Laserblast — Laserblast(Blu Ray)
Originally released in early 1978 Laserblast was the one & only directorial credit of Michael Rae- whose sole other film credit was late 60’s biker movie Sinners Blood; which he was assistant director, stunt coordinator & producer on. On the whole, Laserblast is competently enough filmed & staged in its mainly desert location, though it is a very brown & beige ( even the nondesert parts!)- but I guess that’s the 70’s for you.
The film is very much a kooky 'n' quirky shot of Sci-fi- centered around teenage Billy, who looks the spit of a young James Spader & is often shirtless (!). Billy comes across a laser gun & a cone-like amulet out in the desert- these were inadvertently left by two shell-less & upright tortoise-like aliens. Bill straps on the laser & puts the amulet around his neck and starts taking out revenge on the other teens who bullied him. Fairly soon he starts to change- getting a green face, reptile like eyes, and razor teeth.
Most of the film is filled with young unknowns who seemingly didn’t really go on to anything else. We only have two known faces Roddy McDowall- who turns up for about ten or so minutes as a doctor. And veteran actor Keenan Wynn- who plays a retired, eccentric military man. The big pull for the film at the time would have been it was Sci-Fi, it had some effective( though now amusing) stop motion by David Allen, and it had lots of explosions. On the whole, it’s an amusing, if uneventful & not terrible great 70’s sci-fi movie- but I think the thing that really makes this release is the commentary.
The commentary track is from Charles Band & his brother Richard- apparently, this is the first time they’ve done a track together, and I do hope they do another. As it’s a great mix of playful banter, interesting reminiscing about low budget 70’s filmmaking, and some amusing political incorrectness.
In conclusion, if you either enjoy lo-grade sci-fi or fancy hearing some interesting chat & banter about 70’s B movie making this blu ray worth a punt. There’s not really enough bad or wonky about Laserblast to attracted bad movie fans-but as I say if you like 70’s sci-fi, it’s worth picking up. I wanted to give this two & a half mark, but as we only do full marks I've gone for two instead