Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Nine B-Movies I (Still) Want On DVD

Here's one of my periodic lists of B-movies and cult films that I still want on DVD (or even Manufactured-On-Demand DVD-R) for my video collection. Most of these are favorites from my days haunting mom & pop video stores in the Eighties.

As far as I know (and I hope someone will let me know if I'm mistaken), none of these titles are currently available on authorized, Region 1, DVDs or Blu-ray. (Don't talk to me about R2 or other foreign editions. I know it's difficult to believe, movie buff that I am, but I don't own a region-free player and couldn't afford import discs even if I did).

This was originally a list of ten movies, but I just found out that the 1984 Tom Selleck film Lassiter is due out on DVD later this month. 

Arena (1989)
Avenging Force (1986)
Eliminators (1986)
Force: Five (1981)
Godzilla (1985)
I, The Jury (1982)
Ninja III - The Domination (1984)
PeaceMaker (1990)
The Soldier (1982)
I have about half of these titles on VHS, but aside from the fact that they're all pan & scan versions, they're all so old that the tapes are starting to demagnetize (is that a word?) and the image quality is significantly degraded....

4 comments:

Weird WWII said...

All great flicks with Arena being one of my fav Full Moon flicks. Can I add a couple series, how about Werewolf, Dark Place and Mr. Meaty. All great series that deserve their own DVDs.

Jack Badelaire said...

I hate you because now *I* want these movies to come out on DVD, and I'm getting cranky about it. Every one of them looks awesome.

Christopher Mills said...

Hey, Jack;

I've written full posts on I, The Jury and The Soldier here on the blog.

Arena and Eliminators are Charles Band productions from his Empire Pictures days, written by Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo, the team that wrote Trancers & Zone Troopers. Both are fun, comic book-styled B-flicks.

Godzilla 1985 is one of two Godzilla flicks yet to get an authorized U.S. release on disc. (The other is Godzilla vs Biollante.

Avenging Force and Ninja II are a couple of Cannon Films favorites that I loved in the theater and VHS in the 80s, and are long-overdue on disc.

Force: Five is a pseudo-remake of Enter The Dragon from the same director, with an "all-star" cast of early 80s martial arts stars - most notably, Joe Lewis, Richard Norton and Benny Uriquedez. I saw it at the drive-in on a double-bill with Circle of Iron back in '81.

Rip Jagger said...

The Soldier is a movie I have very specific memories about. I spent one summer in Alaska working aboard a fishing factory ship. It was a grinding schedule of sleep and work with only a few hours here and there for leisure, but in those few hours the only movies aboard were Motel Hell and The Soldier. I saw it many times over during that summer and it's shoot 'em up style is ingrained in my noggin.

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