Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 18, 2019

"Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance" (2019) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Australian label Umbrella Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the disc is a collection with bonus VHS trailers for a wide variety of smaller genre films. In English, not subtitled. Region-Free.

You want action? Sit down, get comfortable, pal.

The line “Every Minute is Dynamite!” appears on one of the screencaptures at the very bottom of this article. It was meant for a well-known genre film -- can you guess which one? -- but it actually sums up perfectly Umbrella Entertainment’s latest installment in the Drive-In Delirium series because the content that was gathered for it is pure dynamite.

The overwhelming majority of the trailers that are included on this release come from the 1970s and 1980s and are grouped in two sections: Cruise Control and The Year We Make Contact. Each section is a little over three hours long, so when combined they deliver over six long hours of vintage trailers. All of these trailers are either fully remastered or transferred from the best available elements, and are presented in 1080p. There is a slightly smaller third section titled “Son of VHS Delirium” which provides an additional ninety minutes of content. However, these trailers are sourced from various VHS tapes and their quality isn’t as good. The bulk of them also tend to promote smaller genre films. All are upscaled to 720p, which means that all of the content on the release is perfectly playable on North American players, including the PS3.

In Cruise Control and The Year We Make Contact you get trailers for pretty much all of the classic action films from the 1970s and some of the biggest ones from the 1980s. (A few of the more notable omissions from the 1980s are Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films, but I’d argue that they are justified because the main theme that unites the trailers in this installment is vengeance). Cruise Control opens up with a solid dose of blaxploitation trailers for such classic films as Shaft, Super Fly, Hammer, and Coffy. However, smaller favorites like The Human Tornado and Drum are also represented. There is a healthy selection of trailers for classic film noirs, which highlights the likes of Kiss Me Deadly, Underworld U.S.A., and The Killers. Harper, The High Commissioner, and Bullitt then prepare the arrival of a huge chunk of trailers for classic action films like Get Carter, The French Connection, Dirty Harry, The Seven-Ups, and The New Centurions. Then come smaller and more exotic entries like Busting and The Destructors, plus some of Clint Eastwood’s smaller films. Also, there are a few trailers for smaller cult European films like Sweeney!, Sweeney 2, and The Salamander, as well as arty projects like Peter Bogdanovich’s Saint Jack. Even action comedies like 48 Hours and Shakedown are highlighted.

The exotic flavor comes from trailers for smaller genre films like Savage Streets, Remo Williams, Naked Vengeance, Seven (Andy Sidaris), The Tenement, and The Gumball Rally, but eventually the big stars make a decisive comeback with Cobra, Lock Up, Road House, The Hot Rock, and The Getaway.

Folks that prefer slightly older films will not be disappointed either because there is a sizeable selection of trailers for big studio classics and cult favorites as well. Amongst them are The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Dark of the Sun, The Poseidon Adventure, The Camp on Blood Island, and Ten Seconds to Hell.

In The Year We Make Contact there is a better mix of smaller and bigger genre films. Of course, it all depends on how folks actually describe these films, but let’s just say that there are smaller and more exotic films here. For example, there are trailers for James Bond copycats like Mozambique, the silly ‘shocker’ The Vengeance of She, the spicy action thriller The Million Eyes of Sumuru, and even The Castle of Fu Manchu and Wonder Women. Also, here there are trailers for many of the all-time greatest westerns, such as Django, For a Few Dollars More, The Magnificent Seven, and Once Upon A Time in the West.

The bottom line is this: If classic action is what your heart desires, this release delivers big -- really big. There is a little bit of everything for everyone in it, from trailers for big action thrillers from the 1970s to trailers for smaller and some quite exotic films that the Cannon Group and overseas distributors promoted over the years. You simply cannot be disappointed with the variety of content it brings. Also, virtually all of these films are now out on Blu-ray, so the release can be quite helpful to those that are looking to expand their collections.

*The complete list of the trailers that are included on this release can be seen here.

Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The trailers in Umbrella Entertainment's Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance release are presented in various aspect ratios, from 1.37:1 to 1.85:1 and 2.39:1. Virtually all of them respect the original aspect ratios of the films that they were made to promote. The release is encoded with MPEG-4 and the content in the main sections is presented in 1080p.

There is a lot of content on this disc -- a little over six hours, without the bonus material -- and as expected different trailers were sourced from different places. However, the overall quality of these trailers is very, very good. A massive number of them have been remastered, and there are plenty that look very nice despite the fact that they show some signs of aging. In the United States, for instance, a large number of the films that are highlighted in the collection have been recently restored and remastered, and some of these trailers I assume come from the Blu-ray releases that were done after the restorations were completed. Also, it is worth mentioning that many of these trailers have great colors, especially the ones that come from the major studios. The trailers for the black-and-white films tend to show the biggest amount of wear and tear, but even they look stable and organic. So, since I have to generalize, I would say that the overall quality of the content here ranges from good to very good. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided.

I think that the lossy 2.0. track is perfectly fine. Here's why: The overall quality of the audio for these trailers is very solid, but they don't have the type of dynamic nuances that a restored original soundtrack would have. In other words, I am pleased that the audio is clean and stable, and lacking serious age-related anomalies, which makes it very easy to enjoy the trailers. The alternative scenario would have been a lossless track with plenty of inherited limitations on the trailers, which is why I think that the quality of the audio here is just fine.

Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Son of VHS Delerium - as it was the case with the previous installments in the Drive-In Delirium series, Umbrella Entertainment has a bonus selection of trailers for a wide variety of genre films that have been sourced from VHS tapes. There is some pretty wild content here that I like quite a lot, especially in the second half of the collection. In English, not subtitled. (91 min, 720p).

• Cover - reversible cover.

Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Drive-In Delirium series offer the ultimate roller-coaster ride for folks that enjoy watching and collecting films. The amount of content that these releases bring is simply astonishing. The other night I started watching Umbrella Entertainment's Drive-In Delirium: With a Vengeance after dinner and completely lost track of the time, so by the time I was done with it the sun was already up. Consider yourself warned -- just the main sections on this release, Cruise Control and The Year We Make Contact, offer more than six hours of vintage trailers. The Australian label has released Drive-In Delirium: Dead By Dawn with it, but I need a small break and plan to view it later this week, and while being a lot more careful. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (The following releases are part of the same series and are also Region-Free: Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch, Drive-In Delirium: Maximum '80s Overdrive, and Drive-In Delirium: '60s and '70s Savagery).