No Escape is an all around entertaining film perfect for a Saturday movie night. No, it doesn’t make you think or have any profound performances but the acting isn’t bad with Owen Wilson serving as a fine everyman type of character and Pierce Brosnan in his small part is a lot of fun. This is probably worthy of a rental.
Basket Case
(1981)
Genre(s): Action, Suspense/Thriller
Anchor Bay | R – 103 min. – $39.99 | November 24, 2015
Date Published: 06/24/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Duane Bradley (KEVIN VAN HENTENRYCK) seems like a pretty ordinary guy. His formerly conjoined twin Belial, on the other hand, is a deformed creature who lives in a wicker basket. Arriving in the Big Apple and taking up a room at a seedy hotel, the pair set about hunting down and butchering the surgeons responsible for their separation. Quick Hit Review: Basket Case is a really funny and even genuinely scary horror-comedy that over the years has become a larger cult classic, though even back in 1981 upon its release, ran on the midnight movie circuit for 2.5 years. As for the movie itself, yes it is cheesy as hell but incredibly well done considering its budget and actually a decent performance from its lead, Kevin Van Hentenryck, not to mention some respectable gore effects. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.75/5 |
| This release comes housed in a clear HD Keep Case with a matted slip cover and inside a nice booklet. This is the second big release for Basket Case so it stands to reason Arrow Video would go all-out with the features and boy did they ever…
Audio Commentaries:
Both tracks do make an interesting listen, the latter a bit older but nonetheless still interesting while the former is new for this release and make for an amiable enough track. Basket Case 3-½: An Interview with Duane Bradley (8:30; HD) is a mockumentary with the fictional character. Interviews:
A Brief Interview with Director Frank Henenlotter (3:50; HD) – This is a joke interview with an actor portraying the Basket Case director. Based on the copyright, he at least approved of it. The Making of Basket Case: The Latvian Connection (27:33; HD) – This featurette contains new interviews with various members of the crew including producer Edgar Ievins, associate producer/special effects artist Ugis Nigals, Belial performer Kika Nigals and casting person/actress Ilze Balodis. Basket Case at MoMA (37:12; HD) – This is a 2017 Q&A held at the restoration premiere at the Museaum of Modern Art with Henenlotter, Van Hentenryck, Bonner, the Schultz twins and Nigals. What’s in the Basket? (1:18:41; SD) is a feature-length documentary covering all three films of tie Basket Case series. Although it is an older featurette, probably one of the more interesting of the features. In Search of the Hotel Broslin (16:08; SD) – Writer/Director Henenlotter and rapper R.A. “The Rugged Man” Thorburn going back to what locations were still left in this archive featurette from 2001. The Frisson of Fission (23:03; HD) – Video essay by Travis Crawford made for this release. The Slash of the Knife (30:13; SD) is a rare short film directed by Henenlotter which features many of the same actors as Basket Case and was shown only once to the public. Included as well is an optional commentary with Henenlotter and Mike Bencivenga, Outtakes and an Image Gallery. Belial’s Dream (4:49; HD) is a Basket Case-inspired animated short. Also has a Making Belial’s Dream (2:06; HD) featurette. Lastly we get some Outtakes (6:13; SD); Image Galleries with Promotional Stills, Behind the Scenes, Advertisements, and more; and a Promo Gallery with Trailers, a TV Spot and Radio Spots. |
VIDEO – 4.75/5 |
| Arrow Video releases Basket Case onto Blu-ray, this being the second one with the other being from Image Entertainment”, presented in its original 1.33 full frame aspect ratio and a new 1080p high-definition transfer culled from the original 16mm AB negative that was scanned in 4K; dirt, specs, debris, scratches and other signs of wear and tear were removed or repaired. This does indeed looks fantastic with some incredible detail throughout and the natural grain was maintained so nice to see this wasn’t entirely scrubbed and was delicately restored. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The PCM Mono track comes across through the center speaker well enough with good dialogue levels throughout. It’s not entirely perfect as I did detect some minor white noise in a scene or two but it’s nothing overly distracting. Considering this is a 35+ year old film now, I found this to be an impressive track. |
OVERALL – 4.0/5 |
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Overall, Basket Case is a fantastic little horror-comedy that works on both of those counts and features some decent gore effects and a fine comedic performance from lead actor Kevin Van Hentenryck. The Arrow Video release offers up a great video/audio transfers and an excellent amount of bonus material. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.