"TIGER JOE" ON BLURAY (ENGLISH FRIENDLY)

aka Fuga dall'arcipelago maledetto
Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Philippines 1982

For years I've been hoping that some label would release TIGER JOE on English friendly dvd or bluray, and finally (actually last year) a German label put it out on bluray - including the film's English audio!

 
I got the blu a couple of weeks back and it looks great. I haven't seen too much (any!) online talk about this. Maybe fans don't even know about this English friendly release AS THE COVER DOESN'T STATE IT CARRIES THE ENGLISH DUB. The cover says German and Italian audio! It doesn't actually have Italian audio but English.

 
TIGER JOE is a sequel (kinda) to THE LAST HUNTER. No, it's not quite as good, but I still like it a lot. It's got David Warbeck in the lead!

 
The extras:
Audio commentary by Troy Howarth
16 page booklet (all in the Kaiser's German)
interview with Margheriti's son about these films (in Italian, subbed in English)
German & English audio. No subs for the film.

The version that I bought has a bluray and a dvd. Somebody mentioned there's also another German dvd release in English, but the cover for this bluray clearly states this is the first fully uncut German release, so be careful if you're looking to get another dvd release.

 
I got mine from D&T Mailorder in Austria. There are various different versions (different covers, same contents) but I think stock is getting low so be quick if you want one.

"This is entertaining enough on a rainy Sunday afternoon but..."

Ian Jane has reviewed the new blu-ray release of P.O.W. THE ESCAPE (Gideon Amir, 1986) from Scorpion Releasing in detail over on Rock! Shock! Pop! (and he isn't happy). I haven't seen the film. What do you think?

Go here for Ian Jane's review (and useful info about the release + link to order the blu-ray).

BEHIND ENEMY LINES (aka P.O.W. The Escape) - soon on blu-ray

Check this out! BEHIND ENEMY LINES (Gideon Amir, 1986) (retitled P.O.W. THE ESCAPE and also aka ATTACK FORCE 'NAM) is coming out on bluray from Scorpion Releasing.

No release date yet nor any info about the release.

David Carradine is in it and so are a bunch of stalwart Filipino ex-pat actors: Ken Metcalfe, Jim Gaines, Eric Hahn, Henry Strzalkowski are in it. xD

PS: Not to be confused by the film KILLER INSTINCT that Cirio H. Santiago also made in the Philippines around the same time (1987). Roger Corman retitled it BEHIND ENEMY LINES for its US release. 


Trailer (widescreen + 1080p!)

BROTHERS IN BLOOD - now on blu-ray

Cover "A"

I mentioned this briefly in my last post; The good people of Germany have now released Tonino Valerii's BROTHERS IN BLOOD on blu-ray! Yay! Spiffy!! LOL.

I for one am certainly happy about this release. It's not a Filipino flick, and it's not gory or very extreme, but still, bloody good fun if you ask me. And I quite like Werner Pochat in these films. He was an Austrian actor and he had that perfect bad guy mug. And in this one he doesn't even play a bad guy but he still has the face of an unpleasant character! Unfortunately, in real life he passed away a long time ago. He was only 53. 

About the new release
Firstly and most importantly; Yes, the blu-ray is English friendly. According to on-line info the disk has both the English and German dubs + English and German subtitles.
Oddly enough it doesn't carry the Italian dub.

The blu-ray is released with three different covers (I've ordered Cover A) but otherwise the contents are the same:


From D&T's webstore (auto translated from German): 

* 28 pages booklet with an essay by script author Roberto Leoni in German and English
and an essay by Udo Rothenberg (blog "Green is the Heath") in German and English
as well as the Italian promotional material.
* Double sided poster with the Italian Locandia and US video cover
* EXCLUSIVE produced featurette "Basterd in Blood" with leading actor BO SVENSON
* EXCLUSIVE produced documentary " Mr. Nice Guy " about the life and work of
WERNER POCHATH with brother and film producer DIETER POCHLATKO
* International trailer
* International Picture Gallery

Cover "B" - under the alternative title of SAVAGE ATTACK

Also somewhat important to notice; As with so many of these German blu-ray releases this is a very limited release; as far as I can tell the print-run is 900 copies in total. The release date was 1. February so it's been out for about a month by now.

Here's a link to the blu-ray on D&T's site but you can also get it from German Amazon and some other web-stores in Germany and Austria.

Cover "C"

"The Ultimate Mercenary Collection" 6 film blu-ray box set

I've recently bought a brand new excellent blu-ray box set of five Italian/German flicks of the sort we like on this here blog! Four of them are directed by Antonio Margheriti and one by Fabrizio de Angelis! 

"Brand new" as in I've had it sitting on my Amazon want-list for a couple of years! But brand new compared to the old Japanese VHS releases of the very same films that I have in my collection. And they're fully uncut ... and English friendly … and it's blu-ray! Reason enough to celebrate I'd say. 

The box set contains six films, the last one being the original THE WILD GEESE (UK 1978) that the Italians ripped off with some of their films in this set (I assume. I haven't watched the original film yet). 

The five Italian/German films all carry English audio for the films!

Unfortunately this doesn't apply for the extras which are in German, or Italian with German subs. 

As I write this the set is available from Amazon Germany. Go here.

The films in the box set are: 

TORNADO aka LAST BLOOD (Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Germany, 1983)
German title: "Im Wendekreis des Söldners"
Fully uncut. Several previous German vhs/dvd versions are cut

CODE NAME: WILD GEESE (Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Germany 1984)
German title: "Geheimcode Wildgänse"
Fully uncut. Arrow's UK blu-ray is cut 13 minutes!

COMMANDO LEOPARD (Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Germany 1985)
German title: Kommando Leopard
Fully uncut.

COMMANDER (Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Germany 1988)
German title: Der Commander
Fully uncut. The Arrow blu-ray is cut 1 minute

COBRA MISSION (Fabrizio de Angelis aka Larry Ludman, Italy/Germany, 1986)
aka Operation Nam
German title: "Die Rückkehr der Wildgänse"

THE WILD GEESE (Andrew V. McLaglen, UK 1978)
German title: "Die Wildgänse kommen"
In contradiction to the 5 Italian films, the UK film is of a lesser picture quality apparently; According to dvdcompare: "note the last 7 min 13 sec of the German BD are zoomed in and in much lower quality".

Bruno Mattei's ROBOWAR finally ... FINALLY ... on bluray!!!

They may not be in the porn business but even so the good people over at SEVERIN are trying their best to give fans of action cinema a throbbing hard-on! And they're succeeding!! I mean what other reaction would anybody (who's an action flick aficionado) get when they learn Severin are putting out Bruno Mattei's 300% entertaining remake of PREDATOR, ROBOWAR (Italy/Philippines 1988) on blu-ray!!!

Street date June 25. There's various different versions (and prices). Go here for the stand-alone blu-ray. There's a dvd release as well (but get the blu-ray, cabron!). John Dulaney posted about the release on one of my old posts about the film (from 2010!). John was in the film and in 2011 he posted links to behind the scenes videos that he and Catherine Hickland did. Incidentally, those very same videos are now being included on the blu-ray. You saw them here first! (I just had to say that, haha). This is certainly an old dream come true. Thanks, Severin! (please put out heaps more Mattei stuff). 



WE'RE ALL USED TO THE OLD SUBTITLED TRAILER FROM JAPANESE VHS SO HERE'S THE NEW ONE FROM SEVERIN:






INFO FROM SEVERIN'S SITE:

A year before their jaw-dropper SHOCKING DARK, director Bruno Mattei (VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN’S PRISON) and co-writers Claudio Fragasso & Rossella Drudi (NIGHT KILLER, ZOMBIE 4) first collaborated on this brain-melting mash-up of PREDATOR, ROBOCOP and Philippines war movie mayhem: When a team of badass commandos is hired for a jungle rescue mission, they’ll instead find them hunted by a kill-crazed creature that is part man, part machine and all glorious ‘80s ItaloSleaze. Reb Brown (UNCOMMON VALOR), Catherine Hickland (ONE LIFE TO LIVE), Massimo Vanni (RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR) and Jim Gaines (ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD) star in this “freaking awesome must-watch for any action fan” (BMovieCitadel.com), now scanned in 4k from the original negative and loaded with all-new Special Features.  

Special Features:

• Robo Predator: Interview with Co-Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso
• Italian Rip Off: Interview with Co-Writer Rossella Drudi
• Violence She Wrote: Career Interview with Screenwriter Rossella Drudi
• Robo-Lady: Interview with Actress Catherine Hickland
• Papa Doc’s War: Interview with Actor John P. Dulaney
• The Robowarrior: Interview with Actor Jim Gaines Jr.
• War in the Phillipines: Interview with Actor/Stuntman Massimo Vanni
• Catherine Hickland’s Behind The Scenes Home Movies
• Trailer

CANNIBAL MERCENARY REDUX

Check this out! It's a new VHS bootleg release of a composite print of the insane Thai Vietnam flick CANNIBAL MERCENARY!! And yes, I did say V-H-S. As in video tape. How cool is that! It's a very limited release and, lo and behold, it's already sold out! I've never watched this particular composite print and I have no idea what extra is in it compared to the uncut international print; I'll let you know when I receive my copy. I'm told there's some stuff from the Tomas Tang Hong Kong version (but I believe there's no scenes of gwilos!). Oh, and check the liner notes on the back! I thought being asked to do liner notes for this particular film was pretty cool (and they're my first ever so that's cool too). ^_^

The label behind the release is KING OF THE WITCHES that are located in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA. Check their Facebook page here.

HEATED VENGEANCE review at Mondo Digital

Things are a little slow here at the moment so instead you might wanna jump to MONDO DIGITAL where they've recently reviewed CODE RED's new cool DVD release of HEATED VENGEANCE. I watched the DVD a couple nights ago and it sure looks pretty good. My old VHS from Finland is fullscreen but this new DVD is taken from a 35mm print and presented in its correct letterbox ratio format. There's also a cool audio commentary track by the director (with Bill Olsen of Code Red). For Mondo Digital's review go here. Just remember they're not fans of these Filipino Vietnam war flicks like you and me so their review is maybe a little less enthusiastic in regards to the film itself. I was definitely well entertained.

HEATED VENGEANCE now available on DVD from Code Red

The CODE RED dvd release of HEATED VENGEANCE that I mentioned recently has now finally been released. Get it directly from the company here.

Longer edits of RAMBO 4 and THE EXPENDABLES

No need to mention it, cabron; I'm fully aware that neither RAMBO (aka Rambo 4) nor THE EXPENDABLES are Filipino films or even set in the Vietnam War ... but they're great fun so they need to be mentioned here! LMFAO.

RAMBO 4 is probably the best 1980s action movie made after the 80s (that's actually Fred Adelman's line and not mine - but I fully agree) and altho THE EXPENDABLES is less good (and less gory!) it's still a fun and trashy action film.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to draw your attention to both film having now been released on blu-ray in longer versions; RAMBO 4 is an "extended cut" (the original version was already the director's cut so I guess they can't use THAT monicker to sell the new version, haha) and THE EXPENDABLES is the "extended director's cut".

Unfortunately, neither of the two new versions are released on DVD but ONLY on blu-ray!! And that sucks ass if you're me cos I still don't have a blu-ray player. I already buy films in about every format ever known to man (vhs, betamax, video2000, dvd, video-cd, laserdisc, floppydisc, whathaveyadisc and I'm not sure there's room enough for yet another player in the shoebox I call a home. ^_^.


For the new versions on Amazon.com go here for RAMBO and here for EXPENDABLES.

HEATED VENGEANCE to be released on DVD from CODE RED

Edward D. Murphy's 1985 Filipino/USA co-production HEATED VENGEANCE is going to get a DVD release from CODE RED in the US at some stage. Code Red have also scheduled another Murphy directed films, the truly entertaining RAW FORCE (aka KUNG FU CANNIBALS). I have no date for a release of either and knowing Code Red I'd better not try and make a guess. No way I could make a qualified guess when it comes to that label. LMFAO.

HEATED VENGEANCE stars Richard Hatch, Jolina Mitchell-Collins, Michael J. Pollard, Robert Walker, Dennis Patrick, Mills Watson, Cameron Dye, Ron Max, J.C. Bernardo, Dido De La Paz, Paquito Salcedo, Art Del Rosario, Gwendolyn Hung, Ronnie Ricketts, Elvie Escaro.

And yes it's the very same film as I mentioned in my last post as being auctioned off from Kurt in Finland.