Scanners II: The New Order / Scanners III: The Takeover

Scanners
I was curious about the other 2 Scanner films, so I purchased the box set, although the first one is classic, the other 2 are not so good, but that’s just my opinion

Get Ready to blow your mind…..
I loved it the first time round, 35 yrs later and it still has the same effect. Amazing.

Five Stars
Thank you very much – a bizarre trilogy in a top condition.

BUY THE SECOND SIGHT FILMS BLU-RAY OR THE CRITERION BLU-RAY WITH NEW EXTRAS
Second sight films has reissued Scanners & scanners 2 & 3 on blu-ray nowand given all 3 scanners films new HD transfers & new sound mixesDavid cronenberg’s Scanners has new 1080p transfer in 1:85:1 ratiowhich does look excellent Second sight have done an excellent job cleaning up the picture qualitywhich looks very sharp & clear much clearer than the old Anchor bay dvd for sureand the sound quality has been boosted up to 5.0 Master audio mix, but S.S. have also added master 2.0 stereo mix aswellSecond sight have also added new special featuresnew interview with Actor/painter Stephen Lack- 25minsnew interview with Executive producer Pierre David- 15minsnew interview with Cinematograpger Mark irwin-20minsnew interview with special effects make up artist stephen Dupuis who was part of the Disc smith team on Scanners-15minsnew interview with Actor Lawrence Dane-5minsplus the usual Theatrical trailer is also added on the DiscScanners 2 & 3 blu-ray’s have been given the exact same 1:85:1 HD transfer treatment as the original scannersscanners 2 & 3 just have the usual Theatrical trailer’s there are no new extrasso time to scrap/throw out the very old Anchor bay dvd setand upgrade to the new second sight films blu-ray reissues, worth the money for surewhile i mention the second sight films blu-ray’s, i’ll also mention the U.S. criterion collection blu-ray of SCANNERSCriterion’s HD transfer of scanners is suppose to be supervised by Cronenberg himselfthat’s what it says in the booklet that comes with the caseCriterion’s 1:78:1 HD transfer does look very Good actually equally as sharp & clear as the second sight films blu-ray in my opinion,the sound mix is only a 2.0 master mix, not 5.0 mixthere are new special features aswellTHE SCANNERS WAY which is new featurette on the films special effectsinterviews with some of Dick smith’s crew that worked on the film- 24minsMENTAL SABOTEUR which is new interview with Actor Michael ironside-20minsEPHEMEROL DIARIES a new interview with Stephen lack- 20minsTHE BOB MCLEAN SHOW which is archive interview with David cronenberg from 1981- 12mins1 star for the anchor bay dvd, 5 stars for both second sight films blu-ray’s & Criterion collection blu-ray

I picked up the original “Scanners” Criterion Blu-Ray at Barnes & Noble a few days before I got this and I really liked it. I’d never seen it before but as soon as I watched the original Cronenberg film I saw the Burroughsian influence of the “Senders” from “Naked Lunch” and the familiar feeling of paranoia and conspiracy you’d find in a William Burroughs novel brought to screen. The sets and direction of the original 1980 movie are fantastic and I absolutely adored the film.So naturally, I was curious about the sequels, and this Blu-Ray set from Scream! Factory is pretty cheap for two movies plus a DVD of both, included (if you want to watch it at a friend’s house and they don’t have a Blu-Ray player or something). As some other reviewers have said there are no special features whatsoever, not even trailers, which is a little disheartening because the second movie “Scanners II: The New Order,” is not a bad movie at all. It picks up some twenty years after the original and is about a new generation of scanners who are being hired to change the course of government in the city (which is never named) but of course there’s drama and turmoil along the way.I was surprised how much I enjoyed “Scanners 2,” I probably enjoyed it way more than I should have. The cinematography is similar to Raimi’s chaotic camera techniques employed in “Evil Dead 2” and it has a far more fast-paced feel than the first movie in the “Scanners” trilogy, but it doesn’t subvert the oddities of the original– at least, I didn’t feel like it did. There’s a bit of a plot twist maybe two thirds of the way through that links the second movie to the first which most will pick up on but some (including those who haven’t seen the original movie) won’t, and even if you don’t, “Scanners 2” works fine as a standalone film. The new bad guy, Drak, is similar to Michael Ironside’s character, Revok, from the original, but he’s less refined with his powers and more abrasive in his use of them, making him almost as dangerous as Revok. The hero is played by an actor from one of the “Stargate” TV shows and I felt he did a great job in the part of Kellum, who has a very memorable scene in a convenience store early in the movie.I also liked that the opening scene of “Scanners 2” paralleled the opening of the original, but inverting the type of character we’re following at first throwing us a misdirection. All in all, I was very happy with “Scanners 2” and I’d highly recommend it to any fan of the original 1980 David Cronenberg movie!So then I watched “Scanners 3: The Takeover.”It’s pretty bad, it’s like the kind of movie you’d see featured on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” The same director as “Scanners II: The New Order” returns to direct this third part, which is widely unrelated to the original and its first successor. For reasons beyond my understanding, many of the characters, whom I’m assuming are either supposed to be from the Midwestern United States (Detroit area, I’m guessing) or Toronto, Canada speak with European accents. It’s kind of funny to watch, because they seem so out of place in the movie and it’s any character that will start speaking with a Polish or Norwegian accent for reasons that are not explained in the movie and left completely ignored.”Scanners 3″ is about a new version of the drug from the original movie, Ephemoral, which helps scanners deal with the constant headaches and anxiety they are born into. Unfortunately it seems to take away their sense of right and wrong, or rather just their sense of right. The villain is a scanner woman who runs the company and is getting high on her own supply and the hero is her brother who’s become a Buddhist and lives in a monastery in Thailand where he meditates day and night to block the scanner-related pain he has to deal with. This third part ties in loosely to the first two films, but maybe too loosely. The wacky cinematography is back, and that’s fun, but the script is just so downplayed and in comparison to the first films it seems cartoony and immature. While the second movie had a cartoonish element to it, the third movie drinks the Kool-Aid and goes off the wall with goofy sound effects, bad dubbing (some of the characters are dubbed, I don’t know why) and poor dialogue and writing that left me feeling kind of empty. It’s a dumb but harmless movie and it’s fun to watch if you have nothing better to do or are just curious about the scanners.The major downside to the Blu-Ray and DVD combo is that neither of them have subtitles, I’m a bit hard of hearing and sometimes the characters mumble their lines and I had to turn the volume way up to hear what they were softspokenly saying.So, all in all, I give this Blu-Ray set five stars ultimately for “Scanners 2,” which outweighs the underwhelming “Scanners 3.” There’s no reason not to buy it if you’re a fan of the first or second movie. And if you really liked the third one, well, it’s all presented here in stunning HD, so go check it out!

Thank you very much