Mill Creek Entertainment announced this past week that four new additions to its popular “Retro VHS Blu-ray” line of priced-to-collect film products will be waiting for fans in the New Year. The street date will be Jan. 12, 2021.
Kicking off the fun is director Phillip Noyce’s 1989 action-filled Blind Fury, an homage to the popular Japanese Zatoichi films of the 1960s.
Nick Parker (played by the late Rutger Hauer — Blade Runner, Night Hawks, Split Second) is blinded by a mortar explosion in Vietnam, rescued and nursed back to health by local villagers. As part of the healing process he is taught to use his senses to “see” and becomes an expert swordsman as well.
That’s the backstory. We now skip ahead some 20 years and pick up Nick on his way to visit an old army pal from his Vietnam days, Frank Deveraux (Terry O'Quinn — perhaps best known as John Locke from the Lost television series … plus such films as The Stepfather, Young Guns, Primal Fear, etc.), but Nick arrives in the middle of a would-be kidnapping and uses his skills to stop it. He is able to save Frank’s son, Billy (Brandon Call — Jagged Edge, Warlock), but Frank’s ex-wife is killed by the attackers … she puts her son’s care in the hands of the blind Parker and makes him promise that he will reunite Billy with his father.
This begins a cross-country road trip as Frank is living in Reno, Nevada … the attackers strike once again, but to no avail. Once in Reno, it doesn’t get any better, the assaults continue. Why are they trying to kidnap Billy?
Well, it seems that since the war Frank has become an expert chemist — he also has a gambling problem — and is deeply in debt to a gangster by the name of MacCready (Noble Willingham). Make “designer” drugs or your son is toast!!
Filmmaker Phillip Noyce (Newsfront, Dead Calm, Patriot Games, etc.) was able to get the city of Reno, Nevada to give him free reign to shoot Blind Fury … it was like the wild west. Also, of note, MacCready’s chief enforcer is former heavyweight boxer Randell “Tex” Cobb (Raising Arizona, Collision Course, Critical Condition).
Blind Fury, that’s just one of the four new “Retro VHS Blu-ray” titles being released by Mill Creek Entertainment on Jan. 12. Also counted in the group is director Walter Hill’s 1986 blues-themed drama, Crossroads, starring Ralph Macchio as Eugene, a Juilliard-schooled student who goes in search of Blues legend Robert Johnson’s “missing” Texas-session song.
His quest leads him to a former Johnson associate, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca — Silverado, The Blob, Malcolm X), who is in a state hospital as terms of his sentence for a crime he was involved in. At first, Willie refuses to meet with Eugene, and then later denies that he is the Willie Brown that Eugene seeks … but has a change of heart when Eugene plays blues on his guitar (of note, Macchio spent four months learning to play, although the final numbers in the movie are dubbed in). The deal is, Willie will help him in his quest, but he has to break him out of the hospital … road trip!!!
And what an interesting road trip it is. Eugene meets a young woman named Frances (Jami Gertz — Twister, The Lost Boys), who breaks his heart (those blues have to earned), and along the way, Willie introduces Eugene to an “old acquaintance” at a remote crossroad (played by Robert Judd), where a contract remains in force and only the skills of Eugene can set things right. A nice twist.
Rounding out these new “Retro VHS Blu-ray” releases from Mill Creek Entertainment on Jan. 12 are writer/director Andrew Bergman’s 1990 film release of Freshman, teaming Mathew Broderick with Marlon Brando (who mimics his Godfather persona) and Rod Daniels’ 1986 switch-a-roo comedy, Like Father Like Son, starring Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron.
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