There is plenty of digital ink spilled on this site and many others about the wonderful work of US and UK cult home video specialists like Severin Films, Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome and many others like them. But, there are other companies on the far side of the world also doing great work and we'd like to showcase a few releases from them as well.
Australia's Umbrella Entertainment is mostly known for being home for thousands of catalog movie and TV releases, but over the last few years they've been buil;ding up their cult collection and in the last half of 2016 they really put down their flag in a big way. Here's a look at some ofd their best releases of the last six months, Brian Trenchard Smith's debut feaure The Man From Hong Kong, nature vs. man exploitation flick Long Weekend, early '90s goo-fest Body Melt, and ill-fated 80's Marvel movie The Punisher.
Filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith has been in the trenches of mid-budget movies since the early '70s. However, it wasn't until Mark Hartley's Australian exploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood, and getting the Quentin Tarantino seal of approval that his name became one that film fans really started to recognize.
Back in 1975 he was just a young, hungry film fanatic looking to make his mark and he somehow managed to talk his way into directing The Man from Hong Kong, a big action film co-production between Hong Kong's Golden Harvest and The Australian Film Development Corporation starring the biggest martial arts hero in the East, “Jimmy” Wang Yu.
The film was the story of a Hong Kong cop brought into Sydney to extradite a lethal drug dealer who had escaped prison back home. The dealer was very well-connected in Australia, so catching him was to be no mean feat. Fang Sing Leng (Wang Yu) teams up with Aussie film legend Roger Ward (Turkey Shoot) and Hugh Keays-Bryne ( Mad Max: Fury Road) to track him down and eventually take down the drug syndicate altogether. The only problem is the local big man on the scene, gangster Jack Wilton (George Lazenby doing some of his own martial arts stunt work) and his crew of henchmen, led by the gonzo stunt legend Grant Page.
The resulting chase is an amazing series of set pieces that begins at the top of the great Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and spans hang gliders, back alley gambling hot spots, and a number of bedrooms on its way to a resolution. It's great fun and one hell of a calling card as the debut feature from the man who would become Australia's action king.
The Disc:
Umbrella Entertainment does right by The Man from Hong Kong on all fronts in this amazing new Blu-ray. The new 4K scan looks excellent, quite a bit better than their 4K restoration work on Road Games, presumably not from a release print like that disc was. The sound is also grand, with dialogue and a ton of music and FX cues pop in a way they haven't in years. However, even though this film is really the star of the disc, it's only the beginning of the gold herein.
The team at Umbrella really went over and above all expectations with this release in terms of bonus content. Not only is there the usual audio commentary from a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable Trenchard-Smith, co-star Keays-Bryne, and the inimitable Grant Page. There is also a great making of-doc, plenty of fascinating contemporaneous newsreel footage of the film's production and release, tons of uncut interviews with all of the major players from outtakes of Not Quite Hollywood, and a Trailers From Hell segment narrated by Trenchard-Smith, himself. But even that is only the beginning.
The Man from Hong Kong also serves as a primer for Trenchard-Smith's early work as it features an additional five full feature films in SD on the disc, with little to no adverse effect on the main feature. The additional films, Deathcheaters (with audio commentary), the gonzo Stunt Rock (with audio commentary), Kung Fu Killers (a TV doc that features Grant Page exploring martial arts alongside the greats), Dangerfreaks (a stunt doc featuring Page from the '80s), and The Stuntmen (an earlier stunt doc featuring Page), are all very good markers for the filmmaker that BTS (as his fans know him) would become.
This is an astonishing release of a very fun film and it comes highly recommended. The disc itself is all region, but be aware that the additional features are in PAL SD, so your mileage may vary.
Director Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend is one of the best eco-terror films of the '70s and Umbrella Entertainment does a wonderful job with their release. In the movie, an estranged couple decides to take a weekend trip into nature to try and mend their broken marriage, only to have their animosity toward each other seep into their surroundings in the most horrific of ways. They throw their garbage in every direction, set fire to the local flora, attack a helpless beached dugong (manatee), and do it all in an attempt to get under each other's skins.
Unfortunately for this couple, Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets), nature isn't in a very forgiving mood and things start to go pear-shaped very quickly. The more they disrespect the pristine stretch of beach on which they've descended, the angrier the animals get until the abusers become the abused, and I bet you could've heard everyone in the cinema back in 1977 cheering as the despicable couple received their just desserts.
As allegory, it's not a bit subtle, but it's terribly effective. Long Weekend is a wonderfully nasty two-hander that is handled with dastardly aplomb by its leads. Not only is it sickening to watch, it's also beautiful to look at as cinematographer Vincent Monton captures the gorgeous Australian scenery with a respect as great as his subjects disdain. Beautiful work all around.
The Disc:
Long Weekend has been out on Blu-ray in the US for several years now thanks to Synapse Films, and this new release seems to be just as good on the A/V front with only minor print damage noticeable. Where the disc does exceed its predecessor is in the bonus materials.
We get the same audio commentary from earlier releases from producer Richard Brennan and cinematographer Monton, both of whom seem a bit surprised at the films longevity and enduring popularity on the cult circuit. There are also a pile of uncut interviews from writer Everett De Roche, Biorny Behets, and Vincent Monton from the outtakes of Not Quite Hollywood – which is becoming a welcome regular occurrence from Umbrella Blu-ray releases. There is also a wonderful stills gallery overlaid with an interview with John Hargreaves, the lead actor.
However, my favorite part of this disc is a fascinating panel discussion titled “Nature Found them Guilty: Examining Long Weekend”. The panel features film historians and critics Lee Gambin, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Emma Westwood, and Sally Christie. It's rather refreshing to see a panel that is three-quarters women and it really puts a unique perspective on the film that the usual all male panel might have. Of particular note are the contributions of Heller-NIcholas, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite film analysts. It's a wonderful conversation about not only the film but also the nature of the relationships in the film, highly recommended viewing.
Long Weekend is coded for all regions, so import to your heart's content. Definitely worth your money!
Cut from the same disgusting cloth as Peter Jackson's pioneering splatter classics Bad Taste and Dead Alive ( Braindead), Philip Brophy's Body Melt is one of the great unsung classics of '90s gross-out horror. Thankfully the film gets a second chance at life on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment, and I hope people are adventurous enough to give it a shot.
In a suburban planned community people start getting ill and dying in increasingly gooey ways. Apart from the fact that all of the victims seem to live in the same cul-de-sac, they have something else in common, recent contact with experimental health food supplement, Vimuville. One by one, the neighbors experience the rapid onset of horrifying mutations and violent death until someone finally catches on and tries to stop the literal disintegration of the neighborhood. Will they make it in time? Who knows! But it's sure fun to watch the guts splatter in the meantime.
Body Melt has some tenuous message about body image or the obsession with appearance of the '80s and '90s, but really that's just a front for a good grand guinol style horror film. I don't have any particular connection, emotional or otherwise, to these characters, but I do know that it's fun to watch them explode. Just imagine the transformation scene in The Thing, but over and over again with increasingly violent manifestations. It's a lot of gooey fun and I'm glad it's finally getting a bit of respect.
The Disc:
This 1993 film looks pretty solid on Blu-ray from Umbrella, much better than Dead Alive which got a half-assed Blu-ray release from Lionsgate several years back. Color and detail are solid, and while a lot of the tech is really dated, the practical effects hold up really well under HD scrutiny. It's a lot of fun to watch and enjoy.
In terms of extras, Umbrella has gone into the archive and pulled out some on-set BTS footage and an old video making-of doc from 1992 which are wonderful little time capsules. We also get an audio commentary from director Brophy, writer Rod Bishop, and producer Daniel Scharf who seem excited that their little film makes as much of an impact as it does. Lastly is a few galleries of images, stills, props, storyboard, and some other assorted goodies to round out the show.
Body Melt may not be smart, but it's a hell of a lot of fun, and I think that's the ambition it was made with. This disc is all region, so fans from all over the world can enjoy.
Back in 1989 when Mark Goldblatt's The Punisher was released to cinemas it was a complete flop. Honestly, it's not terribly hard to see why. There was no market for comic book films at the time and these guys just really didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. The result is a lot campier than the filmmakers were aiming for, but somehow remains as the second best Punisher movie on the market so far (behind Punisher: War Zone).
Dolph Lundgren is Frank Castle, a supercop who loses his family to a violent mob attack. In retaliation Castle abandons the rule of law and becomes The Punisher; judge, jury, and executioner to the wickedness that rules his city. The Yakuza doesn't stand a chance against a man who has replaced fear with anger and caution with rage – oh, and a whole lot of guns. The streets will be clean again, and Castle's gonna be the one to do it.
As a slice of '80s gonzo action, it's not terrible, it just doesn't really understand the character very well and doesn't do a ton of work to give him a reason. The film was heavily cut for almost all of its releases, resulting in a watered down version of a character who is almost certainly the most violent of all of Marvel's heavy hitters. Thankfully, this Blu-ray gives us a glimpse into what might have been.
The Disc:
Umbrella has down a decent job with the R rated cut of the film, the one that most of the world is familiar with, but that isn't the reason to grab this disc. In addition the HD version of The Punisher in it's released form, there are two additional cuts of the film available in SD; the unrated cut and Goldblatt's workprint version. These are understandably of lesser quality than the original HD version, but fascinating nonetheless. They present a very different picture of what the film could've been. We even get an audio commentary from Goldblatt on the unrated version of the film to help put the cuts in context. It's exceptional work from Umbrella.
However, that's not all. There is also a pair of great interviews with Goldblatt and the always charming and eloquent Lundgren explaining what they were trying to do with the film. Both are great interviews that help to contextualize the disaster that The Punisher ultimately became. There is also a gag reel and a trailer.
The Punisher isn't a great film in any of its incarnations, but it certainly deserves a chance. Umbrella Entertainment's Blu-ray is the best shot it's had so far, and it's worth checking out for that reason alone. The disc is all region, including bonus materials, so fans from all over the world can give this film a chance!