Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Vicious Lips Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 21, 2018

Albert Pyun's "Vicious Lips" (1986) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Factory. The only bonus feature on the disc is an exclusive new video interview with executive producer Charles Band. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The girls

These are the type of low-budget films that we lost as sometime during the ‘90s the shift towards digital filmmaking became irreversible. They were shot on 35mm film and if they used special effects they were still done by gifted artists, not fancy PC programs. It is why all these years later even the silliest among them still appear organic and attractive, while their contemporary cousins now routinely look like the overnight creations of ambitious videogamers.

The future. The young female rock band Vicious Lips has lost its brilliant lead singer and possibly even the opportunity of a lifetime to perform in a notorious club on another planet. In a desperate attempt to preserve the band, the slightly unhinged manager Dead Matty (Tony Kentz) invites the shy looker Judy Jetson (Dru-Anne Perry) to take over the vocals until he discovers a legit replacement. However, immediately after Judy tries a few verses with the band it becomes obvious that she has everything -- and even more -- that the band needs to be successful. Judy then becomes Ace Lucas and Dead Matty phones the club to confirm that Vicious Lips will do the gig.

Instead of using the safe intergalactic highway, however, Dead Matty takes a short cut and his spaceship is hit by a couple of large meteors. Dead Matty then crashes the spaceship on an unknown planet with multiple, possibly thousands of miles long, deserts. The members of Vicious Lips promptly agree that since he is responsible for the crash he ought to go out in the desert and find someone to help them reach their final destination. But while they are waiting for Dead Matty to return, someone, or something, begins making chilling noises in the collapsed cargo area of the spaceship.

Vicious Lips is a very modest project that attempts to appeal to two contrasting groups of viewers -- on one hand those that would typically find plenty to admire in flirty pop comedies like Boaz Davidson’s Dutch Treat, and on the other hand folks that would praise post-apocalyptic thrillers like Richard Stanley’s Hardware. So it essentially blends ‘80s pop humor and cyberpunk visuals, and then adds a trendy (which is now probably better described as ‘retro’) soundtrack to strengthen the film’s new identity.

The end product, however, is not at all surprising, and in fact has all of the familiar qualities that Albert Pyun’s films were known for between the mid-‘80s and early ‘90s. The setting of course is unique, but the same low-budget kitschy vibe that Pyun introduced in Radioactive Dreams and continued fine-tuning through Dollman and all the way until Nemesis is what holds Vicious Lips together.

If seen at the right time -- and for this reviewer the ‘right time’ has always been the wee hours of the night -- these types of films can often be quite attractive because they were usually done by people who understood very well that they were not to be taken seriously. This is especially true here because it is precisely the reason why the bad acting quickly becomes entertaining and after a while even the long rock tracks with the goofy vocals begin to impress. So avoid watching the film with a rested mind and you won’t be disappointed.

Vicious Lips Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Albert Pyun's Vicious Lips arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Factory.

The release is sourced from a good, though not a fresh, remaster. Some specific optimizations could have been performed to make sure that a lot of the darker footage appears a bit 'tighter', but you do not have to worry about any distracting anomalies. Of course the best news is that there are no traces of digital tinkering, so while there are some limitations on display -- shadow definition for instance is not optimal -- overall the entire film retains a decent organic appearance. The color grading is convincing, though ideally saturation could and should be better. There should be even wider ranges of nuances as well, especially during the darker footage. Image stability is very good. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Vicious Lips Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I thought that the lossless audio served the film really well. The rock tracks were crystal clear and with lovely depth, while the dialog was never flat or unbalanced. I also did not detect any age-related anomalies, such as distracting background hiss or conventional distortions, so my guess is that when the audio was transferred if any existed they were removed.

Vicious Lips Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Executive Producer Charles Band - in this new video interview, executive producer Charles Band recalls his involvement with Vicious Lips and discusses the evolution of Albert Pyun's work, how and why independent genre films changed as shooting technology became more sophisticated, the range of special effects that were used during the '80s, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Shout Factory. In English, not subtitled. (10 min, 1080p).

Vicious Lips Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I liked the look of Vicious Lips a lot more than its story. However, I was not at all surprised because this is exactly the type of low-budget entertainment that Albert Pyun and especially Empire Pictures promoted during the '80s. I am glad to see that these films are starting to appear on Blu-ray, and I am even secretly hoping that a boutique label will eventually remaster Boaz Davidson's Dutch Treat, which is about another all-female rock band from the '80s but is a lot more colorful and entertaining. RECOMMENDED.