Scream Dream - Visual Vengeance

This is my first Donald Farmer experience (if you don’t count seeing his movies discussed on Red Letter Media’s Best of the Worst videos), and I’m not sure if I’ll be delving back in anytime soon. But for those who are fans, Visual Vengeance has your back with this new blu-ray release. 

At first glance, Scream Dream appealed to me on a lot of levels. It’s a metal movie with Satanic panic elements, and it’s filled with terribly funny performances (that first dude is amazing, as is the record exec), and the new artwork made it look like it could be a hidden gem. Then I turned it on and realized just how low budget this thing is. 

By Farmer’s own admission, the budget was less than $5,000. Knowing that is important for your enjoyment of the film because if you go into this expecting a traditional horror film, you’ll probably turn it off ten minutes in. 

I stuck it out, though, and came away with a few laughs, unintentional as they were. The special effects, janky as they are, were decent for the budget (more on that later). And that title song has been stuck in my head ever since I watched this a couple days ago. It’s not a good song, I don’t think, but there’s something to be said for something that’s capable of becoming an earworm, right? 

And there’s something to be said for people who made low-budget stuff like this back when it was much harder. Now with AI and phone cameras being so good, making shitty no-budget movies is easier than ever. But back in the ‘80s you had to hustle to get shit made. You had to find some real collaborators and work with distributors and put in a lot of fucking work. I respect that even if the final result isn’t something I love.

So yeah, Scream Dream isn’t my thing. But the behind the scenes stuff intrigued me, and Visual Vengeance went above and beyond in that department.

Transfer and Special Features 

Look, this is a shot-on-video (SOV) movie, so the blu-ray aspect of it is a little silly. But sure, I feel safe saying this is the best this movie has ever looked. 

There’s an audio commentary with Farmer that I skipped, but only because I watched the nearly hour-long interview with him, which I enjoyed. He gets into how such a low budget movie gets made, in which he points out that you make the movie that is possible. In other words, he had access to a club and a house band, so he made a horror movie with a musical element to it. 

The club didn’t shut down or anything. He was just friends with the owner, who was cool with him filming while they were open. And the band was happy to contribute, as well. Overall, I think I found the interview with Farmer more interesting than the film.

The interview with the actor is okay, but he does the whole thing from his shower, for some reason. And that distracted me to the point that I don’t remember much of what he said.

There’s an interview with an actress, as well, and I do find interviews like this interesting because these are not stars, so I like hearing their stories of how they came to be in these movies and what they’re up to now.

The interview with Rick Gonzalez is interesting since the effects are pretty good (except for the hand puppet) for such a micro-budget. He kept calling the movie “Scream Dreams,” which I enjoyed.

The demon suit was too big for the body double. Apparently if she had turned around there would've been visible duct tape.

The budget makes sense now as Gonzalez points out that most of their props were from other movies.

On the physical side of the special features, Visual Vengeance always has great new artwork and reversible sleeves with original art. There’s also a mini-poster and the usual VHS stickers. The most unique addition is the fake ticket stub for the Michelle Shock concert and a guitar pick. Little touches like that make releases like this special for fans.

Random Thoughts / Favorite Quotes 

The subtitles were nice, and a necessity. Still, at times even the subtitle person gives up and just goes with “indistinct.”

It's a thankless job to have to scream for over a full minute of screen time, but I was relieved when the naked lady at the beginning was killed. Her screaming was awful.

Something tells me that the lady at the beginning with the chainsaw has nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

“I need that for my car payment!:

“So you get behind a little. We're gonna rock!”

“You go out there and tell that dyke to shove that microphone up her tight ass!”

“You are just the drummer’s fucking girlfriend. That's all!”

The demon sock puppet is great.

Even at sixty-eight minutes, this was a slog.

Tequila Sunrise - Arrow 4K

Tequila Sunrise (available for pre-order now) was a rental store staple for me that I would always see on the shelf as a child, but never rented because, you know, it’s not exactly a kids movie based on that title. When I finally checked it out years later as a big fan of both Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell, I came away disappointed. When this new release from Arrow was announced, I decided to check it out because maybe I was still too young to appreciate it that first time. Turns out this is just okay. 

This is a movie completely reliant on star power. Without Gibson, Russell, Pfeiffer, and Julia I doubt this movie is remembered at all. The fact that it’s not that remembered today even with this cast says it all. 

Written and directed by Robert Towne (the guy who famously wrote Chinatown and much less famously wrote and directed Ask the Dust), Tequila Sunrise is about lifelong friends on opposite sides of the law who both fall in love with a restaurant owner. All the inherent conflict should make this very compelling, but it all seems uneventful. There’s a low energy to the film that makes the high stakes of it all feel low. 

But all these stars are in their prime and are so watchable that it still ends up being okay. It’s just that it should be great. Perhaps my expectations were too high and misplaced. The love triangle element isn’t that interesting to me, and that takes up more of the plot than the drug smuggling. I simply didn’t care who Pfeiffer ended up with, mainly because Russell is a bit of a shithead in this, and it doesn’t make much sense why she’s giving him any chance at all. But then again, her other option is a former drug smuggler who nearly gets her killed for simply knowing him, so maybe she just has poor taste in men?

Beyond that, I guess I wanted more of a Michael Mann experience, in which the film goes on vibes more than plot. I needed a Miami Vice scene in which some intricate detail is being explained but the sound drowns out as a character stares off into the ocean. But Towne isn’t capable of that since he’s a screenwriter first, and a director second. 

Despite that, Tequila Sunrise has its beautiful moments. It better, with a title like that. The standout scene is a dialogue between Russell and Gibson during a sunset. If more scenes were like that, I would have at least enjoyed this more as a visual experience, but moments like that are rare. 

All that written, this doesn’t get an Arrow 4K if it isn’t beloved. People clearly like this movie; I wish I was one of them. Maybe it’s as simple as being too young when it first came out. Who knows? But one thing’s for sure, I’m done trying to love this movie.

Random Thoughts

Despite my misgivings, I must admit the film does feature tequila, sunrises (more sunsets, though), and Tequila Sunrises (Mel Gibson's character drinks them). So there's that.

My main memory of this film beyond seeing it at the video store is its appearance in Interview with the Vampire. Louis is seen leaving a screening of Tequila Sunrise before he finds a decrepit Lestat. It’s part of him talking about being able to see the sun again through movies. I get that, but does that mean he watches any movie with "sun" in the title? What a fucking dildo.

Transfer and Special Features

Arrow is one of those distributors you can trust to handle a film with care, and that’s the case here. That sunset scene looks great, as does the rest of the film.

The standout of this new release was a new interview with producer Thom Mount (there’s also a commentary with him, but I don’t care enough about this movie to check that out). He’s as low energy as the movie, but he’s candid as hell. He acknowledges that current Mel Gibson is not great, but back then he seemed great! Somehow he brings up merkins and pasties in regards to the Pfeiffer and Gibson sex scene. And he says Robert Towne was so checked out that famed cinematographer Conrad Hall was brought in not only as DP, but also to shadow direct when Towne was late to set (which was a daily occurrence).

An interview with second AD Robert Roda confirms the Towne stuff as he talks about it being rare to have a second AD at all. It sounds like this was a team effort when it came to directing.

There’s a retrospective about Towne’s entire career, as well. 

And there’s a truly odd interview with Lala Sloatman. The interview itself isn’t odd, as she goes through her career, and her time working on the film. It’s odd because she plays “Sin Sister #2,” a character with five seconds of screen time. I really want to know why they tracked her down for this. She’s related to the Zappas and seems to know a lot of famous folk, so maybe she’s friends with the producer of this new release or something. 

There’s also the usual Arrow stuff like a reversible sleeve and a collectible booklet with essays about the film.

Fatal Flying Guillotine - Visual Vengeance

Thanks to Visual Vengeance, my martial arts movie education continues with Fatal Flying Guillotine (available for pre-order now). Apparently, the use of this weapon in martial arts films was a “craze” in the 1970s, but this is the first cinematic encounter for me, and I had a lot of fun with this one, even if I had no idea what was going on.

Due to bad translating or editing or both, I couldn’t figure out the particulars of the plot. It was clear that the old dude with the titular guillotines was the bad guy, and he had abandoned his family years ago because he needed to go to a magical valley to heal his heart from exercising too much (I swear that’s what the subtitles said). There’s also a book of medicine (and a forgery), and there’s a prince. I don’t know.

What I do know is that every couple minutes there are huge fights with great choreography and the sound effects I’ve come to expect from such a film. More importantly, Nearly everyone who dies in this film does so without their head, which means the title pays off.

As for the guillotines themselves, at first I found them to look silly as shit. They’re like big bells with a bunch of blades all over and inside them. Don’t get me wrong, I would be killed instantly by someone wielding these wacky things, but I would probably giggle right before it happened. The physics of the weapons are gravity-defying, but I dug the horror element of it. They seem to kind of operate on their own, chasing down dudes to decapitate. 

Beyond that, this was simply a fun curiosity for me. 

Transfer and Special Features

Aside from a few janky shots, this looks great, especially for what it is. And if you dig the jank, there’s a “dirty VHS” version of the film that lives up to its name. I only checked out a little bit of that one, but it’s also seven minutes longer, so true fans will get even more from that cut.

There’s a commentary with a podcaster if you’re into that sort of thing, but all I needed was the featurette with the aforementioned podcaster about the history of the flying guillotine in film. So I’m sure the commentary is filled with encyclopedic knowledge of the genre.

There’s also a visual essay, an archival interview with one of the actors, and a martial arts demonstration. 

It has Chinese and English-dubbed audio. 

The packaging is a big selling point, as the new art for the slipcover is awesome, and there’s a reversible cover for the case featuring the original artwork. 

Also included are some art cards, the usual Visual Vengeance VHS-style stickers, a mini-poster, and a booklet with essays. 

In other words, all the great stuff you’ve come to expect from Visual Vengeance. They love these old films, and it shows. 

Buddy - The New Movie from the Too Many Cooks Guy

Buddy is the latest fever dream from writer/director Casper Kelly (co-written by Jamie King), the creator of the viral Too Many Cooks short and the delightfully unhinged Adult Swim Yule Log movies. He takes the premise of a Barney-type ‘90s kids show and turns into an equal parts horror comedy. If you’re into any of his previous work, this will work on you. But a few factors remain: the baggage you bring to it, and if it warrants the run time.

The film is very similar to Too Many Cooks in that it takes a stereotypical ‘90s TV show and immediately adds a menacing quality to it. In Too Many Cooks, the endless title sequence starts off amusing but quickly becomes a banal hellscape that switches genres and features a machete-wielding killer. Everyone seems trapped inside this false feel-good scenario. And so too are the characters in Buddy.

Buddy is a kind of hybrid Barney and Pee-wee’s Playhouse with anthropomorphic animals, objects, and furniture coupled with human characters like children, a nurse, and a mailman. It seems normal and awful enough at first with songs and bland lessons. But things take a dark turn quickly when one of the children just wants to be left alone. 

I’ll leave it at that, as you can guess that things get darker and darker from there. At first glance, this might seem a bit one-note and deserving of just another short film instead of a feature. While I did find it a bit too long (I just think films like this should keep things under ninety minutes while this clocks in at ninety-five [like I said, just a bit too long]), it keeps changing things up and adding such unexpected elements that it felt compelling throughout. 

The dark humor and left-field moments are the main draw here, with some amazing child acting and voice-work. Patton Oswalt was born to voice a backpack, Keegan-Michael Key is doing his best evil Barney impression, and Michael Shannon is perfect as a cowboy puppet. Little moments like the other characters reacting to shocking violence had me laughing throughout. But I was expecting that from the premise. 

What surprised me about Barney is how truly unsettling it was. This is where the personal baggage comes into play. Becoming a parent has turned me into a basic bitch when it comes to certain elements in movies, and while I’ve tried to get over that (manipulating parents for emotional effect is practically a sub-genre thanks to Pixar), every now and then it gets to me. Seeing children near the age of my own in peril is certainly disturbing. This might sound weird, but it’s not the violence happening to them, it’s the abject fear they are in for large portions of the film. 

In most horror films, the characters are so underdeveloped that I don’t care what happens to them and often we’re meant to root for their demise. With Buddy, however, I just wanted to see these kids get to safety. A lot of this has to do with the great performances of the children both as fake happy participants of the show and as frightened prisoners. Delaney Quinn (who voiced the child in last year’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) is the stand-out, but there isn’t a weak performance here. 

Cristin Milioti rounds out the cast, and my anxiety, as Grace, a mother of one of the children. The film, thankfully, doesn’t dwell on her feeling like something is missing in the real world and gets her to the Buddy world quickly enough. Her scenes recognizing her daughter and fighting to protect her are the most emotionally charged moments for me. That aspect of the film stuck with me in a film I expected to be an overlong gimmick. 

There’s obviously a heavy dose of satire in Buddy, primarily focusing on the odd dynamic of Barney in the ‘90s. Why did this purple dinosaur need these children to love him? Why was he even around these kids? But the satire goes beyond the obvious and gets more into losing children to any kind of media. It’s not preachy or anything, but it’s easy to see a parallel with modern screen time. It doesn’t seem like the film is condemning all technology or anything. It’s more of a message of what happens when children are encouraged to develop emotional ties to the things and/or people they are watching. 

Once again, this depends on your own baggage. For me, I constantly worry about my children and how much screen time we allow them. For sure, it’s too much, and I feel guilty about it, and this film brought that to mind. Thankfully, I’ve never dealt with any of my children claiming to love Mickey Mouse or anything like that. Sure, they’ve had their favorite shows and now YouTubers, but they’ve never claimed to love any of them, and I don’t feel like I’m losing them to some digital hellscape that I will one day need to rescue them from. Buddy brings to mind that modern parenting battle, though, without making it the “message” or any other such nonsense. 

Buddy may have been more disturbing than I expected, but it was also entertaining throughout. The gore, the jokes, the voicework, the perfectly nailed aesthetic of the period, it all makes for a movie worthy of feature length. Just beware, because for some viewers it might invoke some Barney-like terror inside you between laughs.

Random Thoughts (SPOILERS)

I’m not one to usually wish for a prequel or short exploring the history of a character in a show or movie, but I would love to see the full story of Clint Howard and Michael Shannon, love scenes and all.

I get that Buddy had to fully change into a bigger menace at some point, but I wasn’t crazy about the demonic unicorn form. Though I appreciate that it was foreshadowed by a videogame poster on the wall of Milioti’s bedroom after she disappeared and it became single-dad Topher Grace’s room.

Speaking of Milioti, she wears a football jersey t-shirt to bed in one of her scenes that has Miami Dolphins colors and the number five. I can’t find any evidence to back this up, but this has to be a reference to Ray Finkle from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, the villain of that film who wore number five for the Dolphins. I would love to eventually get some kind of confirmation of this. Hopefully there’s an interview or commentary track in the future that will explain the wardrobe choice.

 

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s first two films, especially I Saw the TV Glow, focus on identity with characters feeling trapped. Because of this, I appreciated the films but found them unpleasant to watch, which I believe was the point. It appears that Schoenbrun has moved on thematically a bit, as their new film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is about…a lot. But, most importantly, it’s a fun watch and re-watch. 

Miasma is about a “zombie IP” franchise akin to Friday the 13th being rebooted by queer filmmaker Kris (Hannah Einbinder), who thinks casting the reclusive star of the original film (Gillian Anderson) is the key to the success of the project. Beyond that, it’s about franchises, product placement, sexual awakening, Hollywood politics, slasher movies, etc. It’s a little all over the place, but the overall takeaway is a love letter to slasher films that also satirizes them but attempts to understand their allure. 

That exploration is what appealed to me the most. In the film, it’s tied to a sexual awakening as a character fantasizes about being both the victim and the perpetrator. And there’s a simplicity to that answer that unlocks the entire genre. Fans of slasher films aren’t scared of them (which is why I always find it annoying when fans complain about new movies not being “scary,” as I’ve already seen a few people comment about this film); how could they be? The genre is so overdone it’s impossible to make one that creates real fear. Instead, they lean into voyeurism by having portions (or whole films as in In a Violent Nature) take place from the killer’s perspective. These are films that encourage you to root for good kills, so it’s nice to have a film that asks why that is. 

As stated in the film, this might sound too “academic,” but I swear this film isn’t some visual essay on slasher movies. It’s primarily about Einbinder’s journey, but along the way we get slasher set pieces and great needle drops and biting, and often goofy, humor.

The humor is what works the most and least for me. I loved the product placement jokes (I imagine the “dipping sauces” scene will be a love it or hate it moment for most), but the ultraviolent moments with CG bloodshed were too silly for me. That is the point, I’m sure, but a giant CG blood geyser is going to take me out of a movie every time, whether it's ironic or not. 

Beyond that, it’s difficult to truly get into what I loved about this film without spoilers, so I’ll finish up with this: Einbinder and Anderson are great. And as a fan of Friday the 13th, I enjoyed all the Easter eggs and references to that and other classic series. The opening credits showcase the VHS copies of the franchise, and that’s who this movie is for: people who grew up watching and re-watching (and still do) slasher franchises. When I finished watching this the first time, I immediately watched it again. I can’t think of higher praise for a film like this, and for Schoenbrun, it has me very excited for where their career goes from here.

Random Thoughts (SPOILERS)

Once you accept that the whole movie is a movie, it becomes more enjoyable. At least it was for me. I know that sounds stupid: the movie is a movie. But what I mean is this is the movie Kris is talking about making, opening credits and all. There is no moment that takes place in the “real world.” Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I viewed the film, and that’s what unlocked my enjoyment of it.

At first, the KFC scene and all the candy felt too silly to me. But when you take into account that every second of this is the actual movie/reboot/reimagining/legacyquel, then it all adds up as simple product placement. How else to explain the cut to Starburst, Skittles, and Rolos at the beginning of the “dipping sauce” moment? 

It also serves as social commentary (because of course it does). We’re still a relatively repressed society sexually, but we’ve been corporately encouraged for decades to indulge in junk food. If we can accept so many types of gummies, then why can’t we accept multiple genders and sexualities and identities?

The hotel at the beginning is undergrowing a re-brand as a Hilton. The constant product placement is great, and I’m sure it worked out in a Ricky Bobby kind of way to help finance the film.

The look of Little Death is kind of brilliant. It’s silly and a little creepy at the same time. And a slasher taking on an air vent that one could conceivably be staring at from bed (which is where Schoenbrun has said the idea came from) is the perfect visual for a film largely about sex.

I dig all the intentionally obvious matte paintings throughout.

The opening credits are fantastic, especially as a slasher fan, noticing titles that are straight up taken from Friday the 13th. Even though Jason exists in this world, Camp Miasma also “took” Manhattan. At first, I found that a little lazy (the Miasma videogame is also very similar to the Jason NES game) because it doesn’t make sense that both franchises would do the exact same thing. But, overthinking things again (which this movie both encourages and discourages), it can be seen as funny that the studios became that artistically bankrupt. Or this is an alternate reality in which Miasma was so popular that it ended the Jason series, allowing Miasma to now make all those glorious missteps, like going to outer space.

An early sign that it’s the movie from the beginning is the snowball fight the kids are having at the gas station. First off, why the fuck are there a bunch of kids at this gas station? Second, and more importantly, since when do snowballs bounce?

I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but another thing I initially didn’t love was the recreation of the original film. There were little things off at first, like the appearance of an HD camera and the punk character seeming to be workshopping lines. And then the big swing happens with the “Long December” sequence with cuts back and forth between old school POV shots and pan outs to modern CG gore. But this, much like the Buffy-type show from I Saw the TV Glow, is about how the character sees the original film more than what the actual film was like. This is evident when the radio breaks and Kris snaps out of the experience; the film playing on the screen is nothing like what we just saw. It looks like shit and has an ‘80s slasher theme for the score. I still don’t like the CG gore, however, even though it’s intentionally cartoonish. 

“I start off the movie as myself.”

That Zoom call is so goddamned unbearable. The one fucking dude explaining the joke of Michael Myers and Mike Myers having the same name is great.

Not that I refer to this film ever, but if I ever do in the future, it will always and forever be “New Nightmare by fright master Wes Craven.”

So Little Death has to rewind the new tape, I guess. Kind of a dick move for it to show up like that. Is there a little fleshy rewinder machine down there in his weird Videodrome lair?

Good to see some of my favorite podcast guests (Zach Cherry and Sarah Sherman) show up to get murdered.

Was Dylan Baker only available for the Zoom call? I was hoping to see him get killed, too.

Nice to see Patrick Fischler and Kevin MacDonald in a post-credits scene.

I’m sure some people will dislike this for not being enough like a slasher movie or not making enough fun of slasher movies or not being focused enough. I get it, and I can't argue with anyone not enjoying this. But something resonated with me with this film, and I foresee myself revisiting many times in the future.

I feel like I’m missing a million things to write about here, but I have to stop at some point.

New York, New York - MVD 4K

Blank Check with Griffin & David is covering Martin Scorsese’s entire filmography, and the MVD Marquee Collection coincidently puts out this new 4K of New York, New York, a true Scorsese blindspot for me. New York is a film I forgot even existed. Once this one arrived in the mail, I thought, “Oh yeah, that terrible musical flop he made.” That’s a bit reductive, and wrong, but I imagine others feel the same way about this film.

First off, this isn’t a musical. Yes, there is a lot of music in it, and there is a full on musical segment near the end, but it’s not as if characters are walking around singing the plot. I’m not a fan of musicals, so it relieved me when it turned out to be a film about musicians rather than a musical. But it is Scorsese’s tribute to the classic MGM musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s that he grew up on. And that’s the most enjoyable element. 

This is a film clearly filmed on giant sets with tons of extras and choreography. Plenty of scenes look comically fake, but that’s the intention. I loved the look of the film in its intended 1.66:1 ratio and the softness of the film grain showcased in 4K. It truly feels like a film from another time. I can see why it was dismissed at the time, but looking at it now, I appreciate the homage to the period. And of course anything Scorsese shoots is going to be visually interesting. My favorite segment from a visual standpoint has to be the club scene in which they discuss Liza Minnelli’s contract and Robert De Niro ends up getting kicked out. It all looks great already, but then De Niro gets shoved into this tunnel of light bulbs, and you can appreciate the entire film.

To go to that extreme for a simple scene of a drunken De Niro getting tossed out of a club requires a kind of maniac, and coked-up 1970s Martin Scorsese was indeed that coked-up maniac (the failure of this film coupled with his drug use nearly ruined him). 

New York, New York is simply one of those rare films in which a filmmaker is able to cash in on the success of his previous film (in this case Taxi Driver), and he takes that leverage and goes all in on a passion project (which is why Scorsese is the perfect fit for a Blank Check series). Of course, any passion project is not going to be without fault.

I found the run time of 164 minutes to be excessive, partly because De Niro plays such a piece of shit in this. It’s tough to see him be a complete asshole for the fiftieth time when you’re already over two hours in. But Minnelli’s sympathetic performance helps balance it a bit. Still, it’s a slog at times. 

Despite my quibbles with the film, I’m glad I finally got to check it out, in a new 4K transfer, no less. Any Scorsese fan should check it out, too.

Transfer and Special Features

I already mentioned the transfer above, but I’ll just reiterate that this isn’t one of those brilliantly sharp transfers. Instead, it’s one that captures the original vision of the film, which is necessarily on the soft side. 

The special features are all ported over from the previous blu-ray release. There’s an introduction from Scorsese, a commentary, a making-of doc, a featurette on Minnelli, and (somehow) deleted scenes. 

The included blu-ray disc also contains the shorter International Version of the film. 

And there is a slipcover and a reversible sleeve for the case. 

In all honesty, I didn’t check out many of the special features because I was kind of exhausted by the film, but I imagine any true fan of the film will want to check them out.

Death Warrant - MVD Rewind 4K

 

Death Warrant is a film I’ve written about before, but when MVD Rewind releases a new 4K (out now) of any Van Damme movie, I’m going to write another article. That first article I wrote almost exactly seven years ago is certainly my deep dive into the film, so check that out if you’re interested. This is going to be much more brief. 

In Death Warrant, Van Damme plays a Canadian Mountie detective (why not?) who tracks a serial killer known as the Sandman to Los Angeles. Sixteen months (why not?) after taking out the Sandman, a task force in LA wants Van Damme to go undercover in a prison to help uncover why so many mysterious deaths have been happening (...why not?). 

As you can tell from my parentheticals, I had a few issues with the plot of this one. I still love this movie, and it’s one of my favorite unsung Van Damme movies. But this film feels like it’s missing a half hour of plot. There’s still a lot of fun to be had with this, and the prison elements are wonderfully brutal, but I wanted to focus on some plot points, or lack thereof, this time around. 

First, I’m not sure a Mountie is allowed to come down to America and take over a homicide case. Yes, they tell him to wait for back up, but how was he down here doing anything in an official capacity? And what exactly is the Canadian connection with the Sandman? So many questions. 

Anyway, Van Damme shoots the Sandman plenty of times, then it cuts to sixteen months later, and he’s back in LA. But when did he go back to Canada? Were they just okay with him ignoring the order to wait for backup? And since we later find out the Sandman survived, was Van Damme not involved in the trial at all? He returns to the precinct a hero, getting high-fives and whatnot. So it seems like everyone is fine with him, and they inexplicably ask Van Damme to go undercover in prison for a task force. Let’s ignore the insane coincidence that the governor would task the mastermind of the murders with solving the problem. The bigger question is why Van Damme would agree to do this so quickly. 

This bothered me so much this time around because it could have been so easily fixed. I see two ways to fix this. First, have Van Damme be in trouble with the local police for overstepping. They can say something about how he got in trouble with both the LAPD and the Mounties for this personal vendetta, and that going undercover for them could make those problems go away. Or, they could reveal that the Sandman is still alive and in that particular prison, then Van Damme has the motivation to go in there and finish the job. Hell, get rid of the silly subplot with the task force being in on the murders and just make it all the Sandman’s doings. 

Despite my issues with the general premise, once Van Damme is in prison I don’t care anymore. He’s in there roundhouse-kicking dudes in the lunch line, threatening to make Larry Hankin drink piss, etc. It’s a good time, and the supporting cast is fantastic. They truly do a great job creating the world of the prison, and while the plot bogs things down from time to time, none of that matters by the time the Sandman reappears for the final battle.

Transfer and Special Features

MVD Rewind loves Van Damme as much as I do, and the transfer shows that. This looks great, and the 4K brings out every grimy detail of the prison and its inmates. 

There are all the usual physical bonuses of an MVD release. There’s the slipcover, the reversible sleeve for the case if you’re into the faux-distressed look, and a mini-poster.

As for the special features, everything is ported over from a blu-ray release from a few years ago. I somehow missed that release entirely, so the interviews with Art LaFleur, Patrick Kilpatrick, and Cynthia Gibb were new to me, as was the commentary from director Deran Sarafian. It’s all decent, and any fan of the film should check it out.

Overall, as with any JCVD MVD release, this is the definitive version of the film to own, and I’m glad to have it as part of my collection.