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Released by: ViaVision Entertainment
Released on: March 13th, 2024.
Director: Mark L. Lester
Cast: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott, Art Carney, Antonio Fargas
Year: 1984
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Firestarter Collection – Movie Review:
ViaVision Entertainment brings together the original Firestarter from 1984 alongside its sequel in the aptly titled two-disc Firestarter Collection!
Firestarter:
Directed by Mark L. Lester and based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, 1984's Firestarter was made at the height of Stephen King movie mania and also benefitted from the casting of a young actress who had just been crowned America's latest movie darling, Drew Barrymore (fresh off of E.T.). Throw in George C. Scott and Martin Sheen and put Lester, the man behind the masterpiece that is Class Of 1984, in the director's chair and you've got a sure fire hit, right? Right? Well... sort of. Firestarter isn't up there with the best cinematic adaptations of King's work but it's a pretty solid movie and one worth revisiting if you haven't seen it in a while. Shout! Factory's new Blu-ray release is absolutely the right way to do just that, but more on that in a few paragraphs.
When the movie begins, Andy McGee (David Keith) and his daughter Charlie (Barrymore) are fugitives, running from government officials employed by a super-secret agency known as 'The Shop' led by Captain Hollister (Martin Sheen). Why? Well, Andy has the ability to manipulate peoples' thoughts through his supernatural abilities while Charlie is blessed/cursed with a power that sees her able to start fires whenever she pleases by starring and concentrating at whatever it is she deems burn-worthy. How did they get to be this way? Well, some time ago Andy and Vicky (Heather Locklear), the women who would be Charlie's mother, were test subjects in a super-secret government experiment where they were injected with an equally super-secret cocktail that wound up giving them these powers. When Charlie was born, she developed abilities of her own thanks to the effects of these experiments.
With Charlie's mom having passed on, Andy's flying solo and if he isn't likely to win father of the year, he is at least trying to keep his little girl away from the government agents he knows will do her harm. The government, you see, thinks that Charlie would make an excellent weapon. In order to get what they want, The Shop employs a man named John Rainbird (George C. Scott) to help put into place a kidnapping scheme, but Andy and Charlie aren't going to go down without a fight.
Featuring supporting efforts from the likes of Freddie Jones, Art Carney, Antonio Fargas, Louise Fletcher and Moses Gunn alongside the lead players, Firestarter definitely benefits from a strong cast. Sheen is great as the sneaky lead agent, he's got that air of pompous authority about him in this picture that serves his character well and he brings a stern persona to the part that works quite well. George C. Scott is impressively sleazy in his part, and without wanting to spoil things we'll let it suffice to say that he's unsettlingly believable in this villainous role. David Keith as the noble father only out to see that he and his kid get a shot at leading their own lives is fine too. There are a few moments where the script asks us to accept him in the part and we have to stretch a little to do so but all in all he's not bad. As to young Ms. Barrymore? It's interesting to see her in this picture, she's actually very good in the part. She clearly was an adorable kid and so we get this interesting cute/deadly dichotomy going on in the film that makes it interesting. Appearance are, after all, frequently deceiving. Aside from her looking 'right' for the role, she's also able to handle the dramatic side of the story well enough too. Often times child actors can sink a horror picture (genre fans know this only all too well) but Barrymore cruises through all that's asked of her in Firestarter and not only that, she makes it look easy.
The movie also features pretty strong production values. The effects sequences are good for their time, the frequent use of complex pyrotechnics in the last half of the picture being the big stand out set pieces here. These are all done sans CGI and were clearly quite complex. On top of that, the film also features an interesting and delightfully quirky score from Tangerine Dream that helps to keep things sounding good. The movie does, however, suffer from some pacing problems (particularly in the middle stretch where the film feels a little too talky for its own good) and from some of its cliched ideas feeling a little played out. However, if you dig your horror pictures with a good healthy dose of government conspiracy theories and appreciate solid effects work and impressive thesping, Firestarter proves to be well worth revisiting. It isn't the last word in cinematic terror by a long shot, but it's a solid thriller that proves to be quite entertaining.
Firestarter 2: Rekindled
Originally shown as a two-part mini-series on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2002, Firestarter 2: Rekindled catches up with Charlene "Charlie" McGee (Marguerite Moreau) now that she’s grown into a very attractive adult woman. She’s the most popular lady at the nightclub where she seems to spend an inordinate amount of her time, and she’s also really horny. We see this when she picks up a guy and a make-out session occurs, only to be interrupted when she, quite literally, gets too hot. She stops the tryst and scatters down the alleyway which promptly busts into flames. It would appear that the fire-starting problem that she had as a kid has continued and these days, as a young adult, arousal seems to set it off!
Of course, Charlie’s got more problems than just unrequited lust, the most obvious being the presence of one John Rainbird (Malcolm McDowell), a mad scientist who is obsessed with getting his hands on Charlie – and not for the reasons you might think! He’s been experimenting on a group of other young adults who have similar powers to Charlie. Think of him as a sinister Professor X and these characters his X-Men and you’re on the right track.
As three hours pass, Rainbird and his brotherhood of evil mutants do what they can to bring Charlie in, but she isn’t going to go down without a fiery fight. Meanwhile, she does what she can to have a normal relationship with boyfriend Vincent Sforza (Danny Nucci), all while a mysterious man named James Richardson (Dennis Hopper) is skulking about doing equally mysterious stuff.
Overly long and fairly messy in its execution, Firestarter 2: Rekindled suffers from bad early 2000’s low budget CGI and more characters than it needs. It’s passably entertaining but hardly essential viewing. Marguerite Moreau is okay in the lead, she looks fantastic and her acting is decent enough to work. McDowell, probably not surprisingly, steals most of the scenes that he is in, chewing just enough of the scenery to make an impression and looking intense with his scarred/burned visage. Hopper isn’t given as much to do but he’s fun to see here, while Nucci is just sort of there.
The storyline takes a lot of liberties with how things were set up at the end of the first movie, and it’s all hampered by the restrictions of being a made for cable TV production from 2002. It’s hard to imagine anyone thinking that this production is especially riveting, but it does make for an interesting curiosity item, even if it doesn’t hold a candle to the first movie.
Firestarter Collection – Blu-ray Review:
Firestarter arrives on Blu-ray from in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1 widescreen on a 50GB disc that looks decent. There's some nice detail present throughout and the image is very clean, showing no serious print damage, just the odd speck here and there. Colors are handled really well, appearing quite natural throughout and those orange hues in the film's finale really popping nicely. Skin tones look good and the disc is well authored, meaning it is free of any obvious compression artifacts. There might be a little bit of DNR here as skin can look a bit waxy but otherwise this looks good.
The second film, which is upscaled to 1080p, is presented in AVC encoded 1080p and framed at 1.33.1 which would presumably be its original aspect ratio. Picture quality isn’t as strong as the first feature, but that’s because the movie looks like it was shot on standard definition digital video (or possibly shot on film and edited on standard definition video – either way, upscaled standard definition is what we’re dealing with here and ViaVision is upfront about that, so no harm, no foul!). Colors look okay, as do skin tones, but there’s some obvious crush in many of the darker scenes and detail is limited by the source material.
The only audio option on the first disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 track, with optional subtitles available in English only. While some might lament the absence of a surround mix, there's nothing wrong with the representation of the film's original mix on this disc. Clarity and balance are rock solid throughout, and we wind up with very clear dialogue and nice resonance for the film's score. There are no noticeable problems with any hiss or distortion to note. This mix sounds just fine. As to Firestarter 2: Rekindled, it gets a 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Stereo option, there are no alternate language or subtitles options provided. Audio quality is fine, the dialogue is easy to follow and the levels are properly balanced.
The first disc includes a new audio commentary by film critic/historian Lee Gambin and novelist and historian Aaron Dries that goes over Lester's life and career, details on the cast and crew, thoughts on how the movie compares to the original King novel, the effectiveness of certain scenes, how the movie deals with some of the experiments that were done by the government such as MK Ultra, stunt work featured in the movie and plenty more. The levels are fairly low on this track so be prepared to turn it up a bit.
Carried over from past editions is an audio commentary by director Mark L. Lester. The track does suffer from a fair bit of dead air here and there but when Lester is engaged, he's interesting to listen to. He offers up some thoughts on what it was like adapting King's source material to the big screen, he talks about the different cast and crew members that were involved in the production and he shares some thoughts on handling some of the more effects-intensive sequences featured in the picture.
Up next is a new fifty-two minute documentary on the history of the film entitled The Making of Firestarter that is made up of new Interviews with Lester, cast members Freddie Jones, Drew Snyder, stuntman Dick Warlock and composer Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream. Lots of good stories here, covering everything from working on location in North Carolina to acting alongside the likes of Barrymore, Sheen and Scott as well as details on the score and on the effects work. There are some great behind the scenes photos used throughout here as well. Schmoelling also shows up in a separate seventeen minute piece called Tangerine Dream: Movie Music Memories. This covers not only his work on Firestarter but also some of the other scores that Tangerine Dream has been responsible for over the decades with some interesting details provided on the instruments that were used to compose them. Both of these featurettes are very well done and quite interesting.
Outside of that we get a trailer for the feature, a two and a half minute live performance of 'Charlie's Theme' by Schmoelling, a still gallery, four and a half minutes of radio spots, menus and chapter selection.
There are no extras included on the second disc but this release does come packaged with a neat limited edition 3-D lenticular hard case package and six postcard-sized art cards, which is a nice touch.
Firestarter Collection - The Final Word:
ViaVision Entertainment’s Firestarter Collection offers up both movies in the franchise in high definition for the first time. The original movie remains a pretty solid Stephen King adaptation and it looks and sounds quite good, presented on a disc with some nice extra features. The second film isn’t nearly as good, nor is its presentation, but it’s nice to have them both in the same set.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized The Firestarter Collection Blu-ray screen caps!
