KING COHEN [2017 / 2019] [Limited Edition] [Blu-ray + CD] [USA Release]
‘KING COHEN’ is a Treasure Trove for Schlock Cinema Lovers!
La-La Land Entertainment presents its first feature film within a knockout Blu-ray Documentary film + Compact Disc soundtrack combo! So buckle up for ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen,’ the award-winning feature length documentary from director Steve Mitchell that MovieWeb calls “a necessary piece of film history” and BBC film journalist Mark Kermode hails as “Hugely entertaining!” Witness the true story of writer, producer, director, creator and all-around maverick, Larry “King” Cohen (‘Black Caesar,’ ‘It's Alive,’ ‘Q: The Winged Serpent and ‘The Stuff’).
Told through compelling live interviews, stills, film and Television clips, and hear from the people who helped achieve or realize to fulfil his vision, such as industry icons as Martin Scorsese, J. J. Abrams, John Landis, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson and many more, including Larry “King” Cohen himself, bring one-of-a-kind insight into the work, process and legacy of a true American film auteur. Few can boast of a career as remarkable or prolific, spanning more than 50 years of entertaining audiences worldwide.
FILM FACT: Awards and Nominations: 1991 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards: Nomination: Best Screenplay for ‘Maniac Cop 2’ [1990]. 1995 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival: Win: Special Jury Award for ‘It's Alive’ [1974]. 1997 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival Win: Special Jury Award for ‘God Told Me To’ [1976]. 1988 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Win: George Pal Memorial Award. 1998 Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Nomination: Best Motion Picture for ‘Best Seller’ [1987]. 2017 Fantasia Film Festival: Win: Audience Award for Best Documentary for Steve Mitchell. 2017 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards: Win: Best Documentary for Steve Mitchell.
Cast: J.J. Abrams, Rick Baker, Eric Bogosian, Richard J. Brewer, Jon Burlingame, Barbara Carrera, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, James Dixon, F.X. Feeney, Robert Forster, Megan Gallagher, Mick Garris, Paul Glickman, Frederick King Keller, David Kern, Yaphet Kotto, Paul Kurta, John Landis, Lauren Landon, Traci Lords, Michael Moriarty, Daniel Pearl, Frank Pesce, Gary Phillips, Spiro Razatos, Eric Roberts, David J. Schow, Martin Scorsese, Nathaniel Thompson, Ryan Turek, Janelle Webb and Fred Williamson
Director: Steve Mitchell
Producers: Anthony Miles, Cardon Ellis, Catrine McGregor, Cliff Stephenson, Daniel McKeon, David C. Fein, Frederick King Keller, James Frederick Davis, John Dadlez, Karl Zundel, M.V. Gerhard, Mary Skrenes, Matt Verboys, Olga Alexandra McQueen, Paul Craig James, Sean Hughes, Steve Mitchell and Taylor L. White
Screenplay: Steve Mitchell
Composer: Joe Kraemer
Cinematography: David C.P. Chan (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 107 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1 Blu-ray + 1 Compact Disc
Studio: La La Land Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Buckle up for ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ [2017] and is the true story of writer, producer, director, creator and all-around maverick, Larry “King” Cohen, especially with the classic films like ‘Black Caesar,’ ‘God Told Me To,’ ‘Q: The Winged Serpent’ and ‘The Stuff,’ and all told through compelling live interviews, stills, film and TV clips, and the people who helped fulfil his vision, and industry icons such as Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto and many more, including Larry “King” Cohen himself, bring one-of-a-kind unique insight into his work as a rebel filmmaker, process and legacy of a true American film auteur. Few can boast of a career as remarkable or prolific, spanning more than 50 years of entertaining audiences worldwide!
With the opening minutes of Steve Mitchell’s explosive new documentary, you may have not even realized you were watching something from the mind of Larry “King” Cohen when you were actually watching it. The Fantasia International Film Festival has just bestowed Larry “King” Cohen with its Lifetime Achievement Award before the World Premiere of the title documentary about his life, Larry “King” Cohen. The grand, winged Pegasus Award was wielded by Larry “King” Cohen as a weapon briefly to the delight of the audience; and especially deservedly so, because while there have been many directors and horror films that have helped to shape how audiences view Larry “King” Cohen style of genre and have left many impression on what Larry “King” Cohen films have had on audiences of all ages.
For decades, Larry “King” Cohen has created countless television shows in America, turning out original story concepts and fully fleshed-out scripts at an alarming, almost prodigious rate. Performing at a professional level while still a teenager, Larry “King” Cohen has now become one of the elder Hollywood statesmen that he is totally revered by lots of fans in his earlier days.
Larry “King” Cohen proves a great raconteur with plenty of good stories, particularly about his close collaborative relationships with composer Bernard Herrmann, Sam Fuller, with whom he shares some artistic similarities and Michael Moriarty. The latter, a reliably idiosyncratic actor who seldom seemed as deliciously footloose as when going on about the warped notes of Larry “King” Cohen’s crazy screenplays, remains an enthusiastic booster in the fresh interview footage.
However, for horror fans, he was the brash, death-defying New York guerrilla filmmaker responsible for some of the most memorable cinema of the Seventies and Eighties including ‘It’s Alive,’ ‘Q: The Winged Serpent’ and ‘The Stuff.’ King Cohen follows Larry Cohen through his entire wide-ranging filmography; but his misadventures within the horror genre are well covered with interviews from Rick Baker, Michael Moriarty, Mick Garris, and John Landis. Some of the most harrowing stories come from the days when ‘Q: The Winged Serpent’ caused a momentary citywide frenzy in New York as shell casings flew during machine gun blasts on the very top of the Chrysler Building. Of course, this all ended up being pretty good for business at the time.
Some of the funniest moments in ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ come from the quick inter-cutting between Larry “King” Cohen himself and the legendary Fred Williamson, who insists that the director may be embellishing some key moments of their time together filming ‘Black Caesar’ and ‘Hell Up in Harlem.’ What is very clear by the end of the documentary is that these stories need no embellishment, and Larry “King” Cohen has no equal as a take-no-prisoners auteur.
Larry “King” Cohen was a triple threat as a writer who became a director to protect the script; then he became a producer to protect the film. The surprising thing about ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ is the reverence that filmmakers like Martin Scorsese have for Larry “King” Cohen and the emotional core that’s struck when heartfelt stories come to pass about the director, like stories that received an ovation during the premiere. Larry “King” Cohen’s bold filmmaking and compassion are seen here in equal parts.
‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ shows his renegade days of moviemaking where blood, dust, and sweat were still on the print when it showed up at the theatre. The story they tell is one of the most brave and daring filmmakers ever. If you ever wanted to know just how crazy filmmaking could get in the 1970s and 1980s, look no further than the tales in this documentary, where you hear about the eye-popping unbelievable stories that are a delicious feast. It’s a portrait, not just on Larry “King” Cohen, but on the mastery and boldness of guerrilla filmmaking. No permits, stealing shots, hiring genuine people to play parts to save on cash and it’s all here and it’s all very entertaining. This documentary film itself is totally entertaining.
What Director Steve Mitchell has brought to us with ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ is a totally amazing look into the incredible world of Writer/Director/Producer Larry “King” Cohen. Filled with incredible stories narrated by Larry “King” Cohen and a host of film royalty of days past and present, including such names as J.J. Abrams, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Yaphet Kotto, John Landis, Laurene Landon, Traci Lords, Michael Moriarty, Tara Reid, Eric Roberts, David J. Schow, Martin Scorsese, and Fred Williamson. We get a glimpse at the process of the brilliant Larry “King” Cohen used to make his vision his own from start to finish and this was certainly a labour of love by the director and his crew, but he should be applauded for giving us a view into a great man and great film maker.
Blu-ray Image Quality – La La Land Entertainment presents this amazing ‘KING COHEN’ Blu-ray with an absolutely stunning 1080p image and of course is enhanced with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. ‘KING COHEN’ has brand new interview videos that are mixed in with clips from other films from varying degrees of quality. Some of them are really poor quality which bring across some video anomalies with the obvious upscaling and overall, this is a documentary, with the interview segments look crisp and well detailed and good depth of field. Blacks are decent enough and they are pretty deep and can produce some nice shadowy enhancements in the interviews. Colours are decent; and nothing really jumps out aside from these blue theatre seats that Traci Lords is sitting amongst for her interview segment. Skin tones are natural and consistent throughout. I’m only judging on interview segments alone, but you can see glossiness on faces, scars, stubble, make-up and wrinkles with ease. But overall is this a brilliant image presentation.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – La La Land Entertainment brings us one solid 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. There are some little moments that you experience some surround sound and mostly film score stuff, but most of the time, all the action is with the front speakers. It all has very good clarity and has also a well-mixed audio presentation. Sometimes we get some light oomph that comes from the subwoofer, but mainly provided by the film music score and clips from the Larry “King” Cohen films. But when it comes to the vocals of the people talking to the camera is very clear and crisp audio presentation. So once again La La Land Entertainment has done a really brilliant professional job.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: An Audience With The King [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [46:32] Here we get to view extra interview footage of Larry “King” Cohen telling us more great stories that was not featured in the main film documentary and gives us even more great interview footage from Larry “King” Cohen in covering a variety of different subjects relating to his different films he has made and also all the trials and tribulations trying to get projects off the ground and we also get a lot of the anecdotes about the filmmaking process from Larry “King” Cohen that is also at times totally hilarious and at the same time we hear some really fascinating in-depth insight into all aspects of Larry “King” Cohen his unique style and totally quirky off the wall filmmaking and we also get to hear about all the famous people he has come into contact with, especially nearly working with the very famous “Master of Suspense” director Alfred Hitchcock, but equally impressive was Larry “King” Cohen working with the brilliant film composer Bernard Herrmann who composed music for some of his films and is definitely a who’s who of other famous people he has come into contact with. What we also get to see is that the documentary is broken up into different categories, like the following: Larry talks about his stand-up days; Larry meets Bob Hope; Larry talks about “A New Actor;” Larry goes A.W.O.L.; Making a movie from episodes of “Blue Light;” Larry and Chuck Connors; Larry and “The Magnificent 7;” Larry and “The Master of Suspense;” “Hell Up in Harlem” and working weekends; Larry, Stevie Wonder and James Brown Writing for “Columbo;” Larry talks about “God Told Me To;” Larry and the Teamsters; The top of the Chrysler Building; Larry remembers Zoë Tamerlis; The Stuff and the Hurricane; “Larry remembers Sam Fuller; Larry talks about “Best Seller;” Larry and Stan Lee; Larry and “Darth Vader;” “The Ambulance” reshoot; Larry remembers “Miss Davis;” Barbara Carrera and “The Wicked Stepmother;” Hiring Traci Lords; Tipping the actors; Dictating scripts; Larry and Miklos Rosza; “Phone Booth;” Larry and the Teamsters – Part 2; Larry and the Shooting Range and Blowing up . . . “The Ambulance.”
Special Feature: More Stories From The King’s Court [as told by his royal subjects] [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [37:43] Here we get to view more amazing interview footage and we also get to hear plenty of fun on the way with extra anecdotes and stories about Larry “King” Cohen crafting some of his films and hearing about how he went about cutting costs and time in making some of his films. Contributors include: Barbara Carrera, Eric Roberts, Traci Lords, Eric Bogosian, Laurene Landon, Tara Reid, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Spiro Razatos, Paul Glickman and Daniel Pearl, A.S.C.
Special Feature: Monsters On The Table [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [3:25] Here we get to take a look at Larry “King” Cohen at his home and especially with some of his monstrous friends and at the same time we get to see Larry “King” Cohen showing off a few of his personal rare props from his films, that include: Little Monster Girl from the film ‘It’s Alive’ – Part 2; Baby Bird from the film ‘Q: The Wing Serpent;’ Little Monster Boy from the film ‘It’s Alive’ – Part 3; The Original Baby Girl made by Rick Baker for the film ‘It’s Alive;’ the Chest of the Alien from the film ‘God Told Me To.’ Larry “King” Cohen talks in glowing respect for his long term friend and collaborator the composer Bernard Herrmann and how sad he was when he passed away.
Special Feature: Hello, World! [Introductions from around the World] [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [13:21] Here we get to view many different personalized introductions from Larry “King” Cohen himself to promote film documentary ‘KING COHEN’ that was being screened at different Film Festivals around the world, because Larry “King” Cohen was personally unable to attend himself, as he was working on his next film project, so again he recorded different personal introductions to be shown just before the film documentary was shown and here are the places that ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ was screened and they are as follows: Horror Channel FrightFest shown in London, England in August 2017; MOTELX: The Lisbon International Horror Film Festival shown in Portugal in September 2017; Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival that was shown in Spain in October 2017; VIENNALE: Vienna International Film Festival in October 2017; Irish Film Institute Horrorthon that was shown in Dublin in October 2017; Sydney Underground Film Festival that was shown in Australia in September 2016 and NYC Theatrical Release, which was held in New York in August 2018. BONUS NOTICE: Still Here? Okay, for your dedication . . . here’s a bonus! In 2018, Larry’s film, ‘God Told Me To,’ was shown at The Royal Theater in Canada as paer of their Retropath! Series in association with The Toronto Jewish Film Foundation. For this screening Larry “King” Cohen recorded an introduction, and also promoted the upcoming release of ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen.’
Theatrical Trailer [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:39] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film documentary ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen.’ This is a totally brilliant and is a tantalizing trailer that gives you a great preview of what to expect with this fascinating and brilliant film documentary of an intimate portrait of the equally brilliant Larry “King” Cohen.
BONUS SOUNDTRACK CD: Here presented on the bonus Compact Disc is the Original Film Score by the acclaimed composer Joe Kraemer, who composed the film music for the following films: ‘Way Of The Gun;’ ‘Jack Reacher’ and ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.’ Joe Kraemer brings the story of Larry “King” Cohen's career to vivid life with a rich and original music score that encompasses everything from the infectious disco-retro main titles, funk and some cool jazz, to even classic film scoring motifs and all the music is totally brilliant and fits so perfectly with the character of Larry “King” Cohen. The Compact Disc album is produced by the composer Joe Kraemer and mastered by James Nelson. Here are all of the audio track listings:
Hail Larry (2:05); Larry’s Theme (Solo Piano) (2:16);
Early Television (1:24); Growing Up in NYC (1:35);
Persistence / A Performer Himself (2:46);
Coronet Groove (1:01); Larry’s Theme (Rhodes-Band) (4:20);
Monster Baby (2:08); Who or What Bone Was (1:40);
Move it Forward (1:52); Every Movie is Exploitation (3:15);
I Do It and It Works (2:52); Larry Told Me To (1:10);
Red and Larry, Teacher and Student (2:18);
Ode to the Maestro (1:42); Perfect Effects (1:09);
The Hairpiece (0:48); Director Jam (2:11);
This WILL Get Made (3:34); Renegade Spirit (3:25);
Hail Larry (Reprise) (3:54); The Cutting Room Floor (5:55)
Midnight (Jazz for Larry) (4:04)
Finally, ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ shows us that Larry “King” Cohen's career might be described as a schlock movie maker known only to those fans who are drawn to his so totally different B-movie horror films. But that would be an injustice to the man who sold his first script at age 17, and was the creative force behind numerous American TV series, and has been a successful screenwriter for the films he directed for years, and many he didn't. The film documentary walks us through a mostly chronological order of his life and career of the infamous Larry “King” Cohen himself, as well as numerous other industry folks ... plus his current wife and ex-wife. Filmmaker Steve Mitchell generates a treasure trove of inside stories from such recognizable figures as actor Yaphet Kotto. The best thing about this film documentary will leave you without any doubt with an extraordinary checklist of Larry “King” Cohen films to see for the first time or even rediscover them all over again. ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ does this so beautifully, while at the same time telling you about one of the true original filmmaker of his generation in producing totally unique film genre cinema. Steve Mitchell's documentary will definitely be one of your favourite film documentary of the year and I wholeheartedly give it a 5 star rating especially to anyone who loves these types of Hollywood stories or especially these Larry “King” Cohen films in general. Simply put, ‘KING COHEN: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen’ shows us a great documentary filmmaker that is also about an amazing talented Auteur film director. This is a definite one to pick up for all fans pf Larry “King” Cohen and anyone interested in the history of low budget filmmaking. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
