Guns (1990) / Do or Die (1991) - September 17, 2019

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by nightmareman81

wonder if Stacey 1973 would ever get released.

The KL Insider says its highly unlikely. Some nobody musician is asking for insane royalties.

[chriszilla]

Thus far, Mill Creek has been releasing the Sidaris titles two at a time, and up until now, they had been announcing the next two releases just before the street date of the current releases. With GUNS and DO OR DIE having been released earlier this week, it seemed we were a bit overdue for the announcement of the next two films in the series (HARD HUNTED and FIT TO KILL).

I fired off an e-mail to Mill Creek last night, inquiring about the release date of the next films, and this was the response I got this morning:

Thank you for contacting Mill Creek Entertainment with your product inquiry. The titles in question are slated for release in 2020. An official announcement will be made on those titles in the very near future. We encourage you to check our website and social media outlets for the information on those titles when the announcement occurs. Thank you for your patronage.

Based on the release pattern they had been following, I was thinking we might get the next Blu-ray's in early December. It appears there will be a slightly longer gap between this week's titles and the next ones.

I'll try and share some brief reviews of GUNS and DO OR DIE sometime soon, after I've had a chance to check them out.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by chriszilla

Thus far, Mill Creek has been releasing the Sidaris titles two at a time, and up until now, they had been announcing the next two releases just before the street date of the current releases. With GUNS and DO OR DIE having been released earlier this week, it seemed we were a bit overdue for the announcement of the next two films in the series (HARD HUNTED and FIT TO KILL).

I fired off an e-mail to Mill Creek last night, inquiring about the release date of the next films, and this was the response I got this morning:

Thank you for contacting Mill Creek Entertainment with your product inquiry. The titles in question are slated for release in 2020. An official announcement will be made on those titles in the very near future. We encourage you to check our website and social media outlets for the information on those titles when the announcement occurs. Thank you for your patronage.

Based on the release pattern they had been following, I was thinking we might get the next Blu-ray's in early December. It appears there will be a slightly longer gap between this week's titles and the next ones.

I'll try and share some brief reviews of GUNS and DO OR DIE sometime soon, after I've had a chance to check them out.

Thanks for asking, I was going getting ready to ask them myself about Hard Hunted and Fit to Kill.

[GasmaskAvenger]

...and then there was seven...

[MattJ1991]

Are these worth a blind buy? Do or Die is catching my eye.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by MattJ1991

Are these worth a blind buy? Do or Die is catching my eye.

Buy them all. You will not be disappointed. They are quality entertainment at bargain bin prices.

[MattJ1991]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

Buy them all. You will not be disappointed. They are quality entertainment at bargain bin prices.

Okay you twisted my rubber arm

I ordered Do or Die. If I like it you can bet I'll be picking up the rest of these.

[Strapped4Cash]

Target's having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale for anyone wanting to catch up:

https://www.target.com/p/malibu-expr...y/-/A-54499953
https://www.target.com/p/hard-ticket...y/-/A-54499949
https://www.target.com/p/picasso-tri...-/-/A-76511697
https://www.target.com/p/savage-beac...-/-/A-76511696
https://www.target.com/p/guns--blu-ray-/-/A-77425815
https://www.target.com/p/do-or-die--...-/-/A-77425816

[The Geek]

Finally snagged Guns and Do or Die.

[penningtonny10]

Originally Posted by Strapped4Cash

Target's having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale for anyone wanting to catch up:

https://www.target.com/p/malibu-expr...y/-/A-54499953
https://www.target.com/p/hard-ticket...y/-/A-54499949
https://www.target.com/p/picasso-tri...-/-/A-76511697
https://www.target.com/p/savage-beac...-/-/A-76511696
https://www.target.com/p/guns--blu-ray-/-/A-77425815
https://www.target.com/p/do-or-die--...-/-/A-77425816

Good looking out. Six movies for $44 after tax.

[xXx$uicide_Ma$terxXx]

Fit to Kill and Hard Hunted coming in March

https://www.millcreekent.com/collect...ts/fit-to-kill
https://www.millcreekent.com/collect...ts/hard-hunted

[chriszilla]

Perhaps knowing that there was going to be a slight delay before the next two Andy Sidaris titles were released on Blu-ray (as compared to the pace Mill Creek had been on for the first six films) helped push GUNS and DO OR DIE a bit farther back on my "need to watch" list, because this review seems overdue. But I suppose anytime is a good time for a discussion of one of the "Bullets, Bombs and Babes" auteur's filmography, so here's a review for GUNS. (I'll try and do one for DO OR DIE in the next week or two. I haven't watched the Blu yet, and am looking forward to revisiting it).

The opening credits for Andy Sidaris' 1990 film GUNS haven't even ended, and we already realize this film has achieved cult film greatness. How did it manage this so quickly? Because Playboy Playmate Cynthia Brimhall (aka government agent Edy Stark) is performing the title song in a Vegas nightclub wearing an insanely-provocative costume that makes it nearly impossible to concentrate on her vocal performance! Her costume is more befitting a striptease artist than a mainstream entertainer, but this sort of thing is possible when we're inhabiting the "Sidarisverse". Cutaway shots of the audience watching her performance include several average, middle-aged women smiling and nodding their heads to the music, which is incredible all on its own. But yeah, this performance, as well as another one later in the film where she wears the outfit seen on the film's poster, is epic! It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, in the aftermath of this film's release, Cynthia's derriere was proclaimed illegal in a handful of Bible Belt states!

I guess I've spent enough time on the opening minutes of this film, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the lyrics "Don't mess with guns, they ain't much fun", considering that over the next 90 minutes we're about to see practically every male and female member of the cast using firearms at some point!

GUNS sees Sidaris further perfecting his inimitable b-movie style with everything we've come to expect from him: gorgeous locales and photography, plenty of action (his destruction/explosion scenes were as good as many of his contemporaries, who were working with greater resources than he was), gorgeous women (not to mention some eye candy for the ladies as well), and wannabe memorable one-liners injected at occasional intervals. As much as his films were ridiculed by high-falutin' film critics of the day, the fact is the storylines that Sidaris came up with were usually better than they had to be. I applaud him for making unapologetic, exploitative drive-in films, but not just phoning it in. The production values were generally pretty high for films of this ilk. GUNS is no exception.

This is beginning to feel like a novel, so I'll just add in some random observations, with potential spoilers covered up for those who may not have seen this yet.

• Hope Marie Carlton, who played Dona Speir's partner in the previous three films, is replaced by Roberta Vasquez for this and subsequent "Molokai Cargo" entries, playing Nicole Justin. I'll confess to having a MAJOR crush on Vasquez after seeing her in Playboy magazine, so there's no complaints coming from this corner. But we do miss the interplay that Carlton and Speir had in the previous films, with Carlton's (slightly goofy) character actually being a civilian giving the films a precocious quality at times. We don't get that contrast here, since both characters are basically played straight. But on a superficial level, I'm sure having the blonde/brunette dynamic for the duo was something that Sidaris enjoyed.
  
• It was cool to see the gorgeous Phyllis Davis (Sweet Sugar, Terminal Island, Vega$, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, etc) cast as Dona's mom, and I wish they had cast her in a future series entry, as well. She gets a few decent scenes in this one, and does a good job.
  
• Seeing Erik Estrada and Danny Trejo playing heavies together is a treat. No doubt Estrada would have preferred acting in a legitimate, A-level production at this time, but he throws himself into the part, and he turns in a very good performance. His perfectly-feathered hair competes for the viewer's attention in nearly every scene. Danny Trejo is somewhat subdued in this role, which is how the part is written, but he can't help but make an impression.
  
• Sidaris isn't afraid to jolt you a bit, when
  [Show spoiler]supporting character "Rocky" (played by the sexy Lisa London), a character returning from the previous film, is gunned down when the assassins carry out a hit at Rocky's seaside restaurant. It's rather shocking because generally the featured players (at least the "good guys") don't usually die in these films.
  
  
• Chuck McCann gets one of those "wannabe memorable quotes" with his "What's the difference between a magician and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist!", and
  [Show spoiler]meets his maker in memorable fashion when villainess "Cash" (played by Playmate Devin DeVasquez) sends him (with the aid of a remote control boat, of course) a bomb disguised as a can of Bud Light. Cue one of those impressive Sidaris explosions.
  
  
• I'm a big fan of the various scenery-chewing characters that actor Rodrigo Obregon plays in the Sidarisverse, and without a doubt the strangest one of all is this film's "Large Marge", a cross-dressing undercover agent whose appearance in the film is all-too-brief, but impossible to forget! It's almost as if Sidaris felt like he had to make up for the lack of a cross-dressing character in the previous couple of entries, because in addition to Obregon, the aforementioned assassins frequently dress up in women's clothes, as well. "So this is what goes on in the ladies room", indeed!
  
• Kym Malin looks great every time she's on screen, and gets to wear a few eye-popping outfits during the course of the film. And getting back to those hilarious, incongruous audience cutaway shots I mentioned earlier, the "Oil Mania" sequence in which we're introduced to "Kyller Kym" features a doozy. Amongst the throng of enthusiastic, cheering spectators of this sexy oil wrestling match are a couple of elderly women, probably in their 80's, who are yelling and pumping their fists along with everybody else! I can't help but wonder if Sidaris throws these snippets in there simply to amuse himself. (BTW, I want one of those referee's blue-and-red-striped polo shirts that simply says "OIL" above the left breast pocket, the uniform that signifies an officially-sanctioned "Oil Mania" match.)
  
• Oh, did I mention Cynthia Brimhall's nightclub performance of the title song? Ay, caramba!!

I've spent more time on this post than I intended, and to those of you still with me, I apologize for the verbose nature of this review. GUNS was an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes, and I recommend it highly to those thinking of a purchase. AGFA's 4K transfer of the film follows the high standards of the previous entries, bringing out the best that the source materials allow. As with the other Blu-ray releases, the extras that were prepared 15 (or so) years ago have been carried over, which I didn't have time to review last night, but have watched previously on DVD.

Next up, the great Pat Morita joins the Sidaris troupe for DO OR DIE!

[chriszilla]

Review of GUNS here at Blu-ray.com:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Guns-...246442/#Review


Which reminds me that I need to hurry up and watch DO OR DIE, since the next two films are due to be released on Tuesday!!

[lildemon666]

Anywhere I can buy do or die blu? It’s OOP and can’t find anything on eBay.

[crikan]

Originally Posted by lildemon666

Anywhere I can buy do or die blu? It’s OOP and can’t find anything on eBay.

The other Mill Creek Sidaris flicks appear to be available. Maybe it is being repressed.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by lildemon666

Anywhere I can buy do or die blu? It’s OOP and can’t find anything on eBay.

I had a hard time finding it a while back but managed to get a copy from andysidaris.com, unfortunately now sold out there too.

[UFOX]

Originally Posted by lildemon666

Anywhere I can buy do or die blu? It’s OOP and can’t find anything on eBay.

Be sure to check Amazon for it,there was one for sale from a second hand seller for 8 bucks.
I bought it before it was gone.
Cost me $33 including shipping to the Netherlands,but it was worth it

[Muyfa666]

In my quest to watch all 12 BBB movies, Guns are up tonight. Some friends and some beers. Can't go wrong with that I think.

Do Or Die remains extremely hard to find second hand - I'm not gonna pay 150 USD for it. ;-)

[chriszilla]

Originally Posted by Muyfa666

Do Or Die remains extremely hard to find second hand - I'm not gonna pay 150 USD for it. ;-)

I exchanged e-mails with Arlene Sidaris a few months ago, and she shared that 4K releases of Andy's films were in the works. I would expect to see them later this year. So there's no reason to pay inflated scalper pricing for any of the "Bullets, Bombs & Babes" films, because they should be coming out again in the not-too-distant future.

[Muyfa666]

Originally Posted by chriszilla

I exchanged e-mails with Arlene Sidaris a few months ago, and she shared that 4K releases of Andy's films were in the works. I would expect to see them later this year. So there's no reason to pay inflated scalper pricing for any of the "Bullets, Bombs & Babes" films, because they should be coming out again in the not-too-distant future.

Yea, same here. Was asking about the OOP blurays and she wrote the same to me. :-)