once back in the late 80s.
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I actually do have Blood Diner on a German import dvd, which was a good release for the time when it came out, but i just can't ignore all those extra's they announced for the blu-ray.. so yeah, i'm willing to upgrade !
posted
Cool I wonder if they'll release Waxworks and the Unholy at some stage plus it would be great if they release some of there 80s comedy outings like Sex Appeal,Recruits,Wimps etc
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