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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: July 9, 2013.
Director: Stanley Lewis
Cast: Stephen Fiachi, Sandra Bogan, Raymond Fusci
Year: 1987
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The Movie:
1987's Punk Vacation, a low budget revenge movie directed by 'Stanley Lewis' and written by Lance Smith and Harvey Richelson, may have been an unlikely candidate for a special edition Blu-ray release but thanks to Vinegar Syndrome, here it is… like it or not! When the movie begins, a cop named Steve Reed (Stephen Fiachi) is called off to a local gas station/restaurant where the funky alarm system has gone off by accident. While there, Steve flirts with his girlfriend, Lisa (Sandra Bogan). Steve splits and a lone punk named Bobby (Rob Garrison) shows up and assaults the soda machine outside the diner when it eats his forty cents - the last money he had left in the world. The owner, Lisa's dad, comes out with his shotgun ready and chases him off but shortly after, Bobby and a gang of sinister punks show up for revenge and pops winds up dead.
The gang's leader, a tough chick with giant teased hair and bad makeup named Ramrod (Roxanne Rogers), decides to kidnap Lisa and hold her hostage in her underwear at a seemingly abandoned farm that they've holed up in. While a punk with frizzy hair and John Lennon style sunglasses laments the fact that they're not doing any hiking or going on any nature trails while on vacation, Ramrod shuts him up by reminding him that sometimes things don't go as planned. Regardless, Steve enlists the aid of a fellow cop named Don (Don Martin) to head on out into the sticks to save the woman he loves before it's too late. Before you know it, it's cops versus punks all over the place, with Sheriff Virgil (Louis Waldon) breathing cigar smoke in everyone's face and yelling about commies and pinkos and Lisa's life hanging in the balance. Also the punks have rats.
This one doesn't make a whole lot of sense nor is it anything close to good but if eighties era low budget trash movies are your thing, then step right up because Punk Vacation delivers in spades. Cashing in on the weird, albeit minor, punk phobia that popped up for a bit in the eighties (Don't remember it? Maybe this will jot your memory. Or this.), we get all the stereotypes so associated with it - big hair, bad make up, leather clothes and a bad new wave soundtrack - wrapped up in what is essentially a pretty basic revenge movie. The punks want revenge on the 'normals' for sending Bobby to the hospital while Steve wants to take out the punks because they've got his girlfriend tied up in her intimates. There's not a whole lot more to it than that, there's no deeper meaning or serious social commentary to critique nor is there really much in the way of plot or character development.
None of this stops the movie from entertaining though, at least if you're in the right frame of mind for it. It's a little slow in a few spots but there's enough bad action and mild violence occurring throughout the picture to hold the interest of those who dig on movies like this. Sheriff Virgil steals every scene he's in by completely overacting while everyone else save for Rogers as Ramrod sort of coasts through the picture looking confused. Rogers gives it her all, however, chewing some scenery and generally just looking goofy. There are definitely 'better' punk movies out there - Suburbia and Class Of 1984 come to mind pretty much immediately - but the fact that those involved in making the movie lacked even a basic understanding of what punk was even about in the first place makes this fun to watch. Throw in some weird, random booby traps, bad jokes and just a generally bizarre sense of complete disarray and this turns out to be a lot of really dumb fun.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.85.1 widescreen transfer is presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and for the most part, it looks really good. Some of the darker scenes show some crush and there are some scenes that look a bit softer than others but by and large this is an impressive transfer. Color reproduction appears perfectly natural as do skin tones while detail is frequently quite strong. Texture looks good as well as does contrast. Some age and budget related quirks are inherent in the source material but it's hard to imagine the movie looking a whole lot better than it does here - a strong image overall.
The English language DTS-HD 2.0 track is decent, if sometimes slightly muffled in terms of dialogue. Generally speaking though, the movie sounds pretty good. The synth heavy score has some good presence to it and the levels are properly balanced. There is some occasional hiss here and there but overall, it sounds fine for what it is.
This is a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack with all of the extras (save a good sized still gallery or production images and promotional materials) allocated to the DVD. So with that said, here we kick things off with an interview with Stephen Fusci (or Stephen Fiachi if you prefer), who not only appeared in the film but served as producer as well. He spends eighteen minutes talking about how he got involved in this film, some anecdotes about the identity of 'Stanley Lewis' and what it was like working on this picture and Nomad Riders. The second interview is with stuntman Steve Rowland (who also served as the assistant to the producer) and he spends fourteen minutes talking about what his life was like during this period in his career, some of the difficulties encountered with the film's motorcycle stunts and what it was like working on this picture and Nomad Riders as well.
Wait… why the emphasis on Nomad Riders? Because it's included here too as a second feature. Taken from a one inch master and presented fullframe, this movie more or less tells the same story as Punk Vacation (with a few doses of The Road Warrior thrown in for good measure), basically just replacing the punks with some bikers. A guy named Steve Thrust (Tony Laschi) gets revenge on those bikers after they slaughter his wife and kid by blowing them up in a tent with a hand grenade. As if that weren't bad enough, the bikers also blow up a guy in an outhouse. Also with a hand grenade. There are a lot of hand grenades in this movie, and Budweiser.
Most of the men in the movie have a beard or a moustache, there's a great scene involving an ice pick fight. Thrust wears his cool glasses constantly. He pilots a glider and drives around in a Trans-Am, Mad Foxes style. He's also pretty malicious in his attempts to hunt down and kill anyone who gets in his way, as he works his way through those bikers to get to the kingpin (played by director Frank Roach) behind them to dish out the ultimate in revenge! Bikers have great biker guy names like Scuzz and Cannibal and they drive their choppers right through the living room of an unsuspecting senior citizen who has finished reading a copy of Playgirl. Thrust, on the other hand, deals with his loss by getting it on with a lady who just can't resist him, but sadly he doesn't band the biker chick sporting a black t-shirt that says “DO IT TO IT†in big white letters. And to top it all off, just when you think it's over? The madness lives on!
It's a complete mess of completely inept filmmaking and wonderful one note non-acting from the entire cast, and its inclusion here is pretty much invaluable. It's tightly paced, more than efficient, plenty violent and gleefully stupid - and that pretty much makes it a ridiculously entertaining b-grade trash fest that is, in many ways, just as good (if not slightly more fun) than the feature attraction. Additionally menus and chapter selection are included on both discs.
The Final Word:
An unlikely candidate for Blu-ray or not, Punk Vacation gets a solid release from Vinegar Syndrome that not only offers up the movie in great shape with some solid extras but teams it up with the equally screwy Nomad Riders, making for three hours of trashy eighties double feature glory! As ridiculous as both of these movies are, they're also a lot of fun and loaded with cult appeal. If that sounds like your thing, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
And hey, check out these caps from Nomad Riders while you're at it!
And hey, check out these caps from Nomad Riders while you're at it!
