(Update, December 12, 2018: I felt I should state here that the following is not a "false review," it's definitely for real. I have no connection to those involved in the film, I'm just an average joe who happened upon this flick in a store..."
Here it is, November 10, 2018 and each Tuesday is becoming a more difficult experience hunting down new releases on DVD and Blu-ray. Best Buy, Target, and Barnes & Noble have diminished their selections drastically. While some boutique labels for hard media are thriving online (Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Code Red / Scorpion, et al along with sites that cater to them), it seems that -- and I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS -- Walmart is the last resource for finding, in-store, the latest in lesser-known titles and sub-lables that are actually released by the likes of Lionsgate and Sony. You know the ones, like 4Digital, Vertical, E-One, Momentum, SP, etc. So I was carefully scanning the aisle for the latest, and there was.... HEAVEN & HELL.
I had a hunch I should grab it, but then hesitated. So I wrote down the title along with seven others to research when I got home. Hmmm. On Amazon, it was only available for download, and no comments. On IMDb, a rating of 7.7 from seven votes, no comments from users nor external. The one discovery was that the original title was REVERSE HEAVEN, with a nifty photo of the poster art for that.
I started watching it. Oh! Old-style film stock with added print damage, lines, speckling, little jumps here and there like missing frames. Did not expect that, and I thought this should get interesting. What I DID notice was there was some kind of miscommunication between the filmmakers and SP Releasing / Echo Bridge Entertainment. The logline on the back of the cover has the main character named Nash, when in the film he's called Chase. The sergeant is listed as Kuluhan, where on IMDb she's listed as Coolahan. Burt Ward is top-billed after Cher Lyn, but he's only in three scenes. Hey, wait... who's Chase? I can't find the actor listed anywhere. Getting a bit of a headache here. But back to the film...
My head was spinning from back and forth scenes of sheer inanity (yes, I said inanity as in inane, not insanity, though that would apply too) to scenes of sheer brilliance. Some entirely in a master shot, then right to astounding camera acrobatics as in the insane drive-through-the-train-tunnel sequence. A score that sounded orchestral... was this actually a grand score recorded for THIS film? Was this taking place now? The 1970s? F-bomb after F-bomb, a surprising restraint from gratuitous nudity (which I expected a ton of after all the craziness started -- well, it started from the get go, actually). As I said, my head was spinning.
I nearly got to the end and then realized, I wasn't really sure what was actually going on! To get a semblance of it, I figured an alcoholic detective with a death wish clashes with a couple of co-workers, and once he gets partnered up with a 1970s-hippie-chick-porn-star-looking Kuluhan / Coolahan, he can't hold back from constantly sexually harrassing her (which just kind of annoys her) yet wanting her to really like him. Chases ensue involving a classic '70s car that seems immune to bullets, and leaves trails of fire. Hallucinatory moments with ethereal images and voices, in visuals that are suddenly absent of the "film damage" present elsewhere in the whole film. An energy battle of good versus evil. Wait! That WAS Charles Dierkop as a bank robber (you'll know who he is once you see him). Oh, and I had to "rewind" when a scene of klansmen assaulting churchgoers happened, it's like the kitchen sink was being thrown in. Wow! Gotta take a breath here.
Honestly, if I tried to tell you a direct description of the story, you'd still not realize the complete outrageousness and guts all involved had to have to put this thing together. After I ejected the DVD from my Blu-ray player, I immediately came back to IMDb and started writing this rambling review as words, images, sounds, and good & evil energies started spilling out of my brain. When nearing the end of writing this, I even went back and changed my rating from 8 to 9 because I just realized how impressed I was by being so befuddled and bedazzled by this wondrous creation. I'm going to need to give myself an extensive session of self-Reiki tonight.
Oh, and as for the names? Turns out Chase is listed ind the end credits as Chase Nash for the actor, his character is listed as "Psychic Detective." Cher Lyn's character is listed as Kuluhan after all. So, turns out the back cover on the DVD was not wrong: Nash is Chase Nash after all (they just don't clear that up in the logline), Kuluhan IS Kuluhan, but the fact that Chase's name is mysteriously not listed on IMDb nor on the cover of the release is mysterious indeeeeeeed.
Yep, it's an amazing experience. Time for more cheesecake now.
Here it is, November 10, 2018 and each Tuesday is becoming a more difficult experience hunting down new releases on DVD and Blu-ray. Best Buy, Target, and Barnes & Noble have diminished their selections drastically. While some boutique labels for hard media are thriving online (Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Code Red / Scorpion, et al along with sites that cater to them), it seems that -- and I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS -- Walmart is the last resource for finding, in-store, the latest in lesser-known titles and sub-lables that are actually released by the likes of Lionsgate and Sony. You know the ones, like 4Digital, Vertical, E-One, Momentum, SP, etc. So I was carefully scanning the aisle for the latest, and there was.... HEAVEN & HELL.
I had a hunch I should grab it, but then hesitated. So I wrote down the title along with seven others to research when I got home. Hmmm. On Amazon, it was only available for download, and no comments. On IMDb, a rating of 7.7 from seven votes, no comments from users nor external. The one discovery was that the original title was REVERSE HEAVEN, with a nifty photo of the poster art for that.
I started watching it. Oh! Old-style film stock with added print damage, lines, speckling, little jumps here and there like missing frames. Did not expect that, and I thought this should get interesting. What I DID notice was there was some kind of miscommunication between the filmmakers and SP Releasing / Echo Bridge Entertainment. The logline on the back of the cover has the main character named Nash, when in the film he's called Chase. The sergeant is listed as Kuluhan, where on IMDb she's listed as Coolahan. Burt Ward is top-billed after Cher Lyn, but he's only in three scenes. Hey, wait... who's Chase? I can't find the actor listed anywhere. Getting a bit of a headache here. But back to the film...
My head was spinning from back and forth scenes of sheer inanity (yes, I said inanity as in inane, not insanity, though that would apply too) to scenes of sheer brilliance. Some entirely in a master shot, then right to astounding camera acrobatics as in the insane drive-through-the-train-tunnel sequence. A score that sounded orchestral... was this actually a grand score recorded for THIS film? Was this taking place now? The 1970s? F-bomb after F-bomb, a surprising restraint from gratuitous nudity (which I expected a ton of after all the craziness started -- well, it started from the get go, actually). As I said, my head was spinning.
I nearly got to the end and then realized, I wasn't really sure what was actually going on! To get a semblance of it, I figured an alcoholic detective with a death wish clashes with a couple of co-workers, and once he gets partnered up with a 1970s-hippie-chick-porn-star-looking Kuluhan / Coolahan, he can't hold back from constantly sexually harrassing her (which just kind of annoys her) yet wanting her to really like him. Chases ensue involving a classic '70s car that seems immune to bullets, and leaves trails of fire. Hallucinatory moments with ethereal images and voices, in visuals that are suddenly absent of the "film damage" present elsewhere in the whole film. An energy battle of good versus evil. Wait! That WAS Charles Dierkop as a bank robber (you'll know who he is once you see him). Oh, and I had to "rewind" when a scene of klansmen assaulting churchgoers happened, it's like the kitchen sink was being thrown in. Wow! Gotta take a breath here.
Honestly, if I tried to tell you a direct description of the story, you'd still not realize the complete outrageousness and guts all involved had to have to put this thing together. After I ejected the DVD from my Blu-ray player, I immediately came back to IMDb and started writing this rambling review as words, images, sounds, and good & evil energies started spilling out of my brain. When nearing the end of writing this, I even went back and changed my rating from 8 to 9 because I just realized how impressed I was by being so befuddled and bedazzled by this wondrous creation. I'm going to need to give myself an extensive session of self-Reiki tonight.
Oh, and as for the names? Turns out Chase is listed ind the end credits as Chase Nash for the actor, his character is listed as "Psychic Detective." Cher Lyn's character is listed as Kuluhan after all. So, turns out the back cover on the DVD was not wrong: Nash is Chase Nash after all (they just don't clear that up in the logline), Kuluhan IS Kuluhan, but the fact that Chase's name is mysteriously not listed on IMDb nor on the cover of the release is mysterious indeeeeeeed.
Yep, it's an amazing experience. Time for more cheesecake now.