Story Synopsis:
If there ever was a movie done in bad taste-depending on how you look at it-Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste would be it. On the other hand, a spoonful of bad tasting B-movie gore never hurt anyone. Shying away from pompous, pretentious moviemaking, Jackson goes straight for the jugular as alien fast-food franchisers come to Earth in search of their own kind of hamburger meat. But a team of government assassins desperately try to prevent small town gray matter from becoming an extraterrestrial delicacy, while innocent bystanders run around holding their skulls intact, blowing chunks, and boiling in pots with peas and carrots. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced and windowboxed 1.66:1 DVD picture, shot in 16mm, has a gritty appearance, but images can be generally sharp. Some scenes are extremely soft and undefined. With a slightly dated quality, colors are generally well balanced. The shaky camerawork might make viewers with larger home theatre displays a little queasy. The source element is revealing of an expected amount of film grain and artifacts. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
The remastered 5.1-channel soundtracks in DTS-ES® Discrete 6.1 and Dolby® Digital (with Surround EX™) are impressive, projecting a noticeable, satisfying sense of spaciousness, albeit usually subtle. The restoration of the original audio is certainly noteworthy, and fidelity overall is respectable despite the age of the recording. There are lapses with the quality of the dialogue, including mis-sync problems and a general lack of ambient correlation with the visuals. Imaging across the screen is palpably wide and expansive, and the surrounds serve to provide for subtle to moderate envelopment, further enhancing the sense of space. The latter is also beneficially served by the back surround channel. The music has been quite nicely presented, with the desirable spatial attributes described above. There has apparently been some processing to extend the low-end for this soundtrack aided in part by the engagement of the .1 LFE. The DTS-ES soundtrack just slightly edges out, in terms of its spatial clarity and low-end definition. Otherwise, this is a fine sonic repurposing effort that offers a pleasing, welcome dimensional listening experience. (Perry Sun)