DVD & BLU RAY REVIEWS
Reviews by JAIME PINA
The Girl From Starship Venus
Cheezy Movies/MVD
This British sex comedy was released in 1975 as The Sexplorer and retitled The Girl From Starship Venus for release in the US. Directed by noted English sexploitation filmmaker Derek Ford (The Wife Swappers, Sex Express) the film stars Monika Ringwald as a Venusian female and in an incredibly ludicrous sequence her ship lands on Earth in swingin’ Soho. As she makes her way through different situations, sometimes via time travel, she learns about earthling’s mating rituals.
According to her IMDb page Ringwald was a model who had bit parts in a few films and was on the back cover and gatefold of The Kinks’ Preservation Act 2 and that is pretty cool. She also appeared on The Benny Hill Show and that is pretty cool too. On the other hand, this flick is kind of a chore to get through as its bawdy British humor is rather dated. The quality is also rather murky, but it does kind of take you back to that bygone era of watching bootleg VHS tapes. If you are the type who enjoyed collecting the Something Weird line of sexploitation releases then this will be of interest.
The Green Hornet: Cliffhanger Collection #14
VCI Entertainment/MVD
While the character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker in 1936 has had a persistent presence in the world of pop culture it has never become an icon like Batman or Superman or even his relative The Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet had a successful run as a radio show which led to two serials for the big screen. Like every adaptation of the character and his crime-fighting partner, it made changes here and there but kept to the general scheme. Gordon Jones (The Monster That Challenged The World, The Shaggy Dog, Mike The Cop on The Abbott And Costello Show) plays publisher Britt Reid as an affable fella who turns all business when donning the Green Hornet mask. Another actor dubbed his voice when he is the Green Hornet anticipating the Christopher Nolan Batman films where the hero tries to disguise his voice as well as his face. Kato faces some changes as far as race. In the first radio shows he was depicted as being Japanese. In the serials as played by Keye Luke (Gremlins films, Kung Fu TV series) he is Korean. And instead of the Chinese martial arts dynamo portrayed by Bruce Lee in the 60’s TV series, Luke’s Kato is a scientific and mechanical genius. He not only creates GH’s gas gun but also hops up a car that can hit speeds up to 200 mph thus creating The Black Beauty. He even creates the mask covering Reid’s entire face with the hornet design toward the bottom.
In this serial the fellas work to bust a crime ring involving 12 bosses. Over the 13 episodes, the Green Hornet and Kato take them down one by one. The picture quality is extra crisp and clear, and the sound is mighty fine with the buzz of the Black Beauty’s cranked-up engine shaking your skull. If you. If you are a fan of the serial and still have your old VHS collection then this is an excellent upgrade. But if you are a fan of other heroic cliffhangers and have not seen this then this is something of interest. The package comes with a reversible cover and a fun booklet.
Supercop
Fortune Star/MVD 4K
In Hong Kong this was released as Police Story III and was the third installment of the Police Story series featuring Jackie Chan as “Kevin” Chan Ka-Kui. Dimension Films picked up the US release rights to the film and retitled it Supercop and edited the film, redubbed it and added new music.
Keeping with his usual tributes to the silent film actors like Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, Jackie plays a bit of a goof in this flick who wants to go deep undercover to bust a drug ring. Some of the laughs ensue when Chan is given his cover story but can’t keep track of his new
identity and when the drug dealers decide to hideout in his cover hometown, he almost blows it by nearly bungling the identities of his “relatives” in town. He meets Michelle Yeoh, another undercover cop posing as his sister, and together they work to bust up the operation. While Chan is in his usual excellent form in the action scenes, Yeoh is all business and in a way her performance overpowers Chan’s. Chan seems happy to be the butt of the film’s jokes, but Yeoh has come to kick ass and even when she gets into trouble, she still shows confidence and strength. As with most Chan films the stunts and action scenes in this flick are mostly high impact and sometimes insane when you consider that at this time Jackie was still doing a lot of his own stunts. The battle on top of the speeding train is especially exciting. As with the previous Fortune Star release I reviewed, this comes in a handsome slipcase package with 4K and Blu-ray discs, a nice booklet with essays and info on the film and its stars as well as a lot of great color photos and a poster. Both discs include the original and slightly longer Hong Kong cut of the film as well as the US dubbed and edited version. Note that there is no violence cut from the US version. It cuts some dialog to help the film move along for US audiences. The music in the US version includes a track by Devo and an odd cover of Kung Fu Fighting sung by Tom Jones.