Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Game Of Survival (Culture Shock Releasing) Blu-ray Review

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Game Of Survival (Culture Shock Releasing) Blu-ray Review

    Click image for larger version  Name:	cover.jpg Views:	0 Size:	37.7 KB ID:	393779

    Released by: Culture Shock Releasing
    Released on: May 31st, 2022.
    Director: Armand Gazarian
    Cast: Nicholas Hill, Cindy Coatman, Steve Dalton, Roosevelt Miller Jr., Johnnie Saiko
    Year: 1989
    Purchase From Amazon

    Game Of Survival – Movie Review:

    Game Of Survival (or Games Of Survival if you go by the title card), is great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it stars Nicholas Hill, also known as Nikki Fastinetti, the guy who starred in Alien Private Eye. In that movie, he wore a bouffant outfit, a fedora and fingerless cloves. In this movie, he sports a leather jacket with ‘B.A.D’ spray-painted on the back in gold, a headband and more fingerless gloves.

    The movie opens with some bad ass dune buggy action before we see a guy named Zane (Hill) stuck in a hole with his dead buddy. A bad guy lords over them holding a decapitated head, and it’s awesome. From there, Zane and a few other combatants – the psychotic Skullblaster (Roosevelt Miller Jr.), the hulking Baarg (Rod Koontz), a crazy guy named Moozy (Anthony Julian Tarantino), Mohawk-wearing Zoolog (Johnnie Saiko), deadly Gygon (Dennis Warren) and killer dwarf Minig (Eugene Pigeon) – are sent from outer space to Los Angeles by an alien being named Gothic (Steve Dalton). For the amusement of he and his friends, Gothic has freed these criminals from prison where they had been sentenced to death and instead opted to use them in a game. Somewhere in Los Angeles, a spiked ball has been placed. Each combatant is beamed down to the city of angels and given a tracking device that will lead them to the ball and a weapon. They must fight to keep control of the ball and the last man standing by the time noon rolls around the next day will be given his freedom, the rest will be obliterated!

    For some reason, Gothic decides that the ball should be hidden in a crummy looking liquor store and Zoolog is the first to find it, but that doesn’t last long. Over the next seventy minutes or so, the contestants will battle one another to keep the ball and win the day. Of course, there are a few snags along the way. Baarg gets picked up by a gay man who just can’t resist his muscles, and a woman named Cindy (played by a real life Cindy named Cindy Coatman) almost runs over Minig with her car, causing Zane to hop inside, which leads to the films’ greatest moment, a lengthy scene where she takes Zane back to her place and feeds him some Celeste brand frozen pizza. It spends more time with this moment than you might expect. He needs food, she’s got a frozen pizza. We see her take it out of the freezer, take it out of the box, toss the box in the trash, put it in the over, take it out of the oven, and then offer it to him. And then we see him roll it up and eat it, before remarking on how much he enjoys it. It’s a weird moment.

    Shot for a cool ten grand, Game Of Survival is very obviously the low budget production that it is, but it’s a pretty fun way to kill seventy-five minutes in front of your TV, especially if you’ve got a think for dudes in crazy outfits beating each other up, because that’s essentially what this movie is. We get a black guy, an Asian guy, a dwarf wearing feather armbands with a bow and arrow, and a few white guys of different varieties – freakishly Herculean, tall and lean and in Zane’s case, just kind of generally ripped and sporting a rad mullet. None of these men are particularly skilled actors, but they never have a tone of dialogue so it doesn’t matter because they look cool in their ridiculous outfits and are pretty good at beating each other up which, again, is the entire point of the movie.

    Game Of Survival – Blu-ray Review:

    Culture Shock Releasing brings Game Of Survival to Region A Blu-ray framed in 1.33.1 in AVC encoded 1080p high definition on a 25GB disc with the seventy-five minute feature using up 16GBs of space. Shot on Super 8mm film stock, you can’t expect the kind of detail you’d get from a 35mm production but overall, this looks quite decent considering the film’s roots. Compression could be a little better but this always looks properly film-like. Some of the darker scenes are a bit too dark but it’s obvious that they just weren’t lit very well in the first place, and that could have been on purpose in an attempt to hide budgetary constraints. Colors look good, if not super consistent, and while some mild to moderate print damage shows up now and then, the image is generally pretty clean. Fans who have only ever seen this on VHS before should be quite pleased with the upgrade that this disc offers.

    The only audio option for the feature is a 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 track in English only. Optional subtitles are provided in English. Sound quality is pretty solid. Again, limitations of the source are evident but the track is pretty clean and there’s a surprising amount of depth to the movie’s supremely awesome synth score.

    Aside from a one minute introduction to the film by director Armand Gazarian, we also get a commentary track from the director. He talks about the film's low budget, making the film with the home video market in mind, shooting the film with a crew of three people, casting the film with a lot of non-actors, how he appreciates the actors' patience, where he filled in as a cast member, the locations that were used for the movie, how some of the effects were created, having to do a lot of ADR for the film, having to sell his own van to fund finishing the movie, the different cameras that were used on the shoot, who did what behind the camera, creating the props and costumes for the movie, the restoration that the film has undergone, a documentary series that he's made recently horror filmmakers and more. There's some dead air in spots but when he's engaged and talking, he tells some interesting stories.

    Cinematographer Bruce Hensius is interviewed for just over eight minutes in a piece where he talks about meeting Armand Gazarian and working on their first feature, Game Of Survivial. He talks about working as the director of photography on the film, appearing in the picture in a supporting role, how this feature differed from other productions he's been involved with, shooting the entire film without any permits whatsoever, different locations that were used for the movie, some of his favorite moments from the film and his thoughts on the finished movie.

    An interview with actor Johnnie Saiko runs just over thirty minutes and lets the actor talk about how he got his start in the movie industry on Rollerblade Warriors, made some connections and wound up in Game Of Survival. He then talks about working with Armand Gazarian, having a Mohawk for the first four films that he did, making his own 8mm version of Game Of Death as a sixteen year old and having an understanding of the format, getting into doing effects work, thoughts on his character, who came up with his look for the movie, working with the different cast and crew members and how he got along with them, what the actual production of Game Of Survival was like, how he came to reprise his character in the Municipal Waste video for Slime And Punishment and how he didn't actually see the finished movie until decades after it was made.

    Finishing up the extras is a four minute restoration comparison that shows just how much better the movie looks on this disc than it has before, a music video for Municipal Waste’s track "Slime and Punishment" (which features Johnnie Saiko in his Games of Survival outfit!), and trailers for a few other Culture Shock Blu-ray releases (Video Murders, The American Scream, Slashdance and Girlfriend From Hell).

    Menus and chapter selection are also provided on the disc, which comes packaged with some great reversible cover sleeve art.

    Game Of Survival - The Final Word:

    B-movie bliss, they name is Game Of Survival! Sure it was clearly made for peanuts and it borrows from a whole lot of other, better known, movies but this film is a whole lot of fun and made with loads of infectious enthusiasm for genre insanity. Culture Shock Releasing once again gives this lesser known cinematic obscurity a really nice special edition release, presenting the movie nicely cleaned up and with some quality supplements. Highly recommended!


    Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Game Of Survival Blu-ray screen caps!

    Click image for larger version  Name:	01.jpg Views:	0 Size:	49.4 KB ID:	393780

    Click image for larger version  Name:	02.jpg Views:	0 Size:	285.3 KB ID:	393789

    Click image for larger version  Name:	03.jpg Views:	0 Size:	268.1 KB ID:	393793

    Click image for larger version  Name:	04.jpg Views:	0 Size:	341.3 KB ID:	393791

    Click image for larger version  Name:	05.jpg Views:	0 Size:	274.4 KB ID:	393784

    Click image for larger version  Name:	06.jpg Views:	0 Size:	251.7 KB ID:	393781

    Click image for larger version  Name:	07.jpg Views:	0 Size:	318.6 KB ID:	393786

    Click image for larger version  Name:	08.jpg Views:	0 Size:	355.2 KB ID:	393783

    Click image for larger version  Name:	09.jpg Views:	0 Size:	303.4 KB ID:	393787

    Click image for larger version  Name:	10.jpg Views:	0 Size:	246.3 KB ID:	393782

    Click image for larger version  Name:	11.jpg Views:	0 Size:	281.1 KB ID:	393785

    Click image for larger version  Name:	12.jpg Views:	0 Size:	314.6 KB ID:	393792

    Click image for larger version  Name:	13.jpg Views:	0 Size:	330.5 KB ID:	393794

    Click image for larger version  Name:	14.jpg Views:	0 Size:	273.0 KB ID:	393788

    Click image for larger version  Name:	15.jpg Views:	0 Size:	305.9 KB ID:	393790
      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X