Aside from my issue with plot, Blow Out is a film that should be seen along with Coppola’s similarly themed The Conversation starring Gene Hackman which came out in 1974, 7 years earlier.
RoboCop all these years later still holds up rather well, and Peter Weller as the title character was the perfect choice for the role and featured a respectable ensemble supporting cast, including Kurtwood Smith and Ronny Cos, with special mention to Karen Allen.
While my opinion of RoboCop 2 dramatically changed, RoboCop 3 is still a crappy movie made by well intentioned filmmakers. The story itself is fine but the loss of Peter Weller was felt and like most movies that add kids into the mix (Alien 3), it’s rarely a good thing.
As Collector’s Editions go from Shout Factory, this might be the weaker of the bunch (only by comparison to the others), but this RoboCop 2 does contain a few actual features including a nice audio commentary and five solid featurettes delving into the origins and making of the sequel.
Poltergeist III actually has some interesting ideas and that, like its predecessor, wasn’t executed very well but as third movies go, especially in the horror genre, this wasn’t half bad with Heather O’Rourke, when she was in it, delivers a fine performance right alongside Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen.
This “Collector’s Edition” of Carrie from Shout Factory is pretty darn good for a pretty darn good movie by suspense-maestro, Brian De Palma and features amazing performances by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie.
Strange Invaders is by no means great but co-writer/director Michael Laughlin does achieve its attempt at nostalgia alien science-fiction and the performances from the adequate cast isn’t bad either. The Blu-ray released through Screen Archives looks and sounds good though the features have much to be desired.
I wasn’t nearly as impressed with Dressed to Kill as others have since it doesn’t offer much mystery and the psychological elements which De Palma is normally a master of (look no further than Blow Out), isn’t very enticing either. I guess Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen excelled in their roles as Michael Caine, while not entirely remarkable, still manages to turn in a sufficient (and unique) performance.
Aside from my issue with plot, Blow Out is a film that should be seen along with Coppola’s similarly themed The Conversation starring Gene Hackman which came out in 1974.