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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Sex > Filmmaking > Satire > Spoof > Japan > S&M > Thriller > Murder > Happy Hooker Goes To Hollywood (1980/Cannon/Scorpion/Blu-ray*)/Sex and Zen (2010/Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-ray)/Tokyo Decadence (1991/Unearthed Blu-ray*)/Wild Things 4K (1998/Sony/Arrow 4K Ultra

Happy Hooker Goes To Hollywood (1980/Cannon/Scorpion/Blu-ray*)/Sex and Zen (2010/Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-ray)/Tokyo Decadence (1991/Unearthed Blu-ray*)/Wild Things 4K (1998/Sony/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/*all MVD)



4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B/B-/B-/X Sound: B-/B-/C+/A- Extras: C/C/C/B- Films: C+/C/C/B



PLEASE NOTE: The Sex and Zen Import Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on 4K and Blu-ray players that can handle Region B discs and can be ordered from the link below.



If you treat sex films like a genre, they also will show that it has its limits, so marking it as officially launched in 1972 (when it became legal to show a film like Deep Throat, et al) followed by thousands of like films making untold money, that success will wear things out quickly and these four films show how...



Alan Roberts' The Happy Hooker Goes To Hollywood (1980) is the third feature film with a different actress playing the real-life title character and super-madame, Xavier Hollander. This time, it is veteran Bond Gal and international sex symbol Martine Beswick, as sexy as her acting predecessors and in what is a comic tale of producers trying to turn her hit book into a movie. Yes, a post-modern porn spoof.


We do get more nudity and a few sex moments I was not necessarily expecting, but the ongoing joke is having people cast who you would never associate with any kind of XXX material like Adam West (still very much the Batman of the moment with his hit 1960s series and a newer animated 1977 hit show made for Saturday Morning Children's TV) and Richard Deacon of The Dick Van Dyke Show, plus Phil Silvers, Chris Lemmon, Dick Miller and even Edie Adams. That in-joke would be lost on most newer viewers, but its there and the film has enough wacky, politically incorrect and odd moments that those interested should give it a good look.


Extras include two on-camera interviews (a good one with Chris Lemmon and great one with Martine Beswick) and an Original Theatrical Trailer.



Michael Mark's Sex and Zen (2010) has a newlywed man (Lawrence Ng) so disappointed with his wedding night performance, he goes on a sex spree to be with all kinds of women to have all kinds of sex so there is never a repeat of that bad night. Then his wife (Amy Yip) becomes a hooker?

This is meant to be a comedy of some kind and at least has some amusing moments, but not enough of them or anything sexual to justify 95 minutes that might have worked much better if it tried to do some other things and maybe take a few more things seriously. The cast is not too bad either and this is shot well enough.


Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer and on-camera interview with director Mark.



Ryu Murakami's Tokyo Decadence (1991) has us following one woman (Miho Nikaido) into the night of sexual exploits, adventures, behaviors, fantasies and more than a few bad things as well, but the problem is that it is more titillating than any kind serious character study of her or the world, though the makers capture some of the sleaze of the situation. This can even look good in parts, but in its nearly two hours, it does not achieve much more.


Helping is a score by Ryuichi Sakamoto of Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987) who makes it more bearable, but the makers fail to take advantage of that bit of luck. Still, I did not buy much of this and felt I had seen most of this before, but you can always see for yourself.


Extras include Trailers, Stills Gallery and Making Of featurette.



Lastly, the widely released Wild Things 4K (1998) gets a deluxe 4K presentation in this great release from Arrow Video. The captivating thriller remains a fun and sexy romp and features great performances by Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillion, and Bill Murray to name a few. If you're a fan of the film or perhaps even seeing it for the first time then this limited edition is not to be missed.


There were a few pretty lousy sequels that followed this film, none of which brought back any of the great original cast, and leaned in I think more on the sex angle than anything. What works here the most is a strong screenplay in which you never quite know what character to trust at any moment, which sometimes makes it a bit confusing on who to root for. Campbell and Richards both were in their prime here and really sizzle in their scenes together, and while their romantic scenes here are no big deal now, they were at the time.


A high school counselor named Sam Lombardo (Dillion) is convicted of raping a pretty young girl (Denise Richards) and another student (Neve Campbell) a few years earlier. Although Lombardo swears that he didn't do such a thing, he loses his job and hires a bunk lawyer (Murray) when he's taken to court. A skeptical Detective (Bacon) has a growing interest in this case, one of which takes many twists and turns, in a complicated caper where lives and millions of dollars are soon at stake.


Special Features:


Unrated and Rated versions of the film in new 4K restorations supervised by Sony Pictures


Exclusive new audio commentary by director John McNaughton and producer Steven A. Jones


Commentary by director John McNaughton, cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball, producers Steven A. Jones and Rodney Liber, editor Elena Maganini and score composer George S. Clinton


Exclusive new interview with John McNaughton


Exclusive new interview with Denise Richards


Making of documentary


An Understanding Lawyer outtakes


Trailer


Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anne Billson and Sean Hogan


Double-sided fold-out poster


Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions


and a Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley


While Wild Things weighs heavily on the theme of 'how far will someone go to become rich', its story really isn't too far of a stretch nowadays. In fact, this story could easily happen, and likely backfire in today's high tech world of crime, and so oddly its 1998 release date fits the story setting quite well. Are people dumb enough to kill each other over some money? Absolutely. This film simply shows you one scenario.




Now for playback performance. Wild Things 4K is presented in 2160p with an HEVC/H.265 codec, Dolby Vision/HDR, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and audio mixes in lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit). Shot on 35mm, the film looks and sounds fantastic throughout and has really been cleaned up from the days of DVD and VHS when the film was first released. The soundtrack has some noticeable '90s hits and a sultry score by George S. Clinton that hints a little bit of Bernard Herrmann at times. This is the definitive version of this film and beats out any prior version in terms of quality by a long shot.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Hooker is the best of the rest with a few flaws, but still consistent enough for a 2018 HD master, but the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Zen and 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Tokyo can show the age of the materials used much more so and even if we figure in stylized shots, they just do not look as good overall as they could.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono on Hooker 5.1 lossless mix on Zen tie for second place for sounding good, but not great and show their age, though I doubt they can sound much better than they do here, or this is the best they will ever sound. The PCM 2.0 Stereo and Mono counterpart tracks on Tokyo are narrowly different, though I preferred the Stereo, yet it is still on the weak side and seems to be the way the sound was produced.



To order the Sex and Zen Umbrella Region Free import Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many other hard-to-find releases:


http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/



- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K)

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



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