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Released by: BCI Eclipse
Released on: 10/29/2002
Directors: Andy Sidaris, Drew Sidaris
Cast: Darby Hinton, Sybil Danning, Bruce Penhall,Julie Strain, Mark Barriere, Art Metrano, Lori Sutton
Released: 1985, 1993
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The Movies:
MALIBU EXPRESS (1985)
In one of Andy Sidaris' better known ventures, Darby Hinton plays Cody Abilene, one very human private eye who seriously needs to come up with some cash and soon or he's going to find himself in even more dire straits than he's already in.
As luck would have it, the lovely Lady Lillian Chamberlain hires him to solve the murder of her butler, and of course, he jumps at the chance, as it's one of the most lucrative cases he's ever had cross his plate.
Occasionally distracted by the beautiful (and curvy) help around Contessa's estate, Darby finds himself wrapped up in something he didn't quite anticipate when he signed on for the case - a deadly cat and mouse game of spy-jinks and blackmail.
An interesting cast of supporting characters and appearances by Sybil Danning and 'Busty O'Shea' make Malibu Express a classic 80s action/exploitation film.
ENEMY GOLD (1993)
While Enemy Gold was produced by Andy Sidaris, it was directed by Drew Sidaris, but don't for a minute think that it doesn't have Andy's seal of approval all over it though, because it's got just as many bullets and breasts as most of his other films.
This time around, a trio of F.B.I. agents is out to uncover a fortune in gold, supposedly buried at the turn of the Civil War by Charles Quantrell back in the day. Why would three fine upstanding feds be out on a treasure hunt when there's so much crime to fight in the world? Well, as fate would have it, in a nasty turn of events they're suspended by an official with less than perfect moral standing for reportedly using too much force on a drug bust.
But while all this is going on, there's the drug lord whose operations took a serious blow during their raid. The sinister Santiago (played by Rodrigo Obregon) hires a lovely but lethal assassin (Julie Strain) to take the trio down once and for all.
Don't go into these films expecting Academy Award winning material, because you're just not going to find it. But if you like explosions, naked ladies, and violence (and hey, let's face it, we all do), then this pair of big ones is for you!
Sidaris has no problem whatsoever leaving very little to the imagination in his films, and while these aren't necessarily the best projects he's done, they're still a helluva lot of fun if you're in the right mood for this kinda of cheesecake.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The open matte 1.33.1 transfers on both of these DVDs are taken from the original negatives and look pretty close to perfect. A bit of speckling occurs and there is the odd scratch here and there, but for the most part, these look really, really nice, with Malibu
Express looking a tad more worn than Enemy Gold. Having only ever seen these on worn out VHS tapes prior to this release, I must say it's a world of difference and I never thought I'd see these movies look so good.
The Dolby Digital Stereo tracks for the films are decent enough. There's some hiss and occasionally it helps to turn the volume up here and there, but overall, it's a satisfactory mix.
These discs are more stacked than Andy Sidaris' starlets and a mammoth selection of big and bouncy extras awaits the Sidaris fan on these DVDs.
Arlene and Andy Sidaris provide intelligent and humorous commentaries on both DVDs which prove to be both informative and amusing and are very much worth listening to. Arlene has a lot less to say on the Malibu Express track because she just wasn't as involved in it, so it's more of an observational commentary than the one recorded for Enemy Gold, but it's still fun to hear the two of them go into detail about getting these features made and the people that they worked with to do it. The couple has a refreshing sense of humor about what they do, and they really seem to have a good time doing it.
Both films feature optional introductions from Andy and the continuously naked Julie Strain. They're funny enough and accurately set the movies up quite nicely.
Each DVD also has a great feature called 'Andy Sidaris Film School' where the cheesemaster himself shows you the viewer how he makes it all happen as he teaches
you not only how to direct an action scene, but also one of his infamous 'sexy' scenes as well. It's a lot of fun, even if it is repeated on both discs.
Enemy Gold has got a few exclusive features including footage from one of Ms. Strain's photo shoots, a short 10 minute feature that shows us the inner workings and some behind the scenes stuff from Malibu Bay Films Headquarters, an early short Enemy Gold promo spot made to get funding for the film, and a surprisingly cool short spot about Andy's big black Cadillac.
Malibu Express has also got a couple of exclusive extras. There are three short documentaries included on the DVD - two feature Cynthia Brimahll and Suzi
Simpson and the third one is an interview with John Brown, who worked with Andy on a few of his films.
Still galleries, trailers for the entire Sidaris film catalogue, talent bios, and liner notes round out the supplemental material.
On a side note, both discs feature an innovation I personally hope to see utilized on more DVDs in the future! A handy guide will inform you if the chapter you want to watch contains bombs, bullets, babes or a combination of all three! This is particularly handy should you have a favorite explosion, breast or handgun you might want to revisit in the future.
The Final Word:
If you're into Andy Sidaris's guns, girls and explosions school of film, you'll definitely want to grab these discs, and considering the amount of material on here, the low MSRP makes them a steal.