MVD Entertainment Group’s popular Marquee Collection line of film products on DVD and Blu-ray gets not one, but two new additions on Feb. 8 with the double-feature release of Baja and Amnesia. Both DVD and Blu-ray SKUs will be available.
We start with Molly Ringwald starring in writer/director Kurt Voss’ 1995 crime thriller, Baja. 1996 was a tumultuous period for Republic Pictures, the film production unit shut down and everything in the pipeline went into limbo. In that pipeline was Baja, so despite Molly Ringwald and Lance Henriksen topping the cast list, it went direct to VHS, which was seeing its last days as DVD was just entering the market.
You can easily see how this little action gem got lost in the shuffle.
Bebe Stone (Ringwald) is a bored little rich girl who gets caught up in drug deal with her idiot boyfriend, Alex (Donal Logue), which, naturally, goes south. Stuck in Baja, Mexico, she gets word to her father, John Stone (Corbin Bernsen) that she needs a little help getting out of the jam she has gotten herself in. No problem, daddy sees this as the perfect opportunity for her to patch things up with her ex-husband, Michael (Michael A. Nickles — Hamburger Hill, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag), so he is sent south to work things out.
Meanwhile, that little “drug problem” needs to get cleaned up, so a hitman by the name of Burns (Henriksen) is also sent south to take care of things. Rich girl, idiot boyfriend, ex-husband and hitman … sounds like a game of musical chairs, with the chances of getting out of Baja alive ranging between slim and none.
The other Marquee Collection film making up this double-bill is also from director Kurt Voss, Amnesia, starring Alley Sheedy as Martha, the wife of the local preacher, Paul (Nicholas Walker), who is having a torrid love affair.
This is a complicated suspense thriller, made all the more so by a creepy motel owner by the name of Charlene (Sally Kirkland), who has been spying on the on-going affair between Paul and his stepson’s teacher, Veronica (Dara Tomanovich). She has the hots for Paul and would like to have him for herself!!
In any case, Paul has a bit of a backstory, when he was a kid, he saw his best friend drown in the lake nearby and his body was never found. If bad ideas have a home, Paul has found one is his sex-driven brain. He will “drown” in the lake, his body won’t be found and he will assume the identity of his dead childhood friend and run off with Veronica.
There’s just one little flaw, Charlene. Paul’s plan hits a snag when he knocks himself silly and washes ashore with, you guessed it (was the title a hint?), amnesia. And right into the hands of Charlene who quickly has her way with the unsuspecting Paul.
Paul has, in any case, gone missing and soon enough an insurance investigator by the name of Tim Bishop (played by John Savage) is investigating what happened. Before you know it the ever-so-lonely Martha is sleeping with Bishop, while Veronica cools her heels waiting for Paul, who is a prisoner of the creepy motel owner, Charlene. The third act is a dozey!!
Toss out those treasured VHS copies, both Baja and Amnesia will be making their Blu-ray debut as a double feature from MVD Entertainment Group on Feb. 8.
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