The Top 5 Movies That Need Special Edition Blu-rays

The Top 5 Movies That Need Special Edition Blu-rays

I know that the age of physical media is quickly coming to an end and everything is streaming, streaming, streaming now, but I still check out the home video sections of stores that still sell DVD’s and Blu-rays and scour every online forum I know of for news on new home video releases of new and classic movies. It’s always cool to find out that some movie is going to a major, big deal new home video release. I mean, did anyone see that recent Shout! Factory/Scream Factory mega Blu-ray set for all of the Jason movies coming? I know I didn’t. And I find it amazing that there are still movies that have never been given a good North American/Region 1 DVD or Blu-ray release.

So I figured, for this particular Top 5, why not come up with a list of movies that I would love to see get a special edition Blu-ray release, something chock full of special features and a new transfer and all the rest of it? There are just so many movies that deserve more home video love and movies that could, with a proper/new Blu-ray release, could become more popular than they are. Maybe. Heck, it would be great just to see some of these movies again.

And so, without any further what have you, here are my Top 5 Movies That Need Special Edition Blu-rays.

Honorable Mentions

–Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I know that at least one of the DVD releases for this movie has a commentary track and some deleted scenes, but wouldn’t it be cool if an outfit like Shout! Factory did something with this movie? A new transfer, new special features, etc.? You’d think this would have already happened by now as, in terms of nostalgia, this movie is considered a 1990’s classic. And if the release was a success, perhaps it would be cool, too, to get a Secret of the Ooze Blu-ray as well. There could be a whole special features section devoted to Vanilla Ice!

–Silent Rage: I know that the odds of this ever happening are small, but I think it would be cool if we could get a Blu-ray with a director commentary track (I believe that Michael Miller is still alive) alongside Brian Libby, who played the unstoppable killer John Kirby. Scorpion Releasing has a new Lone Wolf McQuade Blu-ray that’s awesome, so there’s small hope on my part of seeing something like that for Silent Rage one day.

–The Punisher (1989): There are a few international Blu-rays of this classic movie that have a Mark Goldblatt commentary track, deleted scenes, and other stuff, which is cool and all, but why can’t an outfit like Arrow Video do a Blu-ray that’s got all of those things plus new stuff (like a documentary on the making of the movie?)? I would love to see this happen.

–Tango & Cash: This is another movie that Shout! Factory could probably kick ass with. Who wouldn’t want a documentary on the movie’s troubled production history? And who wouldn’t want a Sylvester Stallone/Kurt Russell commentary track? All of that would be amazing.

5- All of the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels: I’ve never understood why New Line Home Video didn’t do big hooha DVD’s of the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. There are DVD’s with actual special features for the first movie and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and there was a boxed set that had special features that, I believe, dealt with the sequels, but why didn’t each movie get a special edition, with commentary tracks and behind the scenes documentaries and whatnot? There’s got to be all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes type footage that could be put together for featurettes for parts 2-6. Look at some of the stuff that pops up in the Never Going to Sleep Again mega documentary. Fans would have purchased them. I mean, how can part 3, Dream Warriors, one of the most celebrated horror movies of the 1980’s not have a 2-disc Blu-ray? It’s just never made any sense to me that parts 2-6 never got much love on the home video front. Again, fans would have purchased Blu-rays in droves.

4-. Eve of Destruction: Shout! Factory put out a bare bones Blu-ray of this movie that, I believe, is set to go out of print, which is a shame because Eve of Destruction is one of the best sci-fi action movies of the early 1990’s. I know it would be difficult to do a full on collector’s edition Blu-ray of this movie as the director, Duncan Gibbons, died back in 1993 and star, the great Gregory Hines, left us in 2003, but I’d imagine that there are people who were involved in the production who are still knocking around the movie and TV world and would probably sit down to talk about the movie in a behind the scenes featurette. And I think it would be pretty damn cool to find out what playing the killer cyborg Eve did for actress Renee Soutendijk’s career. And why not try to get composer Philippe Sarde to talk about how he put the soundtrack together and how he came up with the movie’s catchy as all hooha theme? I think the movie deserves a more in depth home video release. The movie is good enough to dig into.

3- Automatic: I’ve been a mega fan of this Olivier Gruner sci-fi action flick ever since I first saw it on HBO back in 1995. It’s one of Gruner’s best on screen performances, it has a terrific supporting cast (John Glover as the charismatic and almost reasonable sounding psycho robotics company CEO Goddard Marx, Jeff Kober as a badass mercenary called in to take out Gruner’s “malfunctioning” cyborg, Stanley Kamel as a sleazebag executive), and plenty of great action. Its story is also brilliant with a nice twist at the end. As far as I know this movie has never had a Region 1 DVD release (the only one I know of is a region 2 release), which I think is insane. It’s too good to be just on VHS in North America. The fine folks at MVD Rewind have released two Gruner movies (Angel Town and Nemesis), so it would be col to see them do something with this. I would love to know more about how the movie was made (John Murlowski is still making movies) and, a new home video release might elevate the movie’s stature in the low budget action movie world. This movie deserves so much better.

2-. Peacemaker : This badass sci-fi action horror flick was on The Movie Channel all of the time back in the early 1990’s, and it was in several video stores I frequented then, too. It stars Robert Forster and Lance Edwards as aliens who land on Earth and end up chasing one another all over the place, shooting one another and blowing one another up. One of them is a cop, the other is a terrorist criminal, and you’re never really sure which alien is the good guy and which is the bad guy until the end. There are so many fights, stunts, explosions, and just insane things in this movie that I’m surprised more people don’t know about it. It’s never been released on DVD anywhere as far as I know, and VHS is the only way to own it (I purchased a VHS copy from a video store that was closing). That’s ridiculous. So a special edition Blu-ray would kick ass because more people would be able to see it (and trust me, if you’re a fan of low budget sci-fi action horror flicks Peacemaker is something that you need to see). And I would love to hear a commentary track from director Kevin Tenney on just how the movie came about and how Forster got involved, not to mention Robert Davi in one of his few good guy roles. The fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome could probably do wonders with this. That company’s Hell Comes to Frogtown Blu-ray/DVD set is terrific.

1- Warrior of the Lost World: I reviewed this movie as part of my Robert Ginty Movie Marathon back in June (check out my review here and I will reiterate that I genuinely love this movie. I think it’s one of the best low budget Italian sci-fi action flicks of the 1980’s and Robert Ginty’s performance as The Rider is iconic and cool as hell. It just boggles my mind that this movie doesn’t have a big deal Blu-ray release of some kind. I know that Shout! Factory did some special features for the movie as part of its MST3K edition, but I want to see a Blu-ray presentation that takes the movie seriously, talks about its production, its legacy in the low budget movie world, etc. I would love to hear a commentary track from writer/director David Worth. And, ultimately, I would just love to have a better copy of the movie to watch beyond its now super hard to find bargain basement DVD. I bet Arrow Video could do wonders with this or Vinegar Syndrome.

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