Shout releases Unlawful Entry

[Monterey Jack]

https://shoutfactory.com/collections/ne ... wful-entry

Even has an, uh, "appreciation" of the worst score James Horner ever wrote.

Anyways, it's pleasant surprise to see a 20th Century Fox movie get a Blu release in this day and age.

[Paul MacLean]

I don't remember anything about the score. Was it really even worse than Where The River Runs Black?

[Monterey Jack]

I don't remember anything about the score. Was it really even worse than Where The River Runs Black?

Let's put it this way...I got it from Intrada for ninety-nine cents back in the mid-90s, and felt I had wasted my money.

Good movie, though, and maybe an encouraging sign that Disney is willing to licence out Fox movies to interested parties (even if it's only like 1,600 copies, like here) due to being broke as phuck.

[AndyDursin]

Pretty small run but better late than never. Alas its not a sign of a Disney deal, the movie was produced by Largo Entertainment which also made POINT BREAK. Fox only released it and lost the distribution rights a while ago.

[Monterey Jack]

Alas its not a sign of a Disney deal, the movie was produced by Largo Entertainment which also made POINT BREAK. Fox only released it and lost the distribution rights a while ago.

Yeah, I just read about that. Bummer, but with Disney's financial woes, I would not be surprised to see them unload the Fox catalogue (minus the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters of course ) within the next year or so, hopefully to another studio that would actually DO something with it.

[AndyDursin]

That's what we've wanted. Hopefully they move it along to.anyone else.

[Monterey Jack]

Eh, grabbed it. 500 copies have already been sold, and it's a rock-solid thriller from that 90s period when sexy adult movies roamed the theaters. Plus, it'll be worth a lot on the secondary market when it sells out.

[AndyDursin]

There was a region free German release a few years back I grabbed, that will suffice for me because this isn't a new transfer. Nothing I'm missing in terms of extras really.

I vividly remember seeing this movie on a "rainy day matinee" in high school. The theater was jammed with rambunctious (though not disrespectful) college/high school students who one older woman kept trying to quiet down. She was fighting a losing battle because when Russell gave his "seven letters" one-liner at the end, everyone in there but her erupted in spontaneous laughter and applause. That was a memorable movie-going moment you can't get at home.

[AndyDursin]

Sold out fast.

Someone will have to explain why they did a limited run of this and yet are doing K19 THE WIDOWMAKER....in 4K no less!

Should've reversed 'em!!

[Monterey Jack]

Sold out fast.

Someone will have to explain why they did a limited run of this and yet are doing K19 THE WIDOWMAKER....in 4K no less!

Should've reversed 'em!!

Look for this to hit 4K within two years, just like Christine and Fright Night after being "limited" to 3,000 copies in their initial Twilight Time pressings.

[AndyDursin]

Could happen. This has never been a hugely popular catalog title but certainly that print run was so limited it makes you wonder what Shout is doing, especially when a bomb like K19 is getting 4K treatment no less.

It's still a lot of money for a really old master that's pretty deficient.

[Monterey Jack]

...and there it is...!

[AndyDursin]

Smart move. Sells out in hours, do another run. Nothing wrong with that.

I'd have bought it if it had a new master but that's going to be no different than the German release I bought for $10 a decade ago. And it doesnt look that great either. Really needs a new scan.

[Monterey Jack]

8/10



Revisiting this for the first time since the VHS era made me acutely aware of how this kind of sturdy, meat & potatoes "[BLANK] From Hell" thriller used to be as common as pigeons in the late 80s and early 90s, and how much I've missed the genre in today's Hollywood obsessed with F/X overkill. Director Jonathan Kaplan does an efficient job tightening the screws on a soft yuppie businessman (Kurt Russell), who finds a dangerously unhinged cop (Ray Liotta) developing designs on his wife (Madeleine Stowe), and the increasingly irrational behavior of said cop escalating from being a mild pest insinuating himself into their lives to murderous obsession.

Hard to believe a movie like this used to be released almost every month of the year three decades ago, and Unlawful Entry is one of the better examples of a genre that was considered disreputable and over-the-top at the time, but can now be viewed through a nostalgic lens for the era of smart, terse domestic thrillers that didn't need to blow up the galaxy (or connect to a half-dozen other movies) in order to generate suspense. The three leads are all excellent, Russell's soft, pampered exterior hardening into a terse protectiveness as Liotta -- coldly reptilian -- gradually reveals his attraction to his wife. And Stowe (one of the most beautiful actresses of her day) sells her character's tremulous fear and inner fire as her attempts to ward off Liotta's predacious come-ons grow more and more emphatic, until the film's obligatory climax, with Russell and Liotta coming to a fierce and bloody standoff. It's a well-shot movie with real suspense and psychological shadings, only let down by James Horner's plodding synth score, which drones away ineffectively in the background instead of delivering the jangly suspense chords that he usually brought to similar genre fare. Along with the same year's Thunderheart, this is one of Horner's flattest, most boring efforts. In all other respects, Unlawful Entry is a time capsule of the era that's held up well and still delivers the required chills and jolts. Look fast for Djimon Hounsou as a guy shackled next to Russell in a police station!

[AndyDursin]

Re-stock is in for the repressing