The Fly 1 and 2 [DVD]

To start with, the release of these two films in a readily affordable 2 in 1 package was much welcomed by my wallet! 'The Fly' holds its own against its predecessor in many ways - its combines a simple and chilling story with all out gore and superb special effects. Jeff Goldblum is excellent as the doomed scientist Seth Brundle, who creates the teleporter and when experimenting on himself, unknowingly enters it with a housefly. His transformation from man to insect is intense as it is stomach churning. Geena Davis is more than adequate as the tormented girlfriend.

'The Fly 2' doesn't quite pull of in scary terms what the first one achieved, perhaps due to a lack of atmosphere that was so clearly present in 'The Fly', but is an excellent 100 minutes of added entertainment. Continuing from the first, Eric Stoltz is the spawn of Seth Brundle, born human but with an accelerated growth 'disease', which in turn means that he grows far quicker than average and also has remarkable intelligence. He eventually starts to realise that he will, like his father, become mutated and fights a race against time to save himself, but standing in his way is his guardian from birth, Mr Bartok, who wants his 'project' to develop so that he can attempt some form of personal legacy.

All in all, this DVD set is great value for money and great for that night in when a scare and some gore would go down a treat...'be afraid, be very afraid'!!!

This little 2-disc set differs from the previous Fly 1&2 set in that it features the disc 1's from the updated 2-disc Special Editions. So if you can't be bothered with hours of extras, then this is a great value set to get.

Disc 1 features The Fly (1986), digitally remastered version with DTS & DD 5.1 Sound, audio commentary by director David Cronenberg.

Disc 2 features The Fly II (1989), digitally remastered version with DTS & DD 5.1 Sound, audio commentary by director Chris Walas & Film Historian/Archivist Bob Burns, Alternative Ending, Deleted Scene, & Four Theatrical Trailers (original 'Fly' movies & remakes).

Definitely recommend this little set, you get the classic Cronenberg 1986 version of 'The Fly' and its very worthy sequel and you do get some extras!!!

Before I get into it, I have just one warning for you. Don't eat anything while you're watching either one of these films. Now that that's cleared up, I would like to stress just how much of a masterpiece the first Fly film really is.

Anyone who has seen the original film starring Vincent Price will have some idea of what to expect from this remake; a terrible teleportation accident in which a fly gets into the same teleportation device that the main character is in. But while in the original, the result was that the human body came out of the other device with the head and arm of the fly (vice-versa for the body of the fly), the result in this remake is much more horrible.

Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is the doomed scientist who is dabbling in the use of teleportation, and Geena Davis plays Veronica, the journalist who is covering his work and who is also Brundle's love interest in the film. Together, they perfect the teleportation sequence to transport organic tissue. Brundle becomes angry; however, as he believes that Veronica is still seeing her ex-partner and magazine editor, Stathis Borans (John Getz), and proceeds to test the "telepod" on himself and accidentally splices himself with a common housefly. What follows is a truly disturbing sequence of events as Brundle gradually decomposes into something far from human, while Veronica finds herself caring for him. Directed by the masterful David Cronenberg, and featuring a great cast as well as completely believable and grotesque special effects, The Fly is a terrifying romantic horror film with an underlying message in the form of aging and inevitable death.

As you would expect, The Fly 2 doesn't live up to the epic first film. Despite this, it is certainly a competent horror film in its own right. Unlike the first film, there is no underlying message, and there is certainly no strong romantic sub-plot. Instead, the film concentrates on conventional sci-fi/horror/gore techniques and in those respects it certainly succeeds and is therefore very entertaining at times. What effectively makes this film are the special effects, which have certainly been improved upon since the last film (in which the effects were great themselves) and makes the (infrequent) gory moments very convincing. The plot concerns the son of Seth Brundle and how he is being kept like some form of lab rat at Bartok Industries (the company that funded Brundle in the first film). It is not long, however, before his dormant insect genes take over, and he takes revenge on those that have kept him and lied to him over the years, making for some truly intense final scenes.

I highly recommend that you buy this set. There are very few special features aside from some satisfying audio commentaries, but the picture and sound quality of both the films has definitely been perfected, unlike many other DVD's of older films which just seem to have been copied and pasted onto a disk. Buy it for the films and not the extras and you won't be disappointed by this exceptionally good box set.

But be afraid... very afraid.