"Def-Con 4" coming to Region A Blu-ray

It's difficult, at times, to keep up with the various new release titles that the fine folks at Kino Lorber are releasing or distributing. After all, they have (...checks notes...) 89 new titles coming out over the next nine weeks. But when a crucial title from my youth hits the "coming soon" slate, it tends to stand out.

1985's "Def-Con 4" is what I think of when I remember the heyday of video stores and VHS. There was a one-sheet hanging in a frame in the video store my mom managed that, at the age of 7, had everything my mind was looking for. There was a dead astronaut, a derelict satellite, killer tag lines. It was the tail end of the Cold War, and the Strategic Defense Initiative looked like a reality, so it just grabbed hold of me. I didn't know it at the time, but the poster artist, Rudy Obrero, was also responsible for some of the box art for Mattel's "Masters of the Universe" line. It made sense that I'd be obsessed. I recently ordered that same poster for the New World Pictures home release; it's an indelible part of my childhood that lives on beyond the reputation of a cruddy B-movie.

Now, the folks at Arrow UK released their own Region B Blu-ray in 2019, chock full of the kind of features that has them high on everyone's list of reissue labels. But not everyone has an all-region player, so it's nice to see that the folks at Scorpion Releasing are putting their own version out September 15. Per their Facebook page, it'll have most of the same features as the Arrow UK release. We'll get the same 2K transfer, a new interview with the film's composer, a lossless soundtrack, trailers, and brand new illustrations on the cover. I love the jankyness of that cover. All that said, I'll take full advantage of the reversible cover, and go back to that infamous Obrero artwork.

Click here to preorder from Kino Lorber. "Def-Con 4" on Blu-ray releases September 15, but the gang at Kino Lorber tends to ship preorders a bit early.

What didja buy?: Kino Lorber May edition

Y'all know I'm a big DVD collector (in addition to record, toy, book, and debt). I've been picking up a lot of Kino Lorber's back catalog recently. I've followed Kino Classics for years, but the quality of recent releases on KL Studio Classics has been really strong, and they're almost single-handedly keeping a lot of underseen films from the 50s through 90s available on physical media. Their website regularly runs sales, including a big one in May, which is how I ended up with a fat stack of new DVDs and Blu-rays that arrived earlier this week.

The title that drew me in to making an order was the KL Studio Classics release of 1972's "ZPG: Zero Population Growth". I'm a big consumer of dystopian cinema, and, man, is this a dark movie! Oliver Reed, Geraldine Chaplin, and their bangs star as a futuristic married couple, living in relative privilege on an overcrowded Earth, who have to hide the fact she's pregnant. There are a ton of super-creepy touches to really drive home how terrible everything is: Geraldine Chaplin's character contemplates hitting the "Abortion" button in her bathroom, their Christmas tree is straight out of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", people queue up to watch others eat in a restaurant. And, yet, there were probably a half dozen times during the movie where I thought, "Yeah, that could happen." This was the first movie directed by Michael Campus, who helmed a handful of really distinctive films in the early and mid 70s. Normally, this retails for $29.95; I snagged it for $9.49.

I also grabbed a copy of "Foxes", original released in 1980. I'd heard the score when I went through a big Giorgio Moroder phase (that hasn't ended yet), and I figured it'd fit well in between my copies of "Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains" and "Little Darlings". This was one of Jodie Foster's last movies as a child actor, as well as the first movie for both Laura Dern and Cherie Currie. There's not a ton about this to say; it's just one of those late 70s/early 80s films where the teenaged leads are actually allowed to act like teenagers. This was also Adrian Lyne's debut as a feature director, before he'd go on to make "Flashdance", "Fatal Attraction", and "Jacob's Ladder". The soundtrack is just as good as I remember it, with Moroder's score really capturing the era and setting in 1979's San Fernando Valley. I snagged the DVD for $9.99, down from $19.95.

I haven't watched it yet, but I know it by reputation, and I've started watching more "killer animal" movies during the quarantine. So when I saw that the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray of "Grizzly" was part of the sale, I had to have it! Director William Girdler had a hell of a run in the 70s making a wide range of exploitation movies before dying in 1978. While I really love "Day of the Animals", all recommendations point to this being even better. While mine didn't come with the killer slipcase, it did come at the low, low price of $8.99. So I guess I can live without the slipcase.

I took a wag on the Code Red release of "In The Aftermath". Like I said in the beginning, I like dystopian movies, and their sibling, the post-apocalyptic film. The cover of this one reminded me of the poster for "DEFCON-4". So this seemed like a decent bet. This was definitely worth the $6.99 I spent. "In The Aftermath" takes the Mamoru Oshii OVA "天使のたまご" ("Angel's Egg"), repurposes the animated footage, and combines it with newly-shot live action to create one of the better post-apocalyptic arthouse movies I've seen. I mean, it's weird, and low budget, and the acting isn't great, but it's a clever and watchable first movie by Corman disciple Carl Colpaert. This DVD copy is super bare-bones compared to last year's Arrow US Blu-ray release, but, again, it was $6.99. Totally worth it.

The one purchase that wasn't part of the sale is Kino Classics' Ultimate Edition of "The Blue Angel" ("Der blaue Engle"). I've had my eye on it for a while, and seeing it available for $23.97 was all the excuse I needed to pick it up. 2018's Josef von Sternberg/Marlene Dietrich box set from Criterion really piqued my interest in early Dietrich. It was her first sound film, and her first of seven films directed by Sternberg. It also co-stars Emil Jannings, whose fictional portrayal in "Inglorious Basterds" is one of my favorite throwaway references. This version is super cool because it has both the original German language version and the English language version, which had been shot concurrently, but thought to be lost. The featurette comparing the two versions is really enlightening, and there are a ton of Dietrich-focused extras left to watch. Dietrich is overwhelmingly beautiful here, and even 90 years after its release, this is a really great watch.

I woke up on the 1st to discover that the sale had been extended into this month. There's some great stuff included in the sale, and, with the exception of "Grizzly", all of these are available. It won't be a surprise if I go back for another pass.