THE FEATURES ZERO STARS
There are no special features included on this disc for any of the films. One thing that I will mention is the inclusion of subtitles for each of the films. I know that there are a lot of hearing impaired blu-ray fans out there and that is always their biggest complaint when it comes to smaller companies like Mill Creek. There are quite a few companies out there who don’t feel the need to spend the extra money to add subtitles to the main feature and any special features. I applaud Mill Creek for adding subtitles to their features and hope that this continues. And before anyone gets their panties all wound up: I have never noticed subtitles for Mill Creek blus in the past. Past releases could have had subtitles, but it is not something that I actively look for. I noticed them on this release. Mill Creek still deserves credit for something like this when other companies couldn’t be bothered.
THE PACKAGING ⭐⭐
All three films are crammed onto one disc as a triple
feature.
The front cover claims this triple feature as the “Payback Time Triple Feature”. We then have each of the three films represented by their respective stars in poses from their theatrical posters. Underneath each of the three is the tagline for the film.
The back cover gives us a brief synopsis of each of the films with tech specs at the bottom.
The disc art is very plain with each of the films’ titles in white against a black background. Up at the top of the disc is the Mill Creek Website.
The disc is REGION FREE
THE PICTURE ⭐⭐⭐1/2
All three films are presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratios and
all look very good. Each transfer is taken from an older master but, like the
sound, that doesn’t bother me as the masters are still really nice. Each film
displays a nice layer of grain and skin tones look good overall. Colors are
good, but they don’t pop and there is no sense of immersion. There is dirt and
hairs in each film, but they aren’t there for long and only pop up occasionally.
These are good transfers overall, but I do wish that Mill Creek had released
the films separately to give the films room to breathe. I did not see any
digital manipulation either.
THE SOUND ⭐⭐⭐
All three films are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 which means
that they are not lossless HD tracks. Normally this would irk me, but with
these films, I didn’t care too much. The tracks are all well handed and I
didn’t detect anything wrong with the tracks. Sure, they are not that robust
and having lossless tracks would have helped, but the tracks that we have here
are perfectly film.
THE FILMS
Blind Fury ⭐⭐⭐
Blinded and left to die in Vietnam, Nick Parker returns to the States and uses his highly-tuned senses to help an old Army buddy in an action-packed cross-country battle.
Blind Fury is a good film that shows that it could be a
better film in certain scenes. Rutger Hauer is really good as the blind
swordsman and brings a good nature humor to the role. The kid that Hauer has to take to Reno is
kind of annoying, but doesn’t even get close to the kid from Last Action Hero
or any kid in any of the Godzilla or Gamera films.
Hauer also shows that he is surprisingly good with a sword
and the fight scene between him and Sho Kosugi, who shows up for this fight
only, is the highlight of the film and shows that if you want good fight
choreography, you have to stay away from Americans (Hauer is Dutch, Kosugi is
Japanese, and director Phillip Noyce is Australian.) A fun flick overall.
Silent Rage ⭐
Science created him. Now Chuck Norris must destroy him. Sheriff Stevens (Norris) is faced with stopping a crazed murderer, made virtually indestructible through genetic engineering.
Wow is this film dull. I have seen my fair share of Chuck
Norris films and there have been some that I liked (Invasion U.S.A., Code of
Silence, etc) and some that I have hated (Hellbound, Forest Warrior, etc), so I
was going into this one with very little hope, outside of people telling me
that this was Norris’ best film. Hell, I even saw the trailer of Trailer Trauma
3 and it looked good.
That was not the case with Silent Rage. The big problem with
the film is that it is a test pattern for a big chunk of the film. Norris and
some woman flirt, get naked, repeat. Ron Silver questions the ethical nature of
what him and his co-workers are doing, rinse, repeat. Once the film does get to
some action scenes, they are so poorly choreographed and shot that we grow
tired of them even before the fights ramp up.
I like the idea for the film, but everything is a mess here.
I was hoping that this would be the film that everyone described to me, but it
turns out that the film is a turd waiting to be flushed.
White Line Fever ⭐⭐1/2
In the 1970s Arizona, a young married man becomes an independent long-haul driver and he risks his life fighting the corruption in the local long-haul trucking industry.
White Line Fever is the odd film out when it comes to this
collection. Both Blind Fury and Silent Rage are mindless entertainment about
one guy going up against a few people (Blind Fury goes up against more, but I
digress.) White Line Fever is a film
about a guy who goes up against a corrupt system. This film belongs with Billy
Jack and Walking Tall, not a Chuck Norris film and a Zatoichi remake.
White Line Fever is a decent film, but it is hard to say
that it is a good film. We feel for the main character as he goes through all
the things this film puts him through (which is a lot. I don’t even think Frank
Grimes from The Simpsons went through as much as our main character here), but
the lines are so clearly drawn that we know what the film is going to do before
it happens. Main character makes friend with an older black man? He’s done.
Does the main character find out that his wife is pregnant? She will lose the
child (and the ability to have children ever by the end of the film)
Does the
main character get set up for someone’s murder? He will be let go by the end of
the next scene.
White Line Fever (a term I had never heard of and if it
weren’t actually referenced in the film, I still wouldn’t know what it meant.)
is a film that wants to be very earnest in what it is trying to get across, but
the heavy-handedness does not help the film one bit. We do get to know, and
care for some of the characters, and there are some good action scenes, but the
delivery of the message ultimately hurts the film.
OVERALL⭐⭐⭐
Mill Creek has given us a mixed bag when it comes to the
films. We have one good film (Blind Fury), one bad film (Silent Rage) and one
film that could have better (White Line Fever). This is one of their better
collections. You know the ones I am talking about. You get five to ten films
and only one or two good films. I do not regret watching any of these films. In
fact, I had fun, even though Silent Rage is just bad.
The blu-ray is pretty good. The video quality is pretty good
and the sound is good. There are no special features, but when you pay $6 for
three films, I don’t expect any features.
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/ Silent Rage (1982)/ White Line Fever (1975) Blu-ray Review + Screenshots- Mill Creek){kind=link}
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