COMIN' AT YA!

COMIN' AT YA!

Outlaw brothers Polk (Ricardo Palacious) and Pike (Gene Quintano) certainly know how to ruin a wedding day. They kidnap new bride Abilene (Victoria Abril) right from under her bank-robbing husband H H's (Tony Anthony) nose.

Understandably, he's miffed. So much so that he vows to capture the culprits and exact a violent revenge.

H H finally catches up with the boys in a small Mexican town, where they've attracted all the local brothel owners, who gather for the auction they're holding in the town square. What are they auctioning off? Women, naturally, including pretty brunette Abilene.

Of course, the arrival of H H puts paid to these plans. He manages to free the women and find time to torture Polk a little before his brother and the rest of their posse turn up.

Now the chase is on ... Polk and Pike round their men together and busy themselves pursuing H H, wanting to even the score - and get their women back ...

Holding the distinction of being the first 3D film of the 1980s, COMIN' AT YA! is also a solid Western: it comes complete with a suitably haunting score from Carlo Savina, Fernando Arribas's (he also acted as DP on the likes of CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE and THE AGES OF LULU) beautiful widescreen cinematography which successfully captures the Spanish plains which masquerade as Mexico, and plenty of slow-motion action in the style of the late great Sam Peckinpah.

Sticking with the Peckinpah reference, director Ferdinando Baldi (DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN; TERROR EXPRESS) makes sure his shootouts are heavy on the blood squibs. No-one dies with a smile on their face here. Conversely, the whole style and delivery elsewhere else owes much to the style of spaghetti Westerns.

Anthony is a reliable lead, all brooding and intense. The baddies are bad (Quintano steals the show), the women have attitude: you know the drill, I'm sure. Bandi ensures the pace never falters and the plot, based on an original idea by co-producer Anthony, is free unnecessary flab.

As for the 3D? It works well by-and-large. The shoving of things like flaming arrows, guns, a snake, a yo-yo and even a baby's arse into the camera is a little obvious, of course, cheesy even, but you're best off just riding with it: COMIN' AT YA!, per its rather ludicrous title, is best enjoyed when not taken entirely seriously.

Originally released in an anaglyphic 3D form on DVD, Bandi's film can now be enjoyed in real 3D thanks to MVD Visual Entertainment's region-free blu-ray.

COMIN' AT YA! is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio on this 25gb disc. The picture is 16x9 enhanced and housed as a nicely sized MPEG4-AVC file. Benefitting from full 1080p HD resolution, this new transfer was sourced from a 4K master and is presented in MVC 3D. The restoration was overseen by Anthony himself, which is a nice touch.

The 3D sequences tend to work extremely well, taking into consideration the limitations expected of a low-budget film from 1981 (they were originally filmed in the then-common "single-strip 3D" format). Images are colourful and bright, with solid blacks in the main. The print used is relatively clean, save for the odd speck here and there. There are admittedly instances of dancing grain during motion, but these are occasional and not too distracting. In short, it looks great for the most part.

English audio is provided in choices of DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The latter was newly created for this release and isn't really any significant improvement over the reliable, if unremarkable, 2.0 track.

MVD's disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a scene selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

No extras are listed on the back cover but we do get a 5-minute promo reel in 3D and the film's original trailer. The former is basically a succession of footage from the film, with isolated score as accompaniment; the latter is a scratchy 2-minute affair.

The front over does boast that the film is provided in both 2D and 3D versions. I, er, couldn't find the 2D version on my screener disc!

COMIN' AT YA! is reasonably entertaining fare that should be lapped up by Peckinpah fans. The 3D restoration is a credible job, making this a solid purchase for fans.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by MVD Visual Entertainment
Region All
Not Rated
Extras :
see main review
Back