When in doubt, Roger Corman returns to the race car movie. He didn’t direct  Asphalt Wars (2004), but his named appears at the beginning as producer, and the film was originally released by his third company, New Concorde. It’s directed, edited, and written by Henry Crum, who is something of a cinematic jack of all trades, and I assume that Corman’s company simply picked it up for distribution.

 

 

It tells the story of young Reno (Gilbert Chavarria), who by day works in his uncle’s garage, and by night joins illegal street races, which for him is the graduate school where he learns how to drive, in preparation for going pro. Two things happen. Reno annoys and impresses the local gang leader, and he falls for Dina (Calvi Pabon). In the event, the gang leader wants Reno to be the driver for a heist he has in mind, and that job will take Reno as far from the direction he wants to go as it is possible to stray.

 

 

This is a low budget affair with lots of obviously real people hanging out at what appear to be real off track races. It’s not the best looking film but its lack of frills gives it a certain integrity, at least in those moments when you don’t notice it cutting corners. What’s unusual is that it posits an almost entirely Hispanic world. White people don’t figure in it to any great extent, and as a consequence you feel how on their own the characters are, with no law or institutions to rule over them. It’s also a curse, as the gangs remorselessly rob from their own. Reno is an oddly interior lead character. He is ambitious, but also withholding, and strangely you don’t really get to know him (that may be the actor’s fault).

One virtue that digital video offers is that special effects are relatively easier. The big scorpion looks good, but also very much like a special effect. But that might be the point, as animators like to have their work appreciated.

The disc has a full frame transfer that is rather dark and grainy, possibly shot on 16 milimeter (it doesn’t look like HD digital video), and has no extras.

 

 

Released the same day, is another film with Corman’s name on it,  Scorpius Gigantus (2006), an Aliens style horror film with scientifically tampered-with giant bugs taking out a military base.

The second thing you notice about  Scorpius Gigantus is that it is shot in high def video. This causes an interesting reaction in the viewer (or at least one viewer). Part of out pleasure in watching a DVD is that it is a record of a movie going experience, whether we had it directly or not. There is a certain grandeur to the large screen with its towering people and its fine detail. Even if we are experiencing it at second hand there is a mental adjustment to the local TV experience in which we read into it the grandeur.

 

Digital video is “easy.” Anyone can do it. It’s everywhere. Since most of us have actually done a little video shooting, we know that it is a bunch of unglamorous people standing around waiting. Digital video also mentally equals “reporting,” so that a film employing it out of choice rather than necessity is aspiring toward a hyper realism. But the traditional setting and context of  SG belies that. It’s another horror film economically shot in Eastern Europe, in this case Bulgaria, with numerous cast members of distinctly Slavic cast, which is no problem unless you are trying to pretend you are in America.

Jeff Fahey stars as  Major Nick Reynolds who trains and leads a small assault team. Meanwhile, some Russian gangsters end up with a giant scorpion laying waste to them. Reynolds and his team are asked to intervene. They learn that the scorpion is the result of experimentation, and that it is also part metal and part human. As his team is reduced in numbers, Reynolds and scientist Dr. Jane Preston (Jo Bourne-Taylor) must find a way to stop genetically mutated this monster.

 

You will have a feeling that you have seen this film before, and essentially guess everything that is going to happen before it does, even down to lines like, “Major, you’re gonna want to see this.” I am a big fan of Fahey, and have always been puzzled why he never became more famous. Perhaps he is on the level of a Richard Egan, some one ridiculously handsome, almost too good looking for movies. He looks a little weather beaten here, but then the video camera is cruel, especially when there is a dearth of lights and make up.

SG also arrives with no supplements. It is a full frame transfer which suggests that it was originally meant for television, though no one seems to know if it was ever aired thus. The first thing you’ll notice about the film is that it is apparently a part of the Roger Corman collection, but the box makes no claim for it, and the credits indicate that is released by New Horizons. This appears to be another name for Corman’s New Concorde.

 

Both  Asphalt Wars and Scorpius Gigantus were released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on Tuesday, July 25th, for $29.95.

 

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