Aztec
Mummy Collection
(1957, 58, 64/VCI)/Bloody
Muscle Body Builder In Hell
(2009/Wild Eye/both MVD Blu-rays)/Escape
The Field
(Blu-ray)/Lockdown
(DVD/both Lionsgate 2022)/Sniper:
Rogue Mission
(2022/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/B-/B/B-/B+ Sound: C/B/B/B-/B+ Extras: C+/B/C+/C-/D
Films: C/C-/C/D/C+
Here's
one of the stranger sets of genre releases of late...
Mexico's
Aztec Mummy films are brought together in one Blu-ray set, The
Aztec Mummy Collection
(1957,) from VCI. These are fun for a B-movie horror fan like myself
that loves old monster schlock, however, the transfers are a bit
rough still despite being presented in 1080p. The set contains three
films:
Curse of the Aztec Mummy
(1957,) The
Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
(1958) and Wrestling
Women vs. the Aztec Mummy
(1964.) All of these movies were shot simultaneously without a break
in 1957 and released one after another. The plots are pretty paper
thin, but they mostly revolve around the Aztec Mummy that guards a
treasure they hope to unearth. The Mummy faces many foes - all that
hope to score his ancient fortune.
The
films are presented in black and white 1080p with a 1.85:1 widescreen
aspect ratio and an lossy, English-dub Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix.
The transfers look a bit rough and I'm sure the original elements
weren't the best to begin with, so VCI is at the mercy fo the older
elements. This is a passable presentation for someone who just wants
to see the film, but is by no means a super detailed transfer.
Special
Feature: A Video Essay which covers each movie in depth by Mexican
film authority, Dr. David Wilt.
Bloody
Muscle Body Builder In Hell
(2009) is also billed as the Japanese version of Sam Raimi's Evil
Dead,
or at least that's what it wants to be. The low budget gore-fest has
a lot of imagination and spunk behind it, but at the end of the day
is cartoonish and over the top goofy with an amateur kind of indie
feel.
A
body builder helps his girlfriend do research on a haunted house and
are soon tormented by a supernatural force within the house. The
film stars Sinichi Fukazawa.
The
film has a shot-on-analog-video look and has been made to look like a
cheap VHS of sorts. The 1080p high definition image on Blu-ray disc
has a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, an MPEG-4 AVC codec, and audio mixes in
Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 and lossless Japanese DTS-HD 2.0 Mono MA
(Master Audio) sound.
Special
Features:
Audio
Commentary with Japanese Film Historian James Harper
Audio
Commentary with Adam Green and Joe Lynch
Interview
with Producer / Director Shinichi Fukazawa
Special
Effects Video
Original
Trailer #1
Original
Trailer #2
Behind
the Scenes Photo Gallery
and
an Image Gallery
Escape
The Field
(2022) begins with a group of strangers who all wake up in an endless
maze of a corn field, and have no recollection of how they got there.
They are each equipped with a weapon or item of some sort and are
forced to piece together puzzles in order to escape. Weird
scarecrows guard certain corners and a monster of some sort kills at
will hidden in the weeds. As they get picked off one by one, clues
surface as to why they are there and what's at stake.
The
concept is pretty big budget and sounds pretty interesting, but with
a stronger cast and more stylized filmmaking, this could have been a
bit better than it turned out. The filmmaking on a whole isn't awful
and the film has some interesting ideas akin to an escape room type
movie.
The
film stars Jordan Claire Robbins, Theo Rossi, Tahirah Sharif, Julian
Feder, Elena Juatco, and Shane West and is directed by Emerson Moore.
Escape
The Field
is presented in an MPEG-4 AVC codec, 1080p high definition on Blu-ray
disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless DTS-HD
5.1 MA (Master Audio) mix. The film looks and sounds fine in HD on
the Blu-ray format.
Special
Features: Feature-length Audio Commentary and a Behind the Scenes
featurette.
Michael
Pare (Gone)
and Bai Ling (The
Crow)
star in
Lockdown
(2022), which is a poor attempt at a jail-house ransom movie in the
vein of John Carpenter's Assault
on Precinct 13.
The film runs at 90 minutes, but feels like 90 hours as you
painfully take in horrendous acting and poor special effects. Bai
Ling does what she can with the role, where she plays an imprisoned
prostitute held hostage by a rapist, a serial killer, and a paranoid
schizophrenic who all escape their cells at a Los Angeles police
station. If you're looking for a deep character study, this film is
not it, as every character is pretty one dimensional and has no depth
at all. The realism of the film on a whole, including its violence,
is laughable. All in all, this is just bad. Bad bad bad.
(Spoilers)
The most hilarious and head scratching moment of the whole movie are
the relationship between Bai Ling and the Paranoid Schizofrentic.
Their phony sexual scenes in the movie are comedic and not at all
dramatic as intended. This movie has some of the worse directed
action sequences I've ever seen. You can tell the actors are acting
in slow motion and that in the edit, they didn't even bother to speed
up the actions. The bullet shots that come out of the gun are super
cheap as are the bullet hits and blood sprays that are digital and so
phony - there isn't even blood on the wall behind the subject who
gets his ''head blown off.'' The cops in the film are useless
despite training and the weapons they have on them. Various points
in the movie the villains have their backs turned towards these cops
who are just sitting in a chair apparently afraid of one handgun.
This movie is so unbelievably unrealistic that it's like a crew of
teenagers made it.
The
film also stars Chanel Ryan, Mark Krenik, Bishop Stevens, and Michael
Wainwright.
Lockdown
is presented in anamorphically enhanced standard definition on DVD
with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
mix. The film looks okay on disc, but there wasn't much to look at
anyway with the lot of the film taking place on just a few indoor
jail sets that look worse than what you would see on TV.
The
only extra is a trailer.
Lastly,
Sniper:
Rogue Mission
(2022) may look like a direct to video action movie disaster with one
quick glance at the box cover art, but the film itself is actually
not too bad for a lower budget action film and for being what it is.
The pulsing soundtrack also by the director, Oliver Thompson, really
keeps the film moving and overall the writing isn't as bad as I
expected. While this is by no means a classic or completely
original, it could have been a heck of lot worse than what it turned
out to be. If you like movies with sniper, lots of gunplay, and
characters on the run, there are worse films to check out than this
one! (That's a mild compliment.)
The
film stars Chad Collins, Ryan Robbins, Sayaka Akimoto, Brendan Sexton
III, and Josh Brener.
A
criminal organization responsible for sex trafficking murders 9 of
its 10 female prisoners. When a Sniper and CIA end up protecting the
surviving victim, they must employ a rogue assassin named Lady Death
to help aid them in finding and apprehending these criminals.
Sniper:
Rogue Mission
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and a lossless,
English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit). The film looks
and sounds pretty good for the format and as mentioned the soundtrack
is particularly well done by the film's director.
No
extras.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/