When power crazed drug lord Raul Guzman (Rodrigo Obregón, Hard Ticket to Hawaii) moves in on the mafia L.A. cocaine trade and steals the mob boss Carlo Giovani’s (A.J. Stephans, “Baywatch”) money and drugs, the streets explode in violence.
Featuring Vince Murdoco (Kickboxer II) as undercover cop, Jake Quinn, he infiltrates the mafia as the bodyguard for Giovani’s beautiful daughter, Carla (Mary E. Zilba, “The Real Housewives of Vancouver”). Jake must use his martial arts and all the weaponry he can carry to defend Carla from Guzman’s hit men.
Giovani’s ruthless right hand man Vinny (Johnny Venokur, Savage Streets) betrays him and tries to assault Carla but is stopped by Quinn. Vinny is humiliated and booted from the family. He then teams up with Guzman to seek revenge on Giovani.
In a final showdown, Quinn must stop Vinny in his rampage for revenge and power.
For thoughts on L.A. Wars, please check out our discussions on The Video Attic:
Video Quality
L.A. Wars debuts on Blu-Ray via the MVD Rewind Collection with a 1080p transfer that has been scanned and restored in 2K from 16mm archival elements. The results are decent enough given the bargain-basement nature of the production with a naturally filmic presentation that shows major signs of better days. This transfer suffers from pretty consistent nick and scratches in the print, and many shots look very soft and fuzzy.
For a good portion of the film, the transfer is pleasantly detailed, but numerous shots experience fluctuations in density. The presentation does feature some detail in the production design and texture of clothing. Colors are fairly vibrant and bright, especially in the daytime portions of the film. The black levels are very weak as they struggle with depth. When you are dealing with 16mm elements, things can look pretty rough if you are not dealing with the original negative. Considering this was probably thought to be a forgotten film, it is a bit lucky we got this in HD at all.
Audio Quality
MVD Entertainment brings us this new Blu-Ray with an LPCM 2.0 track in Mono and Stereo in the original English, along with dubs in French and Italian. All of these options offer a decent enough audio experience. The dialogue can sound slightly hollow, but it mostly holds up nicely without being stepped on by the music or sound effects. Environmental effects are substantial and well defined including the chatter in the police precinct and the sounds of gunfire. While a large portion of the track holds up well enough, there is an underlying hiss that plagues most of the film which begins to become metaphorical white noise after a while. This track holds up as well as the source allows. Optional English (SDH) subtitles are provided on this disc.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Producer, co-writer and co-director Tony Kandah provides a commentary track moderated by ‘Cereal at Midnight’ host Heath Holland in which Kandah reflects on his love for the film, the journey to embarking on his first feature, the realities of blowing up a car, memories of the performers and more. Holland does a great job of guiding the conversation to some interesting areas, making this one worth a watch.
- Video Commentary: An option to watch this commentary track as the video call it was originally recorded as.
- Starting A War – A Conversation with Tony Kandah: A new 18-minute interview in which Kandah discusses his background and early interest in the movies, the development of this film, shooting on a limited budget, hiccups during the production, the film’s legacy and more.
- Shoot First – Interview with Mark Morris: A new 23-minute interview with the cinematographer in which he discusses where this film fits into his career, the art of action filmmaking, his work with Tony Kandah, the collaboration on set, shooting on location, getting more opportunities to shoot independent films and more.
- Photo Gallery: A two-minute collection of images from the production and marketing.
- Trailers: A three-minute trailer is provided for L.A. Wars. There are also trailers provided for Action USA, Miami Blues, Final Justice, Drive and Boogie Boy.
- Poster: A fold-out poster of the cover art is included in the case.
Final Thoughts
L.A. Wars is the type of movie that hits every single cheesy action movie trope, and delights in every moment of it. It is a movie that will appeal to those who love terrible, low budget action efforts in which the only form of communication is yelling at the top of your lungs. Unfortunately, this is not a vibe we could hop on, but we can see why some would delight in its awfulness. MVD Entertainment has kept the video store culture alive by unearthing a forgotten film with a new Blu-Ray which sports a passable A/V presentation, a couple of excellent supplements and some spiffy packaging. If you love bad action movies, this release treats this one right.
L.A. Wars is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: MVD Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
