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/