Blue Ice

Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 29th, 2016.
Director: Phillip Marshak
Cast: Herschel Savage, Jacqueline Lorians, Jamie Gillis, Shanna McCullough, Paul Thomas, Ron Jeremy, Reggie Nalder, Helga Sven
Year: 1985
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The Movie:

The star of director Philip Marshak's Blue Ice is a man named Tom Singer (Herschel Savage), a card dealer by trade who, through a series of missteps, winds up involved with a gorgeous woman named Messina (Jacqueline Lorians). Why is that a problem? Because she belongs to a wealthy troublemaker referred to as the Big Man (Jamie Gills) and he probably won't take too kindly to a lowly card dealer putting his paws all over his best girl.

But there's more to this than that. Big Man takes Tom aside and offers him a job. For a cool ten grand in cold, hard cash he wants Tom to a rare tome that he believes contains a never before published part of the Book Of Revelations. What makes this particular entry interesting, however, is that it is rumored to contain information about the end times that the good Lord above instructed John not to write down. Tom doesn't know this, however, as Big Man fails to mention it, so he just figures the guy wants the book because it's got some rare, and clearly valuable, blue diamonds affixed to its ornate cover.

Singer, in need of the cash, takes the job and starts his hunt for the book but the closer he seems to get to the prize the more the bodies around him start to pile up. As luck would have, a small but lethal team of Nazi's leftover from the Second World War and still clearly dedicated to the cause are also after the book. Led by General Stuttgart (an instantly recognizable Reggie Nalder billed under the ridiculous pseudonym of Deltas Van Burg!), they'll kill anyone they need to kill to get their hands on the book - and then, well, Messina of all people has plans of her own too.

Deliberately paced, even downright slow at times, Blue Ice is nevertheless worth seeing for a few reasons, even if the story could have been told more efficiently and even if it winds up being more than a little bit on the predictable side. The obvious one, given that this is a XXX movie, would be that the sex scenes are not only pretty hot, but really impressive in both their production values and the performances themselves. When this cast goes at it, they go at it with a realistic gusto that's impressive and steamy. On top of that the lighting and the compositions are strong, giving things a very welcome artistic vibe that makes this more than just footage of genital contact and blowjobs. This aesthetic carries over into the non-sex scenes as well, in fact it's even more obvious there. The film noir influence is seen in more than just the presence of lovely Jacqueline Lorians as the requisite femme fatale - it's evident in almost every shot. There's plenty of shadowy lighting tactics, smoke filled rooms, sharp dressed dames and dudes and some great, seedy locations all of which come together to give this explicit voyage into neo-noir territory everything it needs to succeed on visuals alone.

The performances are also very good. Savage is decent in the lead but Gillis, not surprisingly, is a lot more memorable as far as the male cast members go. Ron Jeremy and Paul Thomas also show up here, though Jeremy's role is limited to one scene giving Thomas more to do in terms of exposition than the Hedgehog. It's amusing to see Reggie Nalder pop up here (in a non-sex role) and Bill Margold appears in a small part as a Nazi henchman. As mentioned, Jacqueline Lorians is in very fine form here, a real beauty that the camera seems to love, with supporting efforts from Shanna McCullough and an aging but still appealing Helga Sven worth mentioning as well.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Blue Ice turns out to be the recipient of a new AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen transfer from Vinegar Syndrome done with a 'new 2k scan from the 35mm negative and the bulk of the movie looks great. Detail is generally very strong while color reproduction is impressive throughout, particularly the film's use of darker shades. There's plenty of grain here but it's never overpowering or distracting while only minor print damage shows up here and there. Even the scenes with heavy, hazy smoke look really nice, never to too thick or blotchy. Skin tones look good, black levels are rich enough to work and the transfer is free of any obvious compression artifacts, edge enhancement and noise reduction.

Audio chores are handled by a DTS-HD Mono track. Again, the quality is pretty solid. For a single channel track, there's a good bit of range and depth you'll notice and the use of music gets a nice bump from the lossless audio. Hiss and distortion are never a problem while levels remain properly balanced throughout the feature.

Aside from menus and chapters selection the disc also includes a commentary track from leading man Herschel Savage and supporting actor Bill Margold. These two have a good chemistry together but do tend to go off topic pretty frequently, occasionally plugging their online radio show Pop Shots. When they're on topic they're interesting to listen to with Margold, who really knows his movies, pointing out some older Hollywood films that clearly influenced this picture while also making plenty of observations about the cast, crew, sets and locations. Savage doesn't have as much to say about the production as his co-conspirator but he does talk about working with director Marshak and show his appreciation for the man's attention to period detail.

As this is a combo pack release the Blu-ray comes packaged alongside a DVD version of the movie with the same commentary included on that disc. Both discs fit inside a clear Blu-ray keepcase that contains some reversible cover art with the original poster art on one side and some newly created artwork on the flipside.

The Final Word:

Blue Ice is uneven in its story telling and pacing, but the sex scenes are solid and well performed and hot damn does the movie ever look good - it's beautifully shot and very atmospheric, even if it is occasionally a bit slow. Vinegar Syndrome's disc isn't stacked but the commentary has its moments and the presentation is excellent.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!