Monday 10 February 2014

88 Films DVD Review: Doctor Mordrid (1992, Charles & Albert Band)

"Man Has Ancient Enemies..."


Following on from yesterday's post we are looking at the second title 88 Films were kind enough to send for review. This time we are looking at the Band father and son co directed film, Doctor Mordrid from 1992. Once again, to spare my readers with an inept attempt at giving you the synopsis, I will lazily copy and paste the information from the 88 Films page:

"Doctor Mordrid (JEFFERY COMBS; “Re-Animator”, “From Beyond”) has been  guarding the gates to the fourth dimension for over a century and now the signs are clear; his eternal foe, Kabal (BRIAN THOMPSON; “Cobra”, “Terminator”) has crossed over and is about to carry out his threat to destroy humankind.

It’s a battle between two sorcerers with boundless powers and only one man will reign in the end."

See, I'm not too much of a lazy bum, I changed the font and everything? Shall we just move on and find out what I thought of the film?


The story is the typical "Evil has been defeated and one man is in charge of making sure Earth is safe until shit goes down and our hero must once again banish the bad guy back to the pits wherever he was banished to" one we all know and love. You aren't going to have your mind blown with the story and how it unfolds but that's not always a bad thing because why fix something that isn't broken right? I have to say I did enjoy this piece of schlock but have seen this sort of film done a lot better but also done a Hell of a lot worse. The stand out performance for me is genre icon Jeffrey Combs who is great as our protagonist. That's not to say everyone else doesn't put in a good performance, Brian Thompson is great to behold as he mostly always is and the love interest played by Yvette Nipar is solid too. All round, very well acted and doesn't dive too much in to the overly campy territory films like this usually do.


Once again, the star of the show for me is Steve Allen's fantastic stop motion animation. Just like Robot Wars, the main visual spectacle just didn't seem long enough but the miniature work was terrific. I have a real soft spot for miniature work, it's a shame computers have wrecked that for most motion pictures. I know, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff but it genuinely fascinates me, especially when it's done like this. Aside from that, the rest of the effects are great too. 


Overall, Mordrid is a solid film but just lacks something, maybe a slightly bigger budget. In terms of cheesy sci-fi action, there's enough there for you to keep interested and if you're a fan of Jeffrey Combs you will definitely get a kick out of it. Just like the Robot Wars disc, you get a nice making of featurette, a trailer for Mordrid and various trailers for other titles (that are from what I gather the same as Robot Wars). You get some nice reversible art too which always a nice touch. 88 Films have done another good job but I would say, if you already own this title, you may want to swerve this release but if you are a fan or have never seen the film before, it's a good way to experience the film.


For more information on this film and release check out the 88 Films page. You can also find out more over on the IMDB and Wikipedia pages. 

The film will be released on the 17th February and can be pre-ordered HERE.

PDx

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