Raw Force [Blu-ray/DVD Combo]

If you are wanting to check out one of the best examples of early 80's exploitation cinema, look no further than the highly entertaining 1982 cult classic "Raw Force" (a.k.a. Kung Fu Cannibals). This film has it all: female nudity, copius amounts of poorly staged chop socky fight scenes, kung fu zombies, more female nudity, wooden acting, quick pacing, Cameron Mitchell & yet even more female nudity. It's trash of the highest order and highly entertaining. The movie moves along at a brisk 86 minutes and is never boring. I hadn't seen this movie in years and was thrilled to see it get an official blu-ray release courtesy of the fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome.I'm a firm believer that any film no matter how obscure has its fans and deserves to be given a chance to be seen & enjoyed in the highest quality available. Thankfully, "Raw Force" gets an incredible 2k resolution scan from the original 35mm camera negative and is presented in it's original theatrical aspect ratio with the matting opened up ever so slightly from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1. The negative is in surprisingly great shape and no digital scrubbing was done to remove any of the grain so the film retains a nice filmic look with amazing detail present in every frame. There are a few instances where some print damage is visible in some of the slow motion sequences but this appears to be a fault of the original filming methods and not a fault of this HD transfer itself. Colors are deep and very robust. With gratuitous female nudity filling almost every frame, the skin tones look appropriately natural. This movie gets the kind of love and attention in this release that a lot of much more well known films will never get. The audio is presented in 1 channel lossless mono which is how it was heard theatrically. The dialogue and sound effects/musical score are nicely balanced. It even gets a few nice extras such as the Destination: Warriors Island featurette with the director and cinematographer interviewed (that runs a little over 14 minutes) as well as an audio interview with the finishing editor which runs 5 minutes. The original theatrical trailer rounds out the extras. While not a massive amount of extras, what is included on this release is informative and well done. I should also mention that this is a blu-ray/DVD combo pack. The only small quibbles that I have is the lack of english subtitles for the hearing impaired as well as the film being broken up into only 6 chapters.For connoisseurs of fun cinematic trash, you can't do much better than "Raw Force" and the blu-ray presents the film better than it has probably ever looked before and since.

I saw an offer for one of the earlier releases of this, started researching other options due to the allure of Martial Arts Zombies (and not separately, but undead that are trained to chop-socky their victims to an early demise), and was delighted to find that Amazon was carrying this latest/ultimate edition brought to us by the standard-bearers for quality sleaze, Vinegar Syndrome."Raw Force" has so much going on in it for Schlock movie lovers that my mind felt like a perfumed compost heap two minutes into the feature.I'm never quite sure if Cameron Mitchell is really acting. Surely anyone that performs this over-the-top in front of a camera must be, but It always warms my insides to see him listed as a cast member because even with a z-grade script he comes across as so organic that you'd think he was just some guy that walked onto the set after a few beers, ready and willing to stir up the required trouble,Add in the irreplaceable Vic Diaz, seasoned with unhealthy doses of the regular ingredients that make a drive-in/grindhouse movie a must-see, and there is no turning back. May as well cash in all your troubles so you can sit wide-eyed in your favorite chair and enjoy the aroma of your brain sizzling in a frying pan. Bib optional.

Blu-Ray Review: The video quality is great for a 35mm restoration but still there is some damage which I love. Perfect picture quality sucks anyways! The audio is good. Special features is a featurette and some audio interview.Movie Review: This is a nice piece of cinema trash. Though I have seen much better "so bad it's good" films, this is pretty well done. I enjoyed the bad acting, the abundance of hot naked chicks with nice butts and boobs, the martial arts action and the kooky characters. I just wish there was some dismemberment. But whatever.Conclusion: 5 stars for the Blu Ray and 3 1/2 for Raw Force.

I first saw this movie on the Grindhouse Experience box set, and loved it immediately - An island of undead disgraced martial artists, and the Burbank Karate club? White slavery, and a hitleresque villain? Wow.When I saw it was on blu-ray, I had to check it out. The grindhouse dvd version looked like it was duped from a beat-up old VHS tape with tracking problems. This blu-ray looks like an entirely different movie! It's suprising how good this looks! A ton of interesting extras make this disc a must buy if you enjoy this sort of thing.

I remember seeing this film back on cable tv in the early 1980's and never forgot it. I was only 13 or 14 years old then and it made a huge impression on me. When the blu-ray came out I had to buy it to see if it was as weird as I remembered. Take a group of kung fu badasses. a gang of weirdo thugs led by a German maniac, a clan of cannibal monks, zombie ninjas, hot babes who undress a lot, an old couple that argue all the time, lots of juvenile humor, and low production values and mix in a blender. "Raw Force" is the result of that mish mash of craziness. It was fun seeing it again but was not a good movie by any means. Still, this movie has to be seen to be believed for fans of exploitation cinema.

Not a big fan of zombie films, and I don't like Kung Fu due to the violence. This a really good movie though. Documents an extraordinary time in Philippine history- the early 1980s. Jokes are a bit crude, but the plot is thick.One minor issue: The credits list actors who played 6 monks, 8 hoods, 8 corpses, and 10 Hookers... but they don't say when each person actually appears on the screen!! Viewers are left guessing who's who......

Awesome.

Picture the scene back in 1981 as a producer approaches his young inexperienced director: "I have this great idea for a movie. Kung fu movies are huge as well as zombie movies. We will make a movie with kung fu zombies! + cannibals + mad monks and of course women in cages!" The resulting movie is Raw Force and its fantastic. Dodgy hairstyles, dodgy clothes, dodgy fight scenes and incredibly cheesy dialogue that has to heard to be believed. What truly makes it great it that every actor takes it totally seriously as if they were shooting the Godfather! Its the perfect 80's trash movie and has remained a favourite of mine since I rented it first, on vhs back in the early. If you can afford it, buy it. You won't regret it.When I popped the blu ray into my player my jaw dropped. Picture quality is astonishing. Colours pop and the detail level is great. There is quite a bit of grain in some darker shots but overall its just beautiful to look at. Sound quality is not as good as the picture but dialogue always remained crisp and clear. I could kiss the people responsible for this blu ray!

great B movie!