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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Crime > Drugs > Vietnam > Horror > Killer > Rock Music > Aliens > Science Fiction > TV > Mystery > Clay Pigeon (1971*)/Clown Fear (2020/Lionsgate DVD)/Mock N' Roll (2017/Sound View/*both MVD DVD)/Roswell, New Mexico: The Complete First Season (2019/DVD)/The World, The Flesh & The Devil (1958/MGM/bo

Clay Pigeon (1971*)/Clown Fear (2020/Lionsgate DVD)/Mock N' Roll (2017/Sound View/*both MVD DVD)/Roswell, New Mexico: The Complete First Season (2019/DVD)/The World, The Flesh & The Devil (1958/MGM/both Warner Archive)



Picture: C/B-/B/B-/B Sound: C+/B-/B/B-/B- Extras: D/C/C/D/C- Main Programs: C+**/C/C/C+/C+



PLEASE NOTE: The Roswell DVD and The, World, The Flesh and The Devil Blu-ray are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Our latest group of genre releases are often creepy, different and a few even take risks...



Tom Stern co-produced, co-directed and starred in Clay Pigeon (1971), the story of a Vietnam vet coming back home (one of the first films in a cycle to do so, before Hollywood was able to deal directly with the 'war') who barely survived an incident where he threw his body on a grenade, but it incredibly did not go off. He lived, but never felt right after that and returns home for good, though the conflict overseas still rages on.


However, the drug ware continues and an ambitious FBI agent (Telly Savalas) wants to take down a drug kingpin (Robert Vaughn, effectively bitter in an interesting performance) and is on track, but needs one more thing to get him in the open and stop him. He comes up with a plan to use the Vietnam vet to get the kingpin out in the open, thus the title of the film.


Originally a theatrical release by MGM back in the day, this is a time capsule that has its moments, including some fun anti-authoritarianism, several breaks for whole songs that slow the narrative as the film wants to follow the likes of The Graduate, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and Five Easy Pieces (a film playing at one of the theaters in an early scene) and has some blood, violence, open attitude towards drugs and nudity that shows its counterculture and American New Wave Cinema placement.


Making it worth seeing, despite some flaws and dated parts are its cast, which also includes John Marley, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Jeff Corey, Marlene Clark, Pat McCormick, Michael Gwynne, James Dobson and Andrew Parks. You can see this one as at least a curio, but is a film everyone should see once just for what does work and for something different.


**The 1.33 X 1 has new, cheaper opening text credits and the end credits are missing! In between, the color is a little off and the definition is a little soft throughout. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono fares a little better, though you get some background noise, but this film, needs some restoration work. There are sadly no extras.



In the wake of the success of the IT films and Joker, it's only natural that Hollywood turns out scary clown movies in an attempt to make a quick buck. Thus, Clown Fear (2020) is born. The story centers around a runaway bride and her bridesmaids who eventually get stuck in a city where evil clowns have taken over known as 'Clown City' USA. There the Bridesmaids are apprehended and tortured as part of the hellish circus sideshow these psycho clowns have created.


The film's one saving grace is its talented cast which includes Elissa Dowling, Sarah French, Sadie Katz, Tiffany Lynn Best, and Gianni Capaldi to name a few.


Clown Fear is presented in anamorphically enhanced standard definition on DVD with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, both of which are of high quality and the norm for the format. Compression issues are evident and native in this film that was obviously show on a shoestring budget.


Special Features include:


Behind the Scenes Featurette


''Faster'' Music Video


Trailer


and other Lionsgate Trailers



Mock N' Roll (2017) is shot on a barebones budget and attempts to be a profound examination of music pop culture, but has way too much dialogue for its own good. An honest effort, however amateur filmmaking at times, Mock n' Roll centers around an Ohio 'parody band' of burnouts who are trying to go to the Southwest Music Festival.


The film is directed by Ben Bacharach-White and stars Andrew Yackel, Aditi Molly Bhanja, Melissa O' Brien, KateLynn E. Newberry and others. The bands Foghat and Black Owls are also featured in the film.


Mock n' Roll is presented in standard definition on DVD disc with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound mix. The film is shot on video and has compression issues all over the place with some sections shot more professionally than others.


Special Features include Social Media Clips, but that's all.



Roswell, New Mexico: The Complete First Season (2019) lands on DVD courtesy of Warner Bros in this collectible three disc set. Based on Roswell High by Melinda Metz, the show centers around a teenage romance similar to the Twilight series. A girl realizes that her boyfriend is really an alien. When secrets of his species come to the surface politics and other things grow more complicated. While it is toned down to a young adult level, there are some interesting things that genre fans can take away from it.


The TV series stars Jeanine Mason, Nathan Parsons, Michael Vlamis, Tyler Blackburn, Michael Trevino, Lily Cowles, Heather Hemmens, and Trevor St. John.


13 episodes span three DVD discs which include Pilot, So Much for the Underglow, Tearin' Up My Heart, Where Have All The Cowboys Gone, Don't Speak, Smells Like Teen Spirit, I Saw the Sign, Barely Breathing, Songs About Texas, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, Champagne Supernova, Creep, and Recovering the Satellites.


Roswell: Next Mexico is presented in anamorphically enhanced standard definition on DVD with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital audio mix. Compression issues are evident as with the format, and could be improved in HD but it looks fine here. The show has decent production design even though the script and content could be better.


No extras.


The show has some interesting concepts but can't escape the teenie-bopper tone.



Finally, we have Randal D. MacDougal's The World, The Flesh & The Devil (1958) with Harry Belafonte as a water works employee working underground in West New York State checking for the source of a leak, which he fixes, then there is a cave in and he is trapped. Sick of waiting for anyone to help him, he finally gets to the surface and finds everyone is gone. He investigates, but has limited luck, so he goes to New York City for answers and finds it abandoned too. What happened?


Part of the end of the world cycle, the film no doubt would influence films like The Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Omega Man with Charlton Heston and its remake, I Am Legend with Will Smith, though we get some narrative breaks with Belafonte singing new songs (some at full length) in possible hopes of having another hit record on them. Give or take that, he more than carries the film and holds his own well until possibly a new survivor shows up.


You'll see plenty of older technology, but this is only passably a Science Fiction film, yet enough of one to qualify, but it is mostly a drama with some comic touches and some irony, so it is still worth seeing for what is accomplished and for its speculation on what might have been. It is also timely anytime something disturbing worldwide happens like the developing real-life pandemic unfolding as this review posts.


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer has some soft shots here and there, usually due to matte work and other visual effects, but also because it was shot in the older CinemaScope format and can show the age of the materials used. This is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and has been restored as well as possible.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix is a variant of the original 4-track magnetic sound with traveling dialogue and sound effects that appeared on the film in its original release, but the full 4-track master is missing (for now?). Some interesting attempts at trying something different sonically are featured and this is still not bad.


An Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.



To order either the Warner Archive Roswell DVD or The World, The Flesh & The Devil Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


http://www.wbshop.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo (Clay, World) and James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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