BADass SINema Unearthed - Blu-ray 4K UHD Review

Sometimes box office bombs deliver payloads years after their release.  Scream Factory, releasing Space Truckers on blu-ray with new featurettes, know this and offer audiences another chance to hitchhike alongside Dennis Hopper, Debi Mazar, and Stephen Dorff as they seek an astronomical payday amongst the stars!

Opening with a cool POV shot as we arrive on Triton, one of Neptune’s moons, with a furious speed (thanks to some excellent model work), Space Truckers gets its dirty work done early thanks to a solid list of character actors which includes Shane Rimmer and Charles Dance as they barricade themselves from the cyborg headed their way.  It turns out, Rimmer as E.J. Saggs wants to keep this cyborg warrior a secret, so he has it kill Nabel (Dance).

And that’s just the beginning of Space Truckers before Dennis Hopper as John Canyon, one of the last space truckers takes over, dumping his load at a docking station while a swinging country song plays, and mustard bottles hang motionless in his space vehicle.  He’s a classy guy, you know?  Eating a hot dog while delivering some hogs for Inter Pork.  Of course, they don’t want to pay him because he’s late, so Keller (George Wendt) has some goons rough him up.  Doesn’t work.

And while at this trucker stop in space, he meets Debi Mazar as Cindy and Stephen Dorff as Mike Pucci, who wind up joining Canyon on his next delivery, some sex dolls.  Or so they think.  Surprises await as this journey to Earth is going to take some unexpected twists along the way to securing an orbit around the third rock from the sun.

Here’s the thing, Space Truckers might be cheesy as all hell, but it STILL kicks a ton of ass as Canyon, trying to do as much good for the people in his life, winds up getting conned into delivering killer cyborgs to Earth.  Watching it with the right attitude, is essential to the enjoyment of the often-underappreciated cult flick.

Directed by Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dagon fame), the cast is character driven thanks to the inclusion of Barbara Crampton, Vernon Wells, Jason O’Mara, and Sandra Dickinson and gives viewers a fun and futuristic bar fight, which ends with Wendt getting ass-ssssssucked (it’s appropriate spelling for this scene!!!) into space in a very funny manner through a tiny window.

With its creativity at an all-time high, but a budget at less than that, Space Truckers is a whole lot of zany fun, complete with pirates, wild characters, and zero gravity sex!  It is now on blu-ray thanks to Shout Factory’s limited blu-ray release.

Shout Factory Exclusive / Limited Edition of 1,500 Made

Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray - August 30, 2022
Screen Formats: 2.39:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Robot Jox) invites you to hitch a ride with Dennis Hopper — a ride that is anything but easy — in the sci-fi adventure Space Truckers!  It is the year 2196. The fiercely independent cargo hauler John Canyon (Hopper) faces a rough road as he attempts to stay in business transporting shipments throughout the galaxy. When John teams up with Mike Pucci (Stephen Dorff) to deliver a mysterious cargo for an astronomical payday, the grizzled trucker takes to the stars for a big score — only to find that he's in for a load of trouble. Along with stowaway Cindy (Debi Mazar), John and Mike undertake an out-of-this-world adventure with nothing less than the fate of the universe at stake.

Video:

Framed in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, Space Truckers is full of bright costumes, cool sets, and solid black levels.  There is an inherent fuzziness to some of the scenes which comes from the cinematography not always being in focus.  It’s something that HD shows occasionally thanks to the nature of the beast and the low budget at play.  Colors are bright and black levels are good.

Audio:

A solid DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo track is included.

Supplements:

Commentary:

Special Features:

Fans get interviews with the cast and the crew.

• NEW Interview With Actor Barbara Crampton
• "Space Trucking With Stuart Gordon" – An Interview With Director Stuart Gordon
• "Scoring Space Truckers" – An Interview With Composer Colin Towns
• "The Art Of Space Truckers" – An Interview With Art Director Simon Lamont
• Trailer

	Movie
	Video
	Audio
	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Runtime: 95 mins
Director: Stuart Gordon
Writer: Ted Mann
Cast: Tim Loane; Ian Beattie; Olwen Fouéré
Genre: Adventure | Sc-fi
Tagline: Earth's Only Hope.
Memorable Movie Quote: "You know, for a son-of-a-bitch, gimp rapist murderer... he died ok!"
Theatrical Distributor: Home Box Office (HBO)
Official Site:
Release Date: April, 1997
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 30, 2022.
Synopsis: It is the year 2196. The fiercely independent cargo hauler John Canyon (Hopper) faces a rough road as he attempts to stay in business transporting shipments throughout the galaxy. When John teams up with Mike Pucci (Stephen Dorff) to deliver a mysterious cargo for an astronomical payday, the grizzled trucker takes to the stars for a big score — only to find that he's in for a load of trouble. Along with stowaway Cindy (Debi Mazar), John and Mike undertake an out-of-this-world adventure with nothing less than the fate of the universe at stake.