{"id":20021,"date":"2020-04-03T15:16:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T19:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=20021"},"modified":"2020-04-03T15:16:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T19:16:42","slug":"you-go-in-pieces-ahole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=20021","title":{"rendered":"‘You go in pieces, a**hole!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolph Lundgren has always been a draw among B-movie fans, especially those deeply fond of the 1980s and 1990s actioners where filmmakers often managed to transcend the limits of scripts, budgets, and casting coices.<\/p>\n

The story of Dark Angel<\/a><\/strong> isn\u2019t complicated \u2013 within North America, it was released as I Come in Peace<\/strong>, a far better title which hints at the fun and ridiculousness of earthbound characters tracking down an alien who literally says that one line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Spanish poster using most of the key art to promote DARK ANGEL \/ aka I COME IN PEACE (1990).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although widescreen laserdiscs of Dark Angel<\/strong> were released in Germany and Japan, only the latter country reportedly issued the uncut version, which is presumably what Anchor Bay licensed for their new transfer which came out on VHS in 1997.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to 2013 when Scream licensed director Craig R, Baxley\u2019s second feature film for a special edition on Blu-ray, and we have a rather long period from when the film was available on disc in Region A land\u2026 and… when I finally got around to picking up a copy for my own delight. (You could say that\u2019s the conundrum of Blu-ray special editions \u2013 so many are released, especially by Scream, and not all remain in print 7 years since their street date, so picking & choosing on a budget isn’t easy.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019d actually wanted to pair Dark Angel<\/strong> with a review of Action Jackson<\/strong>, Baxley\u2019s first film, but my copy\u2019s disappeared, so I\u2019ll have to wait until it accidentally tumbles out of a box, and I can post a piece on a guilty pleasure of equal delight.<\/p>\n

\"\"For the disc\u2019s making-of featurette, Scream interviewed stars Lundgren and Brian Benben, plus Baxley, and it\u2019s obvious everyone was aware of how much production value the director was packing into his little film. Having directed episodes of TV\u2019s The A-Team<\/strong> (1984-1986) and done second unit work on John McTiernan\u2019s still superb Predator<\/strong> (1987), Baxley\u2019s fine work on Dark Angel<\/a><\/strong> alone should’ve led to a long career in feature films, if not low A-level productions, but the bulk of his work resides in TV, which is a shame, given the significant quotient of stunts and blowed-up shit that rains closely (but safely) near the actors.<\/p>\n

To add some spice to what\u2019ll likely be 3 months on COVID-19 furlough, I\u2019m going to alternate reviews between a very eclectic mix of old, new, previously missed, and grey zone releases, including stuff that has been idling in boxes for reasons one can never adequately discern beyond \u2018I don\u2019t what happened.\u2019<\/p>\n

Case in point: way back in 2009 I visited Germany for my aunt\u2019s 70th birthday, and a short hop to Berlin yielded a small purchase of unavailable titles on disc, including Peter Lorre\u2019s only film as director, Der Verlorene<\/strong> \/ The Lost One<\/strong> (1951), which, like Charles Laughton\u2019s lone effort behind the camera, The Night of the Hunter<\/strong> (1955), proved unsuccessful at the box office, and sent Lorre back to acting.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some classics, TV shows, missed Twilight Time, Synapse, Cult Epics, and Severin releases, a weird little indie shocker on VHS that really deserves a Blu-ray special edition, and some smutty sexploitation mondo nonsense on the way.<\/p>\n

With possibly 3 months ahead, I hope the material I\u2019m setting aside will keep me sane, since direct human-to-human closer that 2 metres \/ a hockey stick is now strictly verboten in parks, sidewalks, and the pasta aisle, and living in a house 24-7 with paper floors and walls isn’t easy on the nerves.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Craig Baxley’s combustible cult classic I COME IN PEACE \/ aka DARK ANGEL (1990) on Blu from Scream Factory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[6415,6414,6411,1629,2562,2563,6412,6416],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/DarkAngel_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-5cV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20021"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20180,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021\/revisions\/20180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}