Wednesday, June 11, 2014

News: SPACE RAIDERS (1983) DVD & Blu-Ray Details

Well, it's official. The 1983 Roger Corman-produced interstellar adventure film, Space Raiders, directed by Howard R. Cohen, and starring Vince Edwards, David Mendenhall and Thom Christopher (Buck Rogers), is coming in September from Scorpion Releasing, in both DVD and Blu-ray formats.

This outer space take on Treasure Island will be presented in its original theatrical widescreen aspect ratio, and special features will include on camera interviews with star David Mendenhall, producer Roger Corman, and production supervisor Clark Henderson.

The low-budget effort from the tail end of the Space: 1970 era (as I loosely define it) recycles copious effects footage from the legendary B-movie producer's earlier space operas, Battle Beyond The Stars and (I believe) Android (which I'll be writing about here soon). The SRP for the DVD will be $19.95 and $29.95 for the Blu-ray.

5 comments:

  1. While I think it might be kinda fun to watch this for nostalgia, I don't think I'd ever want to own it. But it's very cool that such an odd film gets a blu-ray release. That alone gives me hope for many other titles that haven't seen the light of day since the 80's.

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  2. Yeah, the writers should have checked an encyclopedia or astronomy book first. D'oh!

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  3. I love this stupid movie! I am buying it!

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  4. This was limited to only 2000 copies :(

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  5. Personally I love this movie. The story is moderately interesting, and David Mendenhall gives a pretty good performance. But it's the three-dimensional universe that's really compelling. There's a lot going on in the background, a lot of passing references in the dialogue that flesh things out. I love the saga of these bummed-out pirates in their ramshackle ship trying to eke out a living in a dangerous galaxy. I always thought this would make a good TV series, and I would not be at all surprised if this movie inspired Joss Whedon's Firefly. The blu ray of Space Raiders looks great. I would have thought a low-budget movie would show all its creaks in high-definition, but it actually looks better and more real than ever. It just goes to show you, it's not money, it's attention to detail that counts.

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