RED SCORPION (Joseph Zito, 1988)

[viendammage]

Just ordered mine off Amazon! Is Dolph's interview 40 or 24 minutes?

[Jox]

Is Dolph's interview 40 or 24 minutes?

I don't know I'm confused and haven't got a copy yet, the director said it's 40 mins but the review says 24...

[Jox]

It's in the top 50 sales of action/adventure blu-rays on Amazon behind all but blockbusters, not bad for an 80s exploitation flick that used to make the cheap DVD bargain bins!

[Mosquito]

I've just received my shipping confirmation. Isn't that a tad early? I'm worried that I might have ordered the wrong edition, but description and price seem right.

[Jox]

No actually you're lucky because some orders were delayed (official release date was this Tuesday)!

[savagesketch]

It's in the top 50 sales of action/adventure blu-rays on Amazon behind all but blockbusters, not bad for an 80s exploitation flick that used to make the cheap DVD bargain bins!

Let's not forget it was frequently in the bargain bins as a cheap VHS copy in EP mode as well... I remember constantly seeing it in drugstores for sale in their bargain bins!

[Mosquito]

No actually you're lucky because some orders were delayed (official release date was this Tuesday)!

Oh, I didn't realize that! Now I just have to wait three to four weeks for international snail shipping... and hope that customs don't snatch it because of the age restriction.

YAY! By that time I'll have a screen for the projector! I'm already going through my check list for the Ladies' Movie Night! DOUBLE-YAY!

[Jox]

Remastered and uncut actioner was originally supposed to be a large-scale action vehicle for star Dolph Lundgren with Warner Bros. handling its domestic distribution. After the production of “Red Scorpion” moved from southern Africa locales to South Africa, Warners dropped out, and the Joseph Zito-directed movie became a home video staple back in the VHS era. Synapse’s Blu-Ray edition of “Red Scorpion” includes its first-ever uncut release in the U.S., offering more gore and mayhem as Dolph’s Soviet soldier decides to turn the tables on his former comrades while fighting in an African skirmish. Plenty of extras include commentary with Zito and Mondo Digital website guru Nathaniel Thompson; an AVC encoded 1080p transfer and DTS MA soundtrack; featurette on the production; interviews with make-up artist Tom Savini and producer Jack Abramoff; rare on-set footage; still galleries; trailers; a reversible cover and informative liner notes.

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/daily/a ... Submarine/

[Jox]

A biased review from Nathaniel Thompson who's the moderator on the Synapse audio commentary:

http://mondo-digital.com/redscorpion.html

The whole story of how this film came to be is covered in depth in the Synapse release, a dual-format edition containing both a Blu-Ray and a DVD. (Obviously watch the first option if you can; along with looking a lot better, it also has more exciting menus!) The transfer itself looks about as great as a Shapiro-Glickenhaus title from 1988 possibly could; as usual, the film stock doesn't allow for terribly deep blacks or a lot of saturated color, but it's a terrific HD presentation with a natural filmic texture and a thankful absence of any distracting digital tinkering. For reasons no one can quite sort out, the film was trimmed in most markets; the biggest cut was a scene involving a village attacked by flamethrowers, while a number of other tiny little edits (sometimes mere frames) were performed to the heads and tails of certain shots throughout the film. In any case, the Synapse version represents the longest available version of the film with the missing scene and the other little snippets stuck back in their rightful place. The exclusive DTS-HD MA audio track is also excellent, delivering where it counts with plenty of expansive use of all channels during the action scenes. The original stereo track is also included, likewise in DTS-HD MA; in a surprise move, optional English subtitles are also added for the deaf and hard of hearing, a very welcome gesture.

The audio commentary with Zito features myself so there's obviously no way of reviewing that one, but hopefully it will prove enjoyable as it covers the origins of the production, how it had to change shooting locations at a late date, the perils of working with live scorpions, and what Zito thinks of that period of his career turning out high-profile guy movies. Of course, this wouldn't be complete without some Lundgren, and the star appears for his own video featurette, "Hath No Fury: Dolph Lundgren and the Road to Red Scorpion," in which he talks about getting cast as a Russian (for the second time after Rocky IV), how he got his start in acting, and the path his career was taking at the time. Easily one of the most appealing action stars of his generation, he's still fun to watch as he covers one of his key titles. Incidentally, while the Synapse version may be the definitive Blu-Ray on the market, two earlier ones are also available. A German one amusingly released as part of "The Expendables Selection" is fine but definitely on the modest side, while the UK one from Arrow features a more worn-looking but good HD transfer and its own separate slate of extras including a different audio commentary with Zito and Howard Berger (the director of Original Sins, not the effects guy), which spends much more time on the political end of things. Lundgren also has a half-hour "All Out of Bullets" featurette, which covers some of the same ground but with a few variations of its own, while Chattaway has a 12-minute interview about his collaborations with Zito.

Anyway, back to the Synapse extras. Next up is the juiciest one and the big shocker of the set, "Assignment: Africa," in which Abramoff (who got out of prison in 2010 and penned a book about his experiences) delivers a thorough rundown of how he became involved in the film, the ways it slotted in with his other activities outside of filmmaking at the time, his memories of working with his star and director, and how he saw its political agenda aligning with his own. Amazing stuff. Finally FX maestro Tom Savini appears for "Scorpion Tales;" you won't really be able to spot his work until fairly late in the film (and many of his concepts never even made it before the camera), but he has plenty to say about going to Africa and generating some brief but memorable bits of bodily mayhem including a particularly grisly bit of business during the climax. Some behind-the-scenes camcorder footage from the set comes afterwards as well, including a few fun shots for those familiar with the movie. Finally you get a gallery of stills and artwork from the theatrical and video releases, a trailer, TV spots, a reversible cover (the back one reflecting the US poster art), and liner notes by Lundgren expert Jérémie Damoiseau, who covers everything from pre-production to the problematic theatrical release in a succinct but excellent history well worth reading before watching the actual film. If you're a Dolph fan, this release will be very tough to beat for a long time.

[Jox]

New review
http://hellnotes.com/red-scorpion-blue- ... ray-review

As for the how the movie looks on Blu-ray for the first time, it is sadly only so-so. The daylight scenes are bright, colorful, and look very clear. Unfortunately during the film’s nighttime scenes, the dreaded grain monster rears its ugly head and everything on screen gets covered in very noticeable film grain. Now it is a sort of low budget film from the ’80s, so I guess that’s par for the course, but if I didn’t say that this film can look pretty horrible at times then I wouldn’t be doing my job as a hardnosed critic. That said, Synapse Films does their usual fine job of loading up this disc with some very cool special features. There are three interviews here; a 30 minute one with star Dolph that I found very informative, a 13 minute interview with the producer that was ok, and a quick 10 minute one with makeup effects master Tom Savini that was over too soon. Speaking of Savini, he pulls double duty here by providing 10 minutes of behind the scenes video shot by himself. The usual still gallery, trailer, and TV spots can also be found on the Blu-ray, along with a very informative audio commentary track with the director and producer. Lastly it has the cool reversible cover, giving you two choices on how you want to show of your disc, and has both the Blu-ray and DVD in one handy package.
Red Scorpion is about as middle of the road as an action flick can get. It neither excels nor fails spectacularly. It can be a fun popcorn munching, throwback to the ’80s action film and I enjoyed seeing it again for the first time in years. If you’re a fan of old school action films, or you’re partial to watching Dolph Lundgren playing Russians, then give Red Scorpion a run. However if you fall into neither of those two camps, then you might want to avoid this venomous bug altogether or perhaps give it a rent.

[Jox]

Hello Everyone,

We were also wondering why AMAZON did not have the title on street date. We inquired with our distributor, and they told us that AMAZON had RED SCORPION on street, however they grossly underestimated the amount of orders they were going to receive, and were only able to ship a portion of the preorders.

They have since reordered the title twice and are slowly catching up.

Regards,

Don May, Jr.
President, Synapse Films

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=175331&page=7

[Mosquito]

Well that's fantastic news and will hopefully trigger some other awesome Bluray releases. Quality sells!

[Jox]

I hope so, but Warner saying yes and backing out from special features co-produced by Gary Goddard for a MASTERS 25th anniversary edition is a big letdown and a good indication of studios position in regards to special features, especially for non-blockbuster "catalog titles"... This RED SCORPION one is a rare (and never dreamed of for us Dolph fans) treat and Synapse has been amazing in that sense, especially given it's a small independent company and still manages to produce the best editions for cult or unknown exploitation films (old and more recent). It's essentially run by one guy, Don May Jr, who is a big movie buff himself and that shows!

[Jox]

Another great and very detailed review!
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/55477/red-scorpion/

(click for high-res capture)

Video
As you'd probably expect from a shiny, new Blu-ray disc with Synapse's logo stamped on the cover, Red Scorpion looks pretty much perfect. The filmic texture of the original photography has correctly been left intact, not smeared away by overzealous digital noise reduction. The bitrate's high enough to handle that sheen of grain without any hiccups, and there's not a trace of wear, speckling, or damage anywhere throughout the movie's hour-forty-five runtime either. Red Scorpion's palette isn't dazzlingly colorful but comes through pretty well, and I get the sense that I'm seeing every last bit of definition and detail that can possibly be resolved. Sure, the film stock has that yeah-this-was-shot-in-1987 look to it, and the photography struggles under lower light, but Red Scorpion is still one of the better looking late-'80s action flicks I've come across on Blu-ray. No complaints on this side at all.

The AVC encode for Red Scorpion spans both layers of this BD-50 disc. The presentation is presented without any matting, so you score a few extra scanlines' worth of the original photography.

Audio
This Blu-ray disc piles on two 24-bit lossless soundtracks: one in Red Scorpion's original stereo and the the other newly-remixed to 5.1. When I say that Red Scorpion doesn't sound like a remix at all, I absolutely mean that as a compliment. The aggressive use of the surrounds throughout the action sequences coupled with the sheer number of smooth pans from channel to channel...I mean, it all sounds so organic and so natural that if I didn't know better, I'd probably have assumed this is how Red Scorpion was always mixed. The elements used for this remix are in terrific shape, sounding at least a few years more recent than they actually are. The low-end really rattles the room while reinforcing all those megaton explosions and throaty engines. Every once in a while, I'd feel like there's too much bass -- as if such a thing were even possible -- and dialogue sometimes slinks a little further into the background than I would've preferred. The balance is generally spot-on, though. There's one point after a high-speed chase where the actors' breathing and slivers of dialogue bleed into the surrounds, and that's a little distracting. This is probably veering head-on into irrational nitpicking, but I was kind of surprised that the shotgun blasts that kick off the final siege sound so meek compared to the other havoc being wrought. Whatever, though. This is a really, really great remix, and I think even the most die-hard purists will be impressed by how well-done it is.

Red Scorpion also sports a set of optional English subtitles, captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. Oh, and the disc's commentary is also a 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio track, so that's kind of amazing too.

Red Scorpion is a combo release, packing in an anamorphic widescreen DVD in case you haven't made the leap to Blu-ray or just don't have a BD player handy while you're out and about. The reversible cover gives fans their choice of art, and there's a very detailed set of liner notes tucked inside penned by Dolph Lundgren über-fan Jérémie Damoiseau. Both the DVD and Blu-ray disc are region-free/all-region for those of you on the other side of the ocean.

The impressively hefty list of extras keeps going from there too.
Hath No Fury: Dolph Lundgren and the Road to Red Scorpion (25 min.; HD): Best thing about this Blu-ray disc...? This half-hour-ish conversation with Dolph Lundgren, hands down. The superhumanly charming, endlessly awesome Lundgren kicks things off by talking about how he landed into acting: dating Grace Jones and scoring a bit part in a James Bond flick. I mean, if the interview ended there, that'd already make it one of the best conversations ever, and yet the already-established awesome-ness just gets ratcheted up with really in-depth discussions about Rocky IV and Masters of the Universe. Red Scorpion is naturally the dominant topic on the bill: weapons training under hardened warriors, fielding a lot of his own stuntwork, filming while an honest-to-God war was underway in nearby Angola, and how the location was so far removed from everything that there was literally nothing to do but work, sleep, and drink. If this interview had gone on for another hour, I'd still be all over it. The short answer: required viewing.

Assignment: Africa (13 min.; HD): Oh, wow! Producer Jack Abramoff -- and, yeah, it's that Jack Abramoff -- sits down to talk about putting together his first feature film. Abramoff chats about how his experiences in Angola led him to dream up the premise for the film and eventually to produce such an ambitious action flick independently. From there, he talks about being forced out of Swaziland all of a week before filming was scheduled to start, how the Red Scorpion crew built more bases in South Africa than the Soviets actually did, toiling away in an area with no real film infrastructure, and his involvement in the sequel.

Scorpion Tales (10 min.; HD): Special make-up effects creator and all-around legend Tom Savini talks about his work on Red Scorpion: a gig that involved essentially zero prep time, three key sequences, and one gag that was never actually used. It kinda goes without saying that Savini delves in depth into his splatter wizardry, but that comes after ridiculously awesome stories about thinking he and his family were gonna die in a flood, suffering through one barely-edible meal after another, and how a Bond workshop kind of saved the day. Obviously well-worth setting aside ten minutes to watch.

Original On-Set Behind the Scenes Footage from Tom Savini (9 min.; SD): Well, with a heading on the menu like that, there's not a whole lot left for me to say here. This set of fly-on-the-wall footage as cameras rolled on Red Scorpion covers more than just Tom's two big setpieces, with plenty of shots of stuff blowing up around Dolph.

Audio Commentary: Director Joseph Zito fields Red Scorpion's commentary track, joined by moderator Nathaniel Thompson from Mondo Digital. Zito covers pretty much everything and then some: the score, the editing, the slew of different cuts of Red Scorpion that have been floating around for the past quarter-century, using an actual Russian tank captured in the war across the border in Angola, a skirt-chasing ninety-something-year-old bushman, not leaning on any miniatures or optical effects when shit blows up, and how filming ultimately spanned thousands of miles. A hell of a lot of fun and really comprehensive to boot.

Motion Still Gallery (7 min.; HD): Rather than force you to mash a button a couple dozen times, Red Scorpion's image gallery automatically cycles through an extensive set of one-sheets, video art, production stills, and behind-the-scenes shots.

Trailer (2 min.; HD): Last up are a high-def theatrical trailer...

TV Spots (3 min.; SD): ...and a few minutes' worth of promos on the small screen.

The Final Word
Red Scorpion is a mostly routine '80s action flick, but if you were weaned on Cannon asskickers or are just a sucker for Dolph Lundgren, this Blu-ray disc's definitely worth checking out. The high-def remaster and six-channel remix are both first-rate, there are a hell of a lot of extras for this sort of movie, and it's all of fifteen bucks on Amazon. Recommended.

[Jox]

Here's the back cover in high-resolution (click image)


and a clip from the Jack Abramoff interview from Red Shirt Pictures!
http://www.redshirtpictures.com/dvdproj ... dscorpion/

http://player.vimeo.com/video/35306583? ... lor=ff9933