DVD & BLU RAY REVIEWS
Reviews by JAIME PINA
Joysticks
MVD Rewind Collection
This 1983 goofball comedy will appeal to people who love cheesy 80’s flicks where punk rockers look like the punk rockers you would see in a new wave music video. Filmed during the video arcade explosion of the early 80’s, the film concerns an arcade owner trying to keep his doors open while a local businessman tries to shut him down. Along the way there are over-the-top characters, some naughty humor and lots of video game playing. The film stars Joe Don Baker (Leonard Part 6, Mars Attacks) as the grouchy business owner and he tries to make the most of his time on the set. Jonathan Gries (Terrorvision, The Monster Squad) plays punker King Vidiot and at the climax of the film he faces off against the arcade owner in a tournament to see if the arcade stays open. There is some fun tension during the competition at the end making the prior hour and twenty minutes worth the effort.
Continuing with the fun packaging in this line, the disc comes with a two-sided poster, reversable cover art, instructions on how to insert your disc into the player and slipcover art that looks like vintage video game packaging.
Hardware Wars
MVD Rewind Collection
Released about a year and a half after STAR WARS, this 13-minute parody was dead on funny and won a well-deserved cult following. Shot on a very low budget, it uses its financial limitations for humor. You may be asking yourself if this short film deserves a Blu ray release. As part of its transparency, there is a disclaimer stating that the original camera work was not the most professional and dirt and hair made it onto the negative and rather than fix these problems the people doing the restoration decided to present the film warts and all in order to protect the integrity of the original release.
As a fan of the short I would say that this may be one of my favorite releases by MVD Rewind. And as far as the film deserving a 2K restoration on Blu-ray, I applaud the effort. Sure the film still looks a little grimy but it should look like that. It wouldn’t look good if it was improved upon ala George Lucas’ redux campaign. And if you are worried about the bang for your buck, the disc includes an earlier 2K restoration (not as good), a joke “director’s cut”, a joke “foreign version” and two of director Ernie Fosselius’ other short parody films. PORKLIPS NOW is an APOCALYPSE NOW parody and is very funny and inspired. The other short is a puppet version of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and has a few chuckles but is not as fun.
As with all MVD Rewind Collection releases the slipcase and cover are fun and look like a VHS rental copy, there is reversable cover art, a poster and a fun insert for HARDWARE WARS merchandise.