RED SCORPION (Joseph Zito, 1988)

[xclaw]

I will buy this from the first place that sells it in the US/Canada. So stoked!

[Jox]

Small delay on the Arrow release

For those who are regular members on the Cult Labs Forum you’ll know that due to some technical issues, the Red Scorpion Blu-Ray release has been delayed slightly by a week. Bit of a bummer that news but, like they say, good things come to those who wait and this film is pretty damn good!

http://www.cult-labs.com/blog/

[Jox]

Win Arrow Film & Video edition
http://www.facebook.com/ArrowFilms

Arrow Films & Video
On Monday 13th February we will release an action classic on Blu-ray, RED SCORPION! From now until then post a picture on our wall with a comment about why that picture defines great action cinema. 5 of the best images will win a RED SCORPION Blu-ray. Share this competition with your friends by liking this post!

[shooby]

[Darling]

Hey, everything OK with you?????
What f.......old Pics!!!!!!!!!!

[Jox]

The UK Arrow edition is at 14£99 on their site
http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/index.php?c ... _id=586&v=

AICN UK review
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/53409

Hot off the heels of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Dolph Lundgren continued sowing the seeds for his iconic action hero career to be by swapping swordplay for machine guns when he signed on to play the lead in RED SCORPION, helmed by Joseph Vito, director of FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER and the Chuck Norris action romp, MISSING IN ACTION, and now it has made its format debut courtesy of the great Arrow Video.

But Arrow, one of my favourite distributors, may be running out of high quality cult movies to give the “white box” treatment to. They've supplied fans of Dario Argento and George A. Romero with the best releases their films have ever had, but lately, between re-releasing titles in budget editions, they're heading in a far more niche direction. I'm not sure this story of a Spetsnaz elite killing machine sent to Africa to terminate a revolutionary will ever be known as a cult classic. It packs plenty of explosions and mindless shots of Lundgren doing his best Rambo impression with a heavy machine gun, but there's nothing to pull you into the movie. His character, Nikolai, has as much depth as a puddle of mud and is often hard to understand, the few times he utters (or mutters) dialogue. The only memorable character is a foul-mouthed journalist played by the great M. Emmet Walsh who finds himself teaming up with Lundgren.

RED SCORPION is a completely forgettable '80s actioner, but I have no doubts that fans of the film will lap this release up. It's certainly the best the movie has ever looked, even if the HD remaster fluctuates between scratchy and fresh.

[Jox]

Posted on DL's Facebook from Jill Clark who apparently worked on the Dolph interview for the upcoming Synapse US edition:

It was a pleasure and a honor working with you for "HATH NO FURY - DOLPH LUNDGREN AND THE ROAD TO RED SCORPION" With BALLYHOO MOTION PICTURES for the The Red Scorpion US Release..Thank you so much for giving us your time. Truly an Amazing Interview!

[Jox]

Arrow BR reviews

http://www.horrorview.com/movie-reviews/red-scorpion

“Red Scorpion” has previously struggled on its previous home DVD outings to escape a dark, persistent grainy look and in truth things aren’t much better on this new Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video, at least on my review copy; but apparently the release date for this is to be delayed while further restoration is applied. On my copy though, the darker sequences (and there are plenty of them during the first half of the flick) are often accompanied by a fuzzy wall of digital ‘visual noise’ -- but at least the daytime sequences look significantly better than they ever have before. Hopefully the distracting imperfections elsewhere will be sorted out by the time this hits the streets in mid-February.

The commentary track, it has to be said, is a corker, with Howard S Berger moderating director Joseph Zito in what amounts to a career retrospective, taking in all the highlights of the director’s filmography, from his first feature, “Abduction”, to his big Chuck Norris action flicks of the mid-‘80s. Once Berger gets on to tackling the making of “Red Scorpion” the commentary becomes a tale of outrageous behind-the-scenes drama which is almost as compelling as anything on the screen itself. The film was a tough shoot with various controversial goings-on adding to the subsequent ‘scandal’ surrounding the apparent shady financial arrangements of producer Jack Abramoff, although Zito, who admits to not really knowing that much about the precise details, is adamant that Abramoff was great to work with and that many of the claims made about the funding of the movie aren’t true. What is true though is that the entire production had to be relocated across several thousand miles to Namibia, after the King of Swaziland withdrew permission for filming, apparently becoming nervous after seeing how much military hardware was being flown into the country, which then led to worries that the production was part of an attempt to overthrow him!

Zito also reveals that cast member M. Emmet Walsh fell out with him and was convinced that this move in location was all a set up, and that it had never been intended that the production was to have taken place in the independent state of Swaziland at all – which probably indicates just how much trust Jack Abramoff commanded at the time.

The disc comes with a short video introduction by star Dolph Lundgren, which can be selected to play at the start of the film from the main menu. The theatrical trailer is a typically rambunctious affair which also manages to include just about every one of the handful of lines of dialogue Lundgren has through the entirety of the film.

High Rising Productions contribute two worthwhile extra video features as well, the first being in the form of a half-hour interview with the mild mannered Lundgren in “All Out Of Bullets – Dolph Lundgren Remembers Red Scorpion”. Here the actor talks at length about his early career and his experience of shooting the movie in Sothern Africa at a time when every white person one encountered there seemed to be armed to the teeth in anticipation of an expected black takeover. He explains how he did almost all his own stunts on the picture, including many of the insanely dangerous ones; he singles out one particular scene, in which he had to be covered head to toe in live scorpions, as being ‘quite iffy’; in fact the commentary track reveals that Zito tricked Lundgren into agreeing to take part in this sequence by simply lying to him that the creatures weren’t really venomous! Lundgren talks about the film’s plot and the timeless mythic qualities it incorporates which help it overcome the specifics of setting and politics, and then mentions his subsequent career as a director in the years since, and how it has helped him in his own acting. Finally, he talks about his meticulous efforts to maintain his fitness and how it gets harder to do so as he gets older.

The second featurette is a 12 minute interview with composer Jay Chattaway entitled “Music With Muscles”. This is an interesting piece on composing for action movies, in which Chattaway explains his working relationship with Joseph Zito (the two had worked together many times before “Red Scorpion”); reveals a composer’s tricks for making music stand-out against the audio backdrop of constant explosions which inevitably pepper the climaxes of these kinds of action movie; and talks about how his work on “Red Scorpion” had to accomplish the task of providing much of the emotional shading in the relationship between Rachenko and Geo the Bushman, because neither of the characters actually talk properly at any point in the film!

The Arrow Video package comes with a choice of four cover artworks, a fold-out poster and a booklet with new writing on the film by Calum Waddell. The movie is screened in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original uncompressed LPCM Stereo audio track is included, and there are optional English Language subtitles for the hearing impaired.

http://www.filmwerk.co.uk/?p=11461

The Blu-ray release is gorgeous as the print is crystal clear but not annoyingly artificial. The extras are solid as usual from Arrow with the big prize being Joseph Zito’s commentary. Naturally he focuses on the action and the challenge of shooting in Namibia’s relentless heat. Along with that you get interviews with Dolph talking about the production and composer Jay Chattaway discussing his superb score for the film. Given how obscure the film has been for a couple of decades ago you cannot moan about the due care and attention given by Arrow to this release.

Dolph Lundgren has made is clear that The Expendables has given his profile and career a rebirth since its release. Given how much I hated the awful Expendables it’s good to know that at least one good thing came out of that action turd. Beyond that this is another choice release for 80s fanatics which now include such new cult heroes as Jason Eisner. A decade that seemed somewhat artistically challenged when it ended has by today become oddly cool.

[Jox]

http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.com/con ... rpion.html

THE DISC

Presented in 1.78:1 the 1080p AVC encoded transfer looks pretty solid to me. Having never seen the film before I have nothing to compare it to, but for the most part the transfer boasts a middling level of detail and - in the light-of-day exterior shots - a very pleasing level of sharpness. It's quite a nice looking film when they put the African landscape to good use, and they do on a number of occasions. Exterior night-time shots are slightly less impressive however and dark interiors - particularly those in the opening scene - are rather drab with a heavy grain and soft appearance. There is grain throughout but it's usually not all that intrusive and looks quite natural on my 46" screen. Finally it's worth noting the quality of the print is not quite what we're used to with modern-day restorations, exhibiting lots of marks and scratches, but it's never to the point of distraction.

The sound is presented in 2.0 LPCM and is a very pleasing mix with clear dialogue (albeit some parts are harder to understand than others but that's due to accents rather than sound quality) and good separation across the front channels.

There are optional English subtitles for the main feature only (none for the extras)..

Extras are headlined by a commentary with director Joseph Zito, moderated by filmmaker and genre scholar Howard S. Berger. Running for the entire duration of the film, I'd say this is more of an interview than a film commentary, in that it’s not very scene-specific and tends more toward Zito’s career along with some insight to the general production of Red Scorpion. They are watching the film though, and do comment on specific points including some of the stunt work and prosthetic work, but due to their lack of focus to what's playing on screen I often found my own interest wavering. Still, it's a good effort and they go into many aspects of the production, so for fans of the film and more specifically fans of Zito this should prove to be a worthwhile listen.

Video extras consist of a short intro to the film by Dolph Lundgren, two interviews and the theatrical trailer (presented in 4:3). All Out of Bullets is a thirty minute interview with Dolph Lundgren who looks back on the production and talks fondly about this early role. Dolph is an affable guy and he seems to remember the shooting period quite well, relaying stories from the set, talking about doing his own stunts and also a little about the director and his co-stars. The second-half of the interview takes on a broader focus, looking at Dolph’s career past, present and future with some earnest commentary on his success compared to some of his contemporaries. Then we have Music with Muscles – an 11 minute interview with the film’s composer Jay Chattaway who talks about scoring the feature with a particular emphasis on the process of scoring an action movie and how to work around the sound effects that will often drown out the score. This is another good interview with some interesting points that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

[Jox]

http://www.brutalashell.com/2012/02/blu ... -scorpion/

The interview with Dolph Lundgren was surprisingly informative; he discusses the perils of doing all of his own stunts (including jumping from a motorbike to a truck and being bitten by a hyena), spending 6 months shooting in Namibia in the scorching temperatures, not to mention having his water intake rationed so as not to appear “bloated”. It was far more interesting than expected and Lundgren comes across as gracious and often amusingly self-deprecating.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1240584 ... ombat.html

[Jox]

A user comparison between the Dutch (DFW) and UK (Arrow) editions.
(as he said "The ball's in your court, Synapse")

This will not be an in-depth comparison. There's really no need.

The Arrow wins, hands down.

It looks cleaner,(no loss of detail or DNR shenanigans, that I can see at least), but with a nice sheen of grain visible,(slightly heavier in night scenes).The grain is a bit heavier on the Dutch Filmworks release,(which is a very high bitrate VC-1 transfer, as opposed to Arrows mid-low AVC encoding), but like I said, doing a side-by-side showed no missing detail.

The Arrow is also slightly brighter, but again, this is not a negative. The only oddity I can spot on The Arrow release, is that if you pause it during some daytime scenes, the grain looks weird, where on the DFW release, the grain always looks like grain, no matter what. Please note, that this was only really noticeable up close, not from my normal viewing position and certainly not in motion.

For the record, they both run exactly 01:45:10 and are both on single layered BD-25 discs,(the DFW has no extras and only a lossy 2.0 English track). Print damage is also virtually identical.

Arrow release is Region Free,(for our North American friends).

The Arrow's soundtrack doesn't sound that different to me, from the DFW release. While one's lossless and one isn't, they're both 2.0 mixes but I thought the Arrow sounded a bit more robust and handled the dialogue much better in certain scenes.

Arrow lose points, however, for apparently standard converting their featurettes. Dropped frames all over the shop in both the Dolph Lundgren and Jay Chattaway pieces,(resulting in a jerky look to any movement). This would suggest that 24fps was not their native frame-rate. However, the trailer looks fine,(although 4x3 and of a lower quality). as does Dolph's lovely intro,(you can watch it with or without).

The custom Arrow artwork has admittedly grown on me and I'm glad to see that the menu replicates it.

Good job, Arrow. Good Job.

The ball's in your court, Synapse.

[Jox]

For the final ( ) print edition of British mag IMPACT, "Mike Leeder gets nostalgic as he looks back at one of the films of action mainstay Dolph Lundgren - the infamous Red Scorpion..."
http://www.impactonline.co/store/magazi ... impact-241

One page ad for the Arrow Blu-ray on the back cover of IMPACT (+ Leeder's 2-pages review) what better to close the printed life of the mag?! I'll try to scan it when I have a moment.

[Jox]

New review for the Arrow UK BR edition with high-res screen captures (don't understand how they can come up with a pink title for RED SCORPION...)
http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/review ... eview.html

Dolph Lundgren’s 1988 cult action vehicle Red Scorpion arrives on Blu-ray from the UK’s Arrow Video in all its Cold War paranoid glory — cheesy script, and balls-to-the-wall action intact.

An almost touching, but obviously flawed cult classic from the eighties with broadly drawn characters, Red Scorpion does have some strong, Rambo-esque, in-camera (read: no CGI) visual effects that take you right back to the era.

Video Quality
The 1.78:1 AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 encodement of Red Scorpion from Arrow is good, but certainly not great. There is still a lot of source damage that is apparent straight through the presentation and the image is given to softness. Dark scenes show a marked increase in graininess and often cross over into video noise. Flesh tones are also not quite accurate.

Audio Quality
The original stereo soundtrack is offered in a LPCM 2.0 mix that is, once again, good, but not great. Overall sound is just a bit dull with a definite lack of higher frequency response and some noticeable crackle in dialogue. Stereo imaging isn’t very distinct at times and dynamics are just a tad narrow.

Supplemental Materials
The overall deluxe packaging and HD featurettes make this a pretty good lineup of extras from Arrow.

The supplements:

Introduction to the film by star Dolph Lundgren (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:00:10)
Commentary with Joseph Zito and Howard S. Berger
All out of Bullets (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:29:58) – Dolph Lundgren offers his memories of filming Red Scorpion.
Music with Muscles (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:12:05) – The composer Jay Chattaway discusses scoring the film.
Trailer (1.33:1; 1080p/24)
Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
Booklet featuring essay on the film by Calum Waddell. This essay is more a general commentary on the action genre of the eighties and this filmmaker’s work than it is specific to Red Scorpion.

Overall
Red Scorpion may be Dolph Lundgren’s best showing outside of the well known Rocky IV and while it is certainly not top notch cinema, as a cult, B-grade action flick, it’s definitely a decent time waster. The package here from Arrow Video makes it all the more worthwhile for anyone thinking of adding this region-free disc to their collection.

[Nikolai Cherenco]

Here is a German review:

http://www.bereitsgetestet.de/index.php ... &Itemid=59

[Jox]

Twitch review
http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2012/02/b ... orpion.php

The Disc:

This is another of the Glickenhaus films coming to us from Arrow Video and Synapse Films. This time around, it looks like Arrow Video got the jump, and their disc is very solid. The image quality is very good, though '80s action films will probably never look great. There is abundant fine detail and a noticeable lack of intrusive grain, probably due to the fact that the vast majority of the film is shot in very bright lighting, thus allowing the filmmaker to use slower film speeds and reduced grain naturally. The audio is pretty good as well, there isn't a whole lot of directionality to the mix, but the explosions do manage to pack a punch and I found no major faults with the dialogue.

Arrow Video's premium presentation of Red Scorpion is really great. On the disc we have a commentary from Zito moderated by Howard S Berger, which is okay, though Zito seems a bit laconic on the track and needs prompting often. There is also a great interview with Dolph, which is sadly only about 20 minutes, because I could listen to him all day. Dolph is incredibly endearing and intelligent and understands his place in cinema history better than anyone. A true gentleman. Rounding out the video extras is a brief interview with the composer, which is kind of a throw away, but is made up for by the fantastic Lundgren stuff.

Also included in this package is the awesome custom art from The Dude Designs' Tom Hodge, 3 additional cover options, a fold out power, a very in depth interview and essay on Zito and the film by Calum Waddell, and the super neat Arrow Video catalog. This is a very impressive REGION FREE package, and we definitely recommend it. There is a Blu-ray coming soon from Synapse, also, so be aware of that, and we promise to review and compare when we get out hands on that one as well, but I think you can feel confident in picking this one up, it's a winner!