Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Blast (MVD Marquee Collection) Blu-ray Review

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Blast (MVD Marquee Collection) Blu-ray Review



    Released by: MVD Marquee Collection
    Released on: August 28th, 2018.
    Director: Albert Pyun
    Cast: Linden Ashby, Rutger Hauer, Andrew Divoff, Tim Thomerson, Shannon Elizabeth
    Year: 1997
    Purchase From Amazon

    Blast - Movie Review:

    Albert Pyun has given fans of B-grade action pictures plenty of cinematic gifts, and one of his most underrated has got to be the 1997 Die Hard knock off, Blast. The film is set in Atlanta, Georgia where the city is preparing for the start of the Olympic Games. Not only will the President Of The United States be in attendance, but so too will various other world leaders - all of which makes this a prime target for terrorists! One such terrorist is named Omodo (played with wicked enthusiasm by the Wishmaster himself, Andrew Divoff) decides to get in on this by kidnapping the U.S Women's Swim Team while they're on their way to a practice session. Not only that, he and his men set up explosive traps at all the entrances to ensure that the cops (led by Tim Thomerson of Trancers fame) can't get in to take them down. If that weren't enough, Omodo then makes it onto television where, to prove how serious he is about his demands, he executes a hostage in cold blood. Clearly, you should not fuck with Omodo.

    What Omodo didn't count on was the facility's janitor, a guy named Jack Byrant (Linden Ashby), who just so happens to be a Tae Kwan Do expert. It just so happens that his wife is on the swim team! Once he realizes what's going on he makes a phone call or two and before you know it, he's the man on the inside, working for the F.B.I. with some help on the other end of the phone from a counter-terrorism expert named Leo (Rutger Hauer).

    Top billed Hauer is in this turkey for about five minutes in total, but he's fun in the part. That leaves Ashby and Divoff to do the heavy lifting here. Divoff is more than capable of playing this type of part to the hilt, and he does. He's great as the bad guy, making Omodo the type of character that audiences love to hate. He is, without question, the best part of the film. As to Ashby? He's okay. Many will recognize him as Johnny Cage from the first Mortal Kombat movie. He's got some decent moves and enough charisma to carry the part. He isn't the most versatile actor you're ever going to see but he's perfectly fine B-movie material. His character was injured years back but somehow, through the magic of bad writing, he overcomes that pretty quickly and once he does, he manages to show those terrorists whose boss. Supporting work from the ever-reliable Tim Thomerson is fine, and hey, check out pretty Kimberly Warren here. Pyun would use her again in Mean Guns and Sorcerers. Shannon Elizabeth, who got ravaged by a snowman in Jack Frost before going on to mainstream success once American Pie hit it big, also has a small part here as one of the hostages.

    The pacing is decent. The effects are okay. Almost the entire thing takes place in and around the swimming pool that the team was intending to train at, so we're a little limited in terms of where the action happens, but it's a fun time killer.

    Blast - Blu-ray Review:

    Blast (which never had a domestic DVD release) arrives on Blu-ray framed in its original 2.35.1 aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. Presented on a 25GB disc the movie looks pretty decent here, even if it is a little soft in spots. There's a bit of print damage in the opening credits but thankfully once that passes, we see little more than the odd speck here and there. Colors are reproduced nicely and black are decent if maybe a step or two away from reference quality. Texture and depth are both pretty good, definitely better than we'd get on a standard definition presentation, and the image is free of any compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues. There's also a reasonable amount of natural looking film grain, and there doesn't seem to be any wonky filtering or sharpening to complain about.

    The English language LPCM 2.0 Stereo track sounds okay, if never great. Things are a bit thin sounding, but this likely stems back to the original recording. There's some decent channel separation in the mix when action occurs and the score is spread out rather well in spots. There's occasionally some minor distortion in the mix but it's infrequent. No optional language options or subtitles are provided here.

    There are no extra features included on this release save for a few low quality trailers for other MVD Marquee properties, but we do get a slipcover.

    Blast- The Final Word:

    Blast might owe a whole lot to Die Hard but it hardly matters how original the picture is when it's this much fun. Pyun keeps the action moving quickly and directs the picture with just the right amount of flair, while the cast all make the most of their respective roles. The Blu-ray release from the MVD Marquee Collection is light on extras, but it presents the movie in decent shape and finally makes it available on disc in North America.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blast Blu-ray review screen captures!






























    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X