Digital Dismemberment: Dark Angel Blu-Ray Review
Director– Craig R. Baxley
Producer– Mark Damon, Rafael Eisenman, Ron Fury, David Saunders, Jon Turtle, Jeff Young and Moshe Diamant
Special FX– Gabriel Bartalos, Evan Brainard, Michael Burnett, Tony Gardner, Loren Gitthens, Larry Hamlin, Kevin Hudson, Rick Lalonde, Roger McCoin, Greg Polutonovich, A.J. Workman, Cher Zar, Jor Van Kline and Bruno Van Zeebroeck
Cast– Dolph Lundgren, Brian Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues, Jay Bilas, Jim Haynie, David Ackroyd, Sherman Howard, Sam Anderson, Mark Lowenthal, Michael J. Pollard, Jessie Vint and Alex Morris
Released By– Shout!/Scream Factory
Release Date– 08/27/2013
The Premise: Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren, Joshua Tree, The Expendables) thought he’d dealt with every kind of crime on earth. But now, someone is using human bodies to manufacture narcotics. Someone – or something – not of this world.
To the Alien that has arrived on earth, humans represent ideal drug factories because of our endorphins. To detective Caine, the Alien represents mankind’s worst threat. If the alien’s mission succeeds, our planet will be destroyed.
Together with his straight-arrow FBI partner (Brian Benben, Private Practice) and his girlfriend, the city coroner (Betsy Brantley, Deep Impact), Caine is going to send this alien home in pieces!
Dolph fans rejoice! After coming off of a string of popular films that included A View to a Kill (1985), Rocky IV(1985), Master of the Universe (1987), Red Scorpion (1988) and The Punisher (1989), Dark Angel (AKA I Come In Peace) gives us Dolph as a Houston cop that plays by his own rules to bring in the bad guys. He plays his role to the hilt and shows that when it comes to action films, he certainly has earned his place. The film also has ESPN analyst Jay Bilas as the “good” alien (before his ESPN career). The acting and story (an interplanetary alien drug dealer killing humans to create his narcotic!) are better than the first glance would indicate, and the amount of technical FX in the film certainly gives plenty of eye candy to gawk at. The typical 80’s hair metal soundtrack in the film helps to establish a nice sense of nostalgia as well. It almost boggles the mind to think that Dolph was 33 at the time the film was made, but he barely looks a day over 25! A true testament to how well he has taken care of himself over the years! The film had the initial title of “Lethal Contact”, but the production, filming, international and worldwide release title is “Dark Angel”. The U.S. release title was changed to “I Come in Peace” due to two other existing movies that were called “The Dark Angel” (1925, 1935).
A man in a luxury car is driving down the road in the city and swerves to miss a bus. The car comes to a rest in a Christmas tree lot. As the man goes to inspect the damage to his car, a bright flash of light and an explosion rocks the area. As he looks on in disbelief, a large humanoid alien steps out from the fire and says “I come in peace.” Next we see a man breaking into a evidence lock up room, murdering a cop in the process. They steal a bunch of drugs and as they leave the building, they set off an explosion to mask their getaway. We now see Jack (Dolph Lundgren) outside of a club on stake-out mission. The car with the robbers pulls up as he sits outside, and they enter the building. He observes two different thugs entering a building across the way to rob a store, and as he goes to stop the robbery, his partner is shot by the men that knocked off the evidence locker room. Suddenly, the alien appears and mows down the majority of the crooks. Jack runs in to find his partner and and the crooks dead…
As forensics tries to make heads or tails of the scene, Jack and his superior are yelling each other and Jack is told to take a vacation or lose his job. He goes to leave until Inspector Switzer shows up and puts him back on the case with a new partner from the FBI. As Jack and Smith argue back and forth about protocol, we see another explosion and a different alien land in an abandoned building. Later, we see the original alien attack and kill a bar owner. Jack and Smith track down a lead at a local pool hall/strip club. They go back to the crime scene and find the alien weapon that killed Jack’s partner. The second alien is seen walking around the city, mission unknown. The first alien appears again, this time attacking and killing a man in a warehouse. This time, we see him inserting a rod into his victim’s head and extracting fluid from it. As he finishes, the second alien appears and a spectacular fire-fight breaks out, but the first alien escapes. The next day, the first alien strikes yet again, this time killing a female mechanic in her garage.
Jack and Smith go to visit a friend of Jack’s who has examined the murder weapon they found the night before. They go to visit the coroner to find out more info about the victims, but are still stymied by the events. They leave the station and are attacked driving down the road by part of the same crew that murdered Jack’s partner. After a narrow escape, Jack confronts a business partner of the crew to try and convince them he had nothing to do with the murders, but they don’t believe him. They kidnap Smith and try to force Jack to run their errands for them. As Jack makes the drop, the first alien confronts him in the alley, but the second alien interrupts and gives chase to the first. Later, it is mortally wounded, and before dieing, tells his story to Jack and Smith. Finally armed with the truth, Jack and Smith must put aside their differences to try and stop the alien before it is too late, but do they have the means and a way to stop the alien or will it continue to kill at will and bring more of its kind here? You will have to watch the film to find out…
Bonus Features:
A Look Back at “Dark Angel”– (Run time of 25 minutes) Interview With Director Craig R. Baxley and Actors Dolph Lundgren And Brian Benben. They discuss all of the elements of the film, from the script and budget to the cast and crew. Particular attention is paid to the FX and stunt work in the film.
Theatrical Trailer
Original Theatrical Trailer
Poster and Still Gallery
Discs: 1
Format: NTSC
Color: Color
Rating: R
Aspect Ratio: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (1.78:1)
Language: English
Shout!/Scream Factory brings to us an entertaining (if not slightly campy) and high octane Sci-Fi/Thriller to Blu-Ray with Dark Angel. The film originally was released on VHS and laserdisc in 1991 by Media Home Entertainment, with a Region 2 (widescreen) and Region 4 (full screen) DVD available in Europe, Japan and Australia. In September 2011, in the U.S., MGM made the film available in their MOD line with a widescreen DVD that was available online. Not being able to track down copies of these for comparisons, I am hard pressed to believe that any of them posses the incredible picture and sound transfer that Shout!/Scream Factory has supplied for the film. One of the Blu-Rays that is part of their lower price point line, it is not chock full of special features like many of their other titles, but the interviews are nice and gives a peek behind the curtain and it was nice seeing the theatrical trailer again for the first time in years. Shout!/Scream Factory is showing why it is becoming the standard bearer for Blu-Ray Sci-Fi/Horror releases with this films first North American DVD release!
Movie Rating: 3 out of 5
DVD Rating: 7 out of 10
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