STONE COLD [1991 / 2016] [The Cult Movie Collection] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
A Cop Who Enforces His Own Brand of Justice!
Joe Huff [Brian Bosworth] is a cop who's angry at the system for handling criminals with kid gloves. Joe Huff's on suspension but the FBI gives him an opportunity to go undercover in Mississippi and infiltrate "The Brotherhood," a white supremacist biker gang that runs drugs. In the Brotherhood, each member legally changes his name to his Brotherhood nickname. They are led by a violent psychopath named "Chains" Cooper [Lance Henriksen]. Joe Huff begrudgingly accepts the job.
As a member of the gang, Joe Huff is renamed "John Stone" learns that they're plotting a paramilitary assault on the state capitol to rescue a gang member sentenced to execution and it's up to Joe Huff to stop them.
FILM FACT: Original cut was rated NC-17 in America because of the violence, and it was cut down for R rating. An uncut version was never released and no information about what was cut is known. In Q&A with audience after a special 35mm screening of the film in Austin's Alamo Drafthouse in 2014, Brian Bosworth talked about how the original director of the film was Bruce Malmuth was fired due to some "personal issues that he couldn't control which poured out on set", and his firing caused all the original backstory for Brian Bosworth's character to be removed and changed after Craig R. Baxley was hired to direct the film. About 4 weeks of filming were therefore spent on scenes with Brian Bosworth's character and his family (wife, child, and sister), which in the end were completely removed, and 4 million dollars were spent on production expenses alone.
Cast: Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen, William Forsythe, Arabella Holzbog, Sam McMurray, Richard Gant, Paulo Tocha, David Tress, Evan James, Tony Pierce, Billy Million, Robert Winley, Gregory Scott Cummins, Demetre Phillips, Magic Schwarz, Brenda James, Paul M. Lane, Gene Hartline, John Hateley, Tracy Hutchinson, Jennifer Synnott, Rick L. Birchfield, John R. Grantham, Alfred Stepputat, Thomas F. Ibarra, Michael Wren, Bill Gratton, Jerry Colker, Michael James, David Glen Eisley, Ron Recasner, Charles Stransky, Renée O'Connor, Maggie Egan, Benjamin Rosenberg, Frank Ferrara, Troy Brown, Robert Prentiss, Kevin Page, Folkert Schmidt, Matt D. Johnston, Josie Dapar, Boyce Holleman, Nick Dimitri, David Efron, Tom Magee, Janis Flax, John Terrence, Laura Albert, Karen Abernathy, Illana Diamant, Jophery C. Brown (uncredited), Tommy Gotti Coleman (uncredited), Craig Deroche (uncredited), Elton Hartzler (uncredited), Jason Scott Morgan (uncredited), Christian Neil (uncredited), Darnell Fayard Sheffield (uncredited) and Dionicio Virvez (uncredited)
Director: Craig R. Baxley
Producers: Andrew D.T. Pfeffer, Gray Wichard, Mace Neufeld (uncredited), Michael Douglas (uncredited), Moshe Diamant (uncredited), Nick Grillo, Rick Bieber (uncredited), Walter Doniger, Udi Nedivi and Yoram Ben-Ami
Screenplay: Walter Doniger
Composer: Sylvester Levay
Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Color by DeLuxe)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: None
Running Time: 92 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / 101 Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: If you are any kind of fan of the 1990s action films, then ‘STONE COLD’ [1991] is the one of total and absolute necessity. The film that tried to turn legendary Brian Keith Bosworth into an action packed hero, and was nicknamed "The Boz" who was originally a former professional American football player who played as a line-backer for the National Football League's “Seattle Seahawks” who was thrust into an action as a star muscle hunk, and I have to express my excitement that this particular film has finally arrived and available on via 101 Films Blu-ray disc, which is all thanks to this brilliant British Company 101 Films, who now produces these cult classic films, and especially ‘STONE COLD’ has been spending years out of print especially on an inferior DVD release, where copies have been fetching upwards of large sums of money either on Amazon and eBay, now there is no excuse not to have it in your own Blu-ray Collection.
As most mainstream action films of this genre, which by the way, has for some time been going out of fashion, having been replaced primarily by superhero films and big budget films, getting further away from the kinds of things that defined 1990s action films at your local cinema, like iconic heroes, practical stunts and first-rate 2nd unit work and especially films like ‘STONE COLD’ continue to age better and better. Sure, it's a product of its time, 1991 to be exact, otherwise known as the best year for action films ever, if for no other reason than the casting of Brian Bosworth in the lead, but director Craig R. Baxley makes films that are both incredibly efficient and accomplished while still making an action packed film that is deliriously over the top, and directs films, especially ‘STONE COLD’ with lunatic competence.
‘STONE COLD’ has it all: bikers, bloodshed, babes, Brian Bosworth. There is a giant lizard, who is Brian Bosworth’s pet and men in bikini briefs. There's Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe trying to out crazy each other. There's Sam McMurray playing a cop. It's not an action film that moves in fits and starts, coming to life during the fights or shootouts and then grinding to a halt in the expositional scenes. It's entertaining all the way through, in part because of the colourful subculture in which the film is set and in part because Craig R. Baxley directs the whole film at the same wild, rowdy pitch, where you can practically smell the beer, cigarette smoke, bike exhaust and Brian Bosworth.
The film was a massive box office flop when it was released in 1991, grossing just $9 million on a budget of $25 million. It has since discovered a life on certain cable stations and home video, having become a cult classic of the genre and completing Craig R. Baxley's trilogy of awesomeness. I can see this being a film that required time to find its audience; it's too hard-core for the fair weather genre fans and got lost amidst the shuffle of great action films released that year. I'm happy to see this particular wrong being righted, even if it has taken almost 25 years to get there.
‘STONE COLD’ star Brian Bosworth made a fantastic and ideal action star, and it is a total mystery why this star faded so quickly. Brian Bosworth made a handful of good action films like ‘Back in Business’ and ‘One Man’s Justice,’ but Brian Bosworth eventually began starring in films that didn’t give him the potential to onto greater films. Director Craig R. Baxley gives ‘STONE COLD’ a verve no other director could have given it, and it’s filled with great moments, one-liners, and bad attitude characters that have their moments.
But best of all there is some awesome stunts! Bikes crashing out of windows and exploding on helicopters! Chase sequences where bad guys smash their bikes onto oncoming traffic! When somebody is fighting in this film and they hurl somebody, and they really go over the top throwing them! I mean you will really see people can really fly! These biker dudes entertain themselves by shooting bear cans off of their shoulders! With machine guns! Which again gives a totally over the top action film fun that is at the same time is totally crazy. The rest of the cast is composed of real life bikers, which adds a bit more credibility to the proceedings. There is this one scene where all the bikers are shooting their guns, and watching these two guys kicking each other’s butts like some type of Gladiator show or something like it, which is a great scene, where everyone is crazy, all going over the top and totally out of control, so gotta give kudos to this film for making these scenes look totally genuine by using real bikers. So all in all it is not a bad action film, especially for the period in the 1990s around the time it was released, and it is right up there with Sylvester Stallone’s ‘COBRA’ film. All in all it is good for a laugh, and definitely lots of good well over the top fun, so enjoy!
STONE COLD MUSIC TRACK LIST
DANGEROUS (Written by Patrick Simmons) [Performed by The Doobie Brothers]
OOH BABY (Written by Paul Colt, Pete Skyes, Ricky Hart and Steve Rose) [Performed by Cryer]
JOHNNY WAS A USER (Written by Paul Colt, Pete Skyes, Ricky Hart and Steve Rose) [Performed by Cryer]
COMING HOME (Music by Jason Bieler) (Lyrics by Matt Kramer) [Performed by Saigon Kick]
MOONLIGHT DREAM (Music by Wire Train) (Lyrics by Kevin Hunter) [Performed by Wire Train]
FATAL KISS (Written by Elaine Summers and Dan Pinnella) [Performed by Elaine’s Treehouse]
SHE'S GOT A HOLD ON ME (Written by Martin Block) [Performed by Martin Block]
EYES (Written by Tony Humecke, Kimiko Kasai and Trisha Kelly) [Performed by Kimiko Kasai]
WELCOME TO THE REAL LIFE (Performed by Sheryl Crow) [Written by Sheryl Crow and BROMHAM]
Blu-ray Image Quality – Once again the cult film company 101 Films, has brought us ‘STONE COLD’ once again with a brilliant 1080p high definition transfer that really stands out, and an equally impressive 1.85:1 aspect ratio and for the most part 101 Films has done a very professional job. Colours are reproduced very nicely and black levels look really nice and especially deep skin tones that are totally natural looking and detail is pretty strong throughout the film. On top of all that sharpness and contrast are equally excellent and there are no noticeable issues with any compression artefacts and the image presentation seems completely devoid of digital trickery like noise reduction or edge enhancement. Grain is slightly present throughout the film, but does not detract from a brilliant print overall, and the depth of the image remains impressive for pretty much the entire film. ‘STONE COLD’ looks absolutely brilliant on this 101 Films Blu-ray disc release. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Once again the cult film company 101 Films, has brought us ‘STONE COLD’ once again in a stunning 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo track, and the audio clarity of this Blu-ray disc is very good. The composed music score by Sylvester Levay sounds absolutely stunning and has a really decent range to it and the dialogue is very easy to understand. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion to note and the levels are properly balanced throughout the film. The sound effects have a massive punch behind them and the rumble of those motorcycle engines has good weight behind it and really gives your speakers a brilliant workout.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras: Once again, 101 Films has not even been able to include a Theatrical Trailer.
BONUS: A beautiful designed and printed Reversible Blu-ray Cover Sleeve.
PLUS: A stunning colourful full-size cult Poster.
Finally, ‘STONE COLD’ release is so awesome it deserves an amazing special edition Blu-ray release, but of course it means that now all of Craig R. Baxley's films are now available in 1080p HD, proof that we are living in the best of all times. Part of me never thought this day would come, but here we are, and its 1990s Action Day for ‘STONE COLD’ is in my Blu-ray Collection, so make sure it's on yours too. If you enjoy old school action cult film of the 1980s, with all of the exploitation ingredients at play; then do yourself a favour and gun down ‘STONE COLD;’ it's one of the best of its kind! It is also a stunner of an action packed film that will keep you on the edge of your seats in this “guilty pleasure” action packed film and this film is just way too much fun! WARNING: This Film is rated 18 and is only for Adult viewing only. No-one under 18 should ever be allowed to view this Blu-ray disc as this film is not suitable for children, because this film contains Very Strong Violence. Frequent Strong Language with discriminatory language and behaviour and also lots of scenes with Strong Sexual Activity. Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom