I'm gonna get a lot of heat for this, but I'm a fan of Pia Zadora. I don't think she's some great actress or personality or even a great singer, but there's something about her that makes me giggle. Sure, she's been in a lot of bad movies (to my count, her husband financed four of them - BUTTERFLY, FAKE-OUT, THE LONELY LADY, and VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS), but she seems to have a wicked sense of humor playing in all of them, like she's in on the joke. Maybe she was or maybe she wasn't, but FINALLY her "first" film, BUTTERFLY, has been officially released on DVD. I say "officially" because JER Films has had a bootleg DVD release on the market for several years now, mastered from the early 80s Vestron Laserdisc, a better source than a VHS tape minted from the same transfer but still a poor choice considering how blurry, blown-out, and speckly the print and noisy Laserdisc pressing were.
And now the official release from Industrial Films, a label I've never heard of, in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen from a new hi-def master, complete with a 45-minute featurette and commentary track with Pia herself! To say I'm shocked is an understatement, but I felt I should let the other dozen or so people in the world who might be interested in this release know of its quality.
The video transfer is SO much better than that early 80s atrocity that only a single comparison is needed (though I made more). Check this out:
The mastering isn't perfect, as there is a strange ghosting issue which appears to be from poor conversion from the hi-def master (I've seen this on some other independent DVD releases), and the audio commentary is woefully out of synchronization for the first half of the film (the film's audio is mixed in low and it reveals a large 3-4 second gap in sync). I still expected FAR worse than I got, and I'm very pleased with this disc. Even the packaging is quite nice with a slipcover that has the BUTTERFLY logo in raised red foil. The back cover gives a url, Welcome to butterfly-movie.com!, that is nothing more than a site registered for selling domain names! Weird...
DVDTown is the only review I've been able to find for the DVD so far, and I think it was a little harsh. If the reviewer only knew how poor the previous video master was...
I hope that more of Ms. Zadora's oeuvre is on its way to DVD, but from what she states in the commentary track I doubt it. "The other movies sucked," she says, citing FAKE-OUT as terrible and THE LONELY LADY as being intentionally over-the-top but it ended up being, "what it was." No mention of VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS at all. *sigh* The face of the actual DVD has a 2008 copyright credit for Par-Par Productions, from which I can only surmise Ms. Zadora had something to do with allowing this film to be released. She seems to have a good sense of humor on her commentary track about herself and her films, but I'm not convinced she thinks putting out a special edition of THE LONELY LADY or VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS is a good idea.
Here are some comparison pics for y'all! JER Films DVD is followed by captures from the new DVD release by Industrial Entertainment.
And now the official release from Industrial Films, a label I've never heard of, in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen from a new hi-def master, complete with a 45-minute featurette and commentary track with Pia herself! To say I'm shocked is an understatement, but I felt I should let the other dozen or so people in the world who might be interested in this release know of its quality.
The video transfer is SO much better than that early 80s atrocity that only a single comparison is needed (though I made more). Check this out:
The mastering isn't perfect, as there is a strange ghosting issue which appears to be from poor conversion from the hi-def master (I've seen this on some other independent DVD releases), and the audio commentary is woefully out of synchronization for the first half of the film (the film's audio is mixed in low and it reveals a large 3-4 second gap in sync). I still expected FAR worse than I got, and I'm very pleased with this disc. Even the packaging is quite nice with a slipcover that has the BUTTERFLY logo in raised red foil. The back cover gives a url, Welcome to butterfly-movie.com!, that is nothing more than a site registered for selling domain names! Weird...
DVDTown is the only review I've been able to find for the DVD so far, and I think it was a little harsh. If the reviewer only knew how poor the previous video master was...
I hope that more of Ms. Zadora's oeuvre is on its way to DVD, but from what she states in the commentary track I doubt it. "The other movies sucked," she says, citing FAKE-OUT as terrible and THE LONELY LADY as being intentionally over-the-top but it ended up being, "what it was." No mention of VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS at all. *sigh* The face of the actual DVD has a 2008 copyright credit for Par-Par Productions, from which I can only surmise Ms. Zadora had something to do with allowing this film to be released. She seems to have a good sense of humor on her commentary track about herself and her films, but I'm not convinced she thinks putting out a special edition of THE LONELY LADY or VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS is a good idea.
Here are some comparison pics for y'all! JER Films DVD is followed by captures from the new DVD release by Industrial Entertainment.
