Unbelievably, these classic science fiction films have never been given a proper release on blu-ray. Hopefully someone listens to us and finally gets these movies re-mastered for the format! So, check the list out and let us know what you think!
When
Worlds Collide (1951)
Over half a century before
Roland Emmerich began destroying the planet through force of alien invasion or
erratic weather patterns, producer George Pal and director Rudolph Mate’
adapted Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer’s end of the world novel of the same name
When Worlds Collide into an Academy
Award winning special effects driven Technicolor feature with loose connections
to the story of Noah’s Ark. Considered a
doomsday parable at the height of post-nuclear war fears, the film is best
remembered for unforgettable images of a pulverized New York City flooded by a
tsunami amid earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Given the film’s place in cinema history for
presenting state of the art visual effects that pushed the technical envelope
back in the day, one has to wonder why this still only has a standard DVD
release and not a special edition blu-ray remastered in high definition to
bring out all the vibrant Technicolor imagery in plain view.
The
War of the Worlds (1953)
Two years after taking on When Worlds Collide, producer George Pal
once again set his sights on apocalyptic doomsday material, this time adapting
H.G. Wells to the big screen with one of his most celebrated works to date: The War of the Worlds. The basis for countless alien invasion
science fiction thrillers, director Byron Haskin’s special effects bonanza once
again took home the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and provided
moviegoers with some of the most iconic flying saucer images in film
history. Transposing the era from
nineteenth century England to mid-50s America and swapping out the tripods with
stingray looking flying saucers, The War
of the Worlds follows Wells story pretty closely save for a light
survivalist romance involving the main character.
Cited as a visual effects
favorite among countless science fiction aficionados as well as spawning a big
budget remake by Steven Spielberg, The
War of the Worlds represents one of the high watermarks of special effects
moviemaking in the 1950s which begs the question why after a stereo remixed
laserdisc release and a bare bones DVD release this one still hasn’t received a
blu-ray remaster stacked to the gills with extras? With the advent of high definition surround
sound, the sound effects alone for The War
of the Worlds are a sonic pleasure of sound engineering that simply must be
heard in the highest quality audio possible.
20,000
Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
With the live action
division of Walt Disney Pictures being all the rage with the recent box office
smash remake of Beauty and the Beast,
one can’t help but wonder why Disney hasn’t given the same love and attention
to their back catalog of live action pictures.
Case in point is director Richard Fleischer’s big budget star studded
adaptation of Jules Verne’s beloved science fiction classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Something of a precursor to the steampunk
subgenre, 20,000 Leagues follows two
prominent figures in the U.S. education program (Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre)
and a cocky sailor (Kirk Douglas) who encounter a manmade submarine helmed by
the mercurial Captain Nemo (James Mason).
Cited as the very first
science fiction film to be shot in CinemaScope as well as the first Disney
project to be released by Buena Vista Distribution, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represents a cinematic landmark which
continues to endure in the years since it was first unveiled. With renewed interest in the once dead
widescreen format thanks to CinemaScope’s use in the recently released musical La La Land as well as Disney’s recent
success with their live action pictures, you would think this would have been
at the top of their list for blu-ray rendering.
Sadly however, that still is not the case yet as there only appears to
be a 2-disc special edition DVD set.
Considering the enduring popularity of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the film’s own place in cinema
history, this is one that is long overdue for the high definition treatment!
The
Green Slime (1968)
There were two sides to the
late and great Japanese director Kinji Fukusaku. When directing a genre picture
in his native language, we get hard boiled yakuza films, gritty urban dramas or
dystopian action nightmares like his infamous adaptation of Battle Royale. When he’s acting as a director-for-hire on
English language low budget science-fiction thrillers such as the Star Wars knockoff Message from Space or tongue in cheek silliness like The Green Slime, Fukusaku lets his inner
schlock peddling goofball go hog wild. The story of a stowaway alien virus that can
reproduce itself at a geometric rate as terrified humans fight for survival, The Green Slime announces itself from
the get go as sheer unadulterated camp.
From the cheesy theme song to the cheap looking models and even cheaper
looking green screen effects, there’s no way you can possibly take this thing
seriously. The sillier it gets, the more
enjoyable the whole hunk of cornball becomes.
Currently available in a
Japanese and English language version, the film finally saw a North American
DVD release through the made-on-demand home video division Warner Archive and
provides a solid looking digital master.
With Warner Archive porting over so much of their back catalog DVDs to
the higher definition blu-ray format, it’s only a matter of time before The Green Slime makes the jump too. No the corny visual effects won’t look much
better in higher definition but the film is so much fun with so many camp laden
surprises littered throughout that it’s a bit surprising that it hasn’t reached
the high end home video format quite yet.
The
Black Hole (1979)
As previously mentioned, Walt
Disney Pictures’ live action film division as of late has proven to be enormously
successful for the company. With the box
office success of their recent live action remake of Beauty and the Beast and much of the company’s back catalog slowly
making the transition from DVD to blu-ray, you would think two of their most
pioneering and technically proficient science-fiction pictures, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Black Hole, would have appeared on
blu-ray by now. Sadly however, Disney’s
mega-budget attempt to capitalize on the success of Star Wars remains only on a bare bones Disney DVD despite having
strong audio and video.
Something of a PG rated
precursor to Event Horizon, Disney’s The Black Hole follows a team of
astronauts who discover a black hole in space and a long thought missing and
abandoned ship nearby it. As with Event Horizon, things aren’t all that
they seem as a great evil seems to be lurking within and what lies beyond the
black hole touches on everything from Heaven to Hell. At the time, this was the most expensive film
ever produced by the Disney company with many special effects sequences
breaking records at the time including an opening title sequence which was
initially the longest running CGI sequence yet made.
The
Black Hole also marked Disney’s first ever PG rated film
though in later years Disney would split off two more divisions, Touchstone
Pictures and Hollywood Pictures, for their more adult oriented offerings. The film went on to receive two Academy Award
nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. Which begs the question, with a film
harboring as strong of a cult following as this one with many footnotes paving
the way for countless science-fiction thrillers like it, why does this only
have a DVD release and not a remastered blu-ray? Considering the film received a 70mm
theatrical release with discrete 6-track magnetic audio and that there are at
least two different home video releases including a widescreen VHS by Anchor
Bay, The Black Hole seems ripe for
the long overdue blu-ray treatment. What’s
more, you can’t say it’s because the film flopped at the box office initially,
as John Carter did the same and still
garnered a blu-ray release.
- Andrew Kotwicki