Doctor Mordrid [Blu-ray]

BOTTOM LINE: As unrefined as it was, I was still glad to get a chance to discover DR. MORDRID. Jeffrey Combs' fine performance and some fun magic stuff kept me entertained. The film is an interesting "what if?" look at what a Dr. Strange movie could have looked like on the big screen back in the day. It's an entertaining movie (despite the crass language and short runtime) even without the brand recognition. Too bad there were no further adventures for the Master of The Unknown. 4 STARSTHE STORY: A centuries-old battle between two otherworldly sorcerers is set for a final showdown here on our mortal plane. In the no spells-barred confrontation between Good and Evil... who will win?BACKGROUND: This is a very thinly-veiled re-write of Marvel Comics' Dr. Strange. Back in the 90's, before Marvel was the powerhouse it is today, they were licensing out any characters they could in order to generate money. It may sound hard to believe, but Marvel was close to bankruptcy at that time. Full Moon & Charles Band purchased the rights to Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme and were all set to bring him to the big screen. Band & company wanted to make it as big and splashy as their limited funds would allow, but in the end Full Moon lost the rights to Strange shortly before they were able to begin filming. Not wanting to waste the considerable time & money invested in the movie's preparation, Band simply re-tooled the script (with a few needed changes to keep Marvel's lawyers off his back), and thus Dr. Strange morphed into DR. MORDRID: MASTER OF THE UNKNOWN.THOUGHTS (contains spoilers): A young, refined-looking Jeffrey Combs gives another excellent performance, as the titular physician. (Not sure just exactly what field he holds a doctorate in, though.) Combs plays the part very straight and restrained, thus his Mordrid is a thoroughly believable character, despite all of the hocus-pocus. Regrettably however, pug-faced lunkhead Brian Thompson churns out yet another in his long career of scenery-chewing offerings as Kabal (the evil Yin to Mordrid's morally-just Yang); sneering at everyone and bellowing like a buffalo. The production design is pretty impressive for a Full Moon picture. Mordrid's "sanctum sanctorum" apartment looks especially cool; lots of busy detail & eye candy to take in. The stop-motion effects from vet animator David Allen are sweet. The museum backdrop at the film's climax allows him & his team to bring skeletons of a T-Rex and a Mastodon(?) to life in bony battle, (representing the magics of Kabal and Mordrid, respectively). The optical effects used for Mordrid's & Kabal's magical powers were nicely realized. The floating castle, apparently some sort of otherworldly magical prison for evildoers, was a cool concept. I also liked Mordrid's friend Gunner, the beefy, brutish castle guardian.All told, I really only have two gripes with DR. MORDRID. First is how criminally short the film is; barely clocking in at 74 minutes even WITH the credits! The truncated running time hurts the development of the characters, and the big battle between Kabal & Mordrid feels rushed and ends much too soon, which I found very disappointing. I thought their confrontation was a sort of test with the two foes "feeling each other out" for strengths and weaknesses, in order to properly prepare for what I expected would be a much more fully-involved final showdown later. But nope... that's all folks. My other complaint is in regards to the poor decision on the part of the filmmakers to needlessly throw in several instances of rude, abrasive language. These just feel wildly inappropriate, added solely for the shock factor and to justify an R-rating, thus in keeping with the majority of Full Moon's other horror product. (There's also a totally unnecessary female full-frontal nude scene which should have been dropped.) If the swearing & nudity had been eliminated, DR. MORDRID would have been a fine family-friendly fantasy film. As it is, even mature comicbook fans may flinch at the crass F-bombs liberally sprinkled throughout the film's second half. Younger kids should definitely be kept away.THE BLU-RAY: This Blu-ray release for DR. MORDRID looks good, though none of Full Moon/Empire Pictures' stuff was ever particularly clean or professional-looking even when first released. The transfer is fair but not as stunning as many, much older films that have been adapted for high-def. Video is clean, with no artifacting or pixelation that I could detect. Audio portion is strong, with a well-balanced soundmix. There are several bonus feature supplements that up the value of this release for fans and collectors.

Interesting film for fans of Charles Band and Jeffrey Combs. Originally conceived as a Dr. Strange adaptation. Fun to see this material through the lens of 16mm 80’s horror. Fx are optical printing and lighting is straight out of “Puppetmaster.”

Mordrid is a lightweight sorcerer adventure that hinges almost completely on your suspension of disbelief. It's fun, what else can anyone say about this movie. The story is fairly bland but holds up pretty well in spite of itself. The real treasure of this flick is Jeffrey Comb's performance. Combs has played some far out characters in his career and Mordrid, as funny as it may sound, is actually one of the more normal roles, he's delightful as the "good guy" magician and can also deliver the goods as an immortal. Even though the effects were slightly in the cheesy category you believe them and simply have a good time. Enjoy this movie for what it is and you won't regret the purchase :)

I got this movie as it reminded me of the older Dr. Strange movie and I was just interested to see what it was about. (I seem to remember that one of Dr. Strange's enemies had a name very much like this too.) Anyway, I liked the movie but found it to be a bit short and with not enough character development for my taste. Overall, I liked the way the movie was layed out but it was really not exactly what I felt it would be. If you like Dr. Strange movies, I suggest adding this one to your cellection as a extra look at what "might-have-been". Not a bad movie....

...more fun than I even hoped for. the character and story are "inspired by" a fairly popular comic book character who had a horrible 70's made-for-TV movie, a few tolerable animated outings and now has a major studio blockbuster due out 11/4/2016. this prob'ly falls right in the middle of those.this really does not need much explanation. if you are familiar with the works of Jeffrey Combs or Charles Band or other Full Moon pictures, you should already have some idea of what to expect. if you like B movies with heart, this is well recommended.

This is an amazing film from 1992, if you love Dr. Strange, you'll love Dr. Mordrid....fun popcorn film to watch...

Good movie. I wish they could’ve used Dr.Strange but regardless I just acted like it was and liked the story.For the time this was a better version of “Dr. Strange” than the 1978 movie entitled Dr. Strange. Good history and back story. If you like Dr. Strange this is a great choice.

Main character is pretty much instantly thrown on screen, and we only get a vague idea of his background, motivations or abilities, until much later in the movie. His wardrobe is bad too, switching from normal jeans but a way-oversized shirt, to a goofy looking....pajama...pantsuit....thing. Usual story of "good guy stops bad guy from using the MacGuffin to destroy Earth". Some of the ideas/action in the movie are fun, but overall it wasn't enough to make me care about the characters or story.

OK. I like 90's Full Moon Entertainment movies a LOT!!! Doctor Mordrid being one of their best productions got a fancy Blu Ray release with massive amount of additional content incl 90min on set footage, Videozone promo for the movie and Interview with J.Combs conducted by W.Shatner. Picture quality is really good in comparison to the VHS, which I also own (LOL). Transfer is a bit foggy and due to the fact that the movie was shot in full screen, it was heavily cut up and down the screen to fill widescreen tv's (and thats realllly bad). Actors heads were cut in most of the scenes and knowing, how the movie looked like originally, it's hard to watch sometimes. It would be better to have original footage but restored to the more crisp picture. Sound is good stereo mix without any special add-ons. Movie itself is wonderful - one of the best and ambicious visually- Full Moon Entertainment productions. Of course all the additional content makes this realease a must buy for all Mordrid and FME fans!

The wonderfully sublime gonzo producer/director Charles Band tries his hand at sci-fi fantasy shenanigans, this time clearly influenced by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee's Marvel comic-book character 'Doctor Strange'. However, even with all the best intentions in the world - a production budget that resembles the take home pay of a weekly newspaper round and a lead villain in the form of that bloke from 'Cobra' fail to take this anywhere beyond well meaning, which is a shame as it could have been something much more.Anton Mordrid (Jeffrey Combs) is landlord to a rented building in modern day New York. Unbeknownst to his fellow inhabitants, he is a wizard sent to Earth by a being called 'The Monitor' (cue chroma-key stylee effects) in order to stop the evil wizard Kabal (Brian Thompson) from opening the gates to Hell. Which y'know in practice, sounds eezy-peezy. However, 'ol Kabal has escaped from his own dimension and now living in our world, seeks to bring about the end of days and targeting our new best pal Mordrid as the only thing standing between him and certain victory. Cue a barrage of sub par visual effects, dubious acting and the best use of cape wearing this viewer has seen in a very long time. Well, since the last 200th Marvel movie.'Doctor Mordrid' is an early '90s Full Moon production and with that highlights the trappings of the studio at that time. Fuelled by a deal with major studio Paramount Pictures, Full Moon's output strived for a certain level of mainstream acceptability and with that semi-coherent storytelling, above average production values and decent acting. Which is all well and good, but sadly 'Mordrid' as a final product offers an uneven tone with dimestore effects and apart from a good central performance from lead Jeffrey Combs, everyone else seems to believe they are in a mid-season episode of 'Xena Warrior Princess'... Its a shame as this could have potentially been another great vehicle for Combs, but the screenplay (by 'Class of 1999's' C. Courtney Joyner) is a lacklustre ''set up'' movie that doesn't take the time to construct a deeper mythos apart from 'magician guy protects earth from bad folk with wavy hair' and only hints at what could have been. Plus, the tone is awkward - on one hand, the central premise is a kid's fantasy flick yet people are dropping F bombs and ladies are gettin' naked like it were a Tinto Brass movie. As a viewer, you don't quite know where you are and sadly that sullies the enjoyment level.88 Films Blu-Ray release sports an okay transfer with vibrant audio. Again, we have a few nice extra special features which include the original 'Videozone' making of, theatrical trailer, 88 Films trailer park (basically a number of Full Moon trailers) and the obligatory reversible sleeve (although the back cover on the flip sleeve looks like it was designed by Charles Band's secretary). All in all, I found it a hard one to sit through even though I'm both a Full Moon and Jeffrey Combs fan - scratch this one up as a nice idea, but nothing more. The release is worth a purchase for fans but unlike other releases under their banner, its no 'Puppet Master', 'Trancers' or 'Castle Freak’.

I always loved this film, and while the widescreen framing is a little tight for my liking, it still looks a lot better than my old full frame DVD. I forgot how much I loved the soundtrack.I bought the Full Moon version because it was region free and priced at half the price of the forthcoming UK version from 88 Films, which will no doubt look much the same.

great product and good service

Loved this movie when it came out on VHS back in the day. It arrived within a few days and the movie looks great on Blu Ray. If you are already a fan, get the Blu Ray. If you are a Dr. Strange fan, or a Full Moon fan, this is a must own. Too bad they never made the sequel.