Savage Harbor at times is your run-of-the-mill bad thrillers from the 80s but there are moments that were truly (unintentionally) hilarious with bad acting, writing, editing and direction, all the elements to make a good bad movie.
Savage Harbor
(aka Death Feud)
(1987)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Crime
Vinegar Syndrome | NR – 90 min. – $29.99 | May 24, 2019
Date Published: 07/07/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Vinegar Syndrome provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1.5/5 |
Plot Synopsis: Joe (FRANK STALLONE) and Chris (CHRISTOPHER MITCHUM) live a life of high seas adventures, working as merchant seamen. But after arriving in port in Los Angeles for a brief leave, Joe meets Anne (KAREN MAYO-CHANDLER), a desperate young woman with a sordid history of prostitution and heroin addiction. As their romance builds, Joe realizes that he’s falling in love, but soon Anne’s former pimp, Harry (ANTHONY CARUSO), tracks her down, kidnapping and brutalizing her with the intent of forcing her back under his control and into her old ways of life. Determined not to let her go, Joe slays through Harry’s goons to rescue Anne and take down Harry once and for all. Quick Hit Review: Savage Harbor (a.k.a. Death Feud) might not be some specially bad 1980s movie as they were kind of plentiful back then, a few directed by Andy Sidaris, but this one had a lot to mock from the poor performances from actors who have far more famous family members to the shoddy and confusing editing or haphazard plot that meanders in spots that had little bearing on the plot. But even watching this alone, I did laugh quite a bit on the absurdity of it all, such as the absolutely lackluster chemistry between Frank Stallone and his love interest, hooker with a heart of gold (of sorts) played by the late Karen Mayo-Chandler. Written and directed by Carl Monson, in his final film (died a year later), Savage Harbor was certainly a silly action-thriller that only works as a good-bad movie and perhaps the best kind as presumably Monson set out to make a genuinely great flick and failed so miserably that it was so fantastic and would make for a great experience whether alone or in a group setting. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
The initial run of this release comes with a thick bottom-sliding slip cover and inside is a double-sided poster. Not much in terms of features but there is a great Interview (14:20) with Actor Frank Stallone who speaks frankly on how bad the movie is and another (audio) Interview (27:53) with Cinematographer Jack Beckett. |
VIDEO – 4.25/5 |
Vinegar Syndrome releases Savage Harbor onto Blu-ray presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer culled from a restored 2K scan from the original 35mm camera negative. For the most part this looks pretty good, detail is amazingly sharp throughout and colors are rich without looking oversaturated. On the minus side, there were some condition issues with some specs, scratches and even vertical lines that permeate some scenes; these are noticeable but hardly detract from the experience. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
The disc does come with a DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo track which comes a bit too strong probably due to the lackluster sound design but once I adjusted the volume down, the rest of the viewing experience was fine as dialogue did come through well enough though the depth was a bit lacking. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
Savage Harbor at times is your run-of-the-mill bad thrillers from the 80s but there are moments that were truly (unintentionally) hilarious with bad acting, writing, editing and direction, all the elements to make a good bad movie. This Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome doesn’t have a plethora of features, but the interview with Frank Stallone was wonderful. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.