Blind Date [DVD]

Of course the special effects are lame. Hey, it's from the 80s. But the story is really good. A good murder mystery that does a great job of building the tension. The few problems I have with the movie (because I am a writer and I've become quite picky) aren't enough to take away from the fun.

Greek schlock-meister, Nico Mastorakis (Island of Death) goes "high-tech" Hitchcock (the $1.98 version) in the voyeuristic 1980s thriller BLIND DATE, on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.Jonathan Ratcliff (Joseph Bottoms, OPEN HOUSE) has been working in the Middle East for the last several years and is not ready to go back to New York. Instead, he finds a job as a high-powered account executive in Athens and a casual lover in saucy Claire (CHEERS' Kirstie Alley, nude). While hanging around a photo shoot one day, he spots one of the models Rachel (Lana Clarkson, decades before her ill-fated days with Phil Spector, also nude) and believes that she is actually Mary Anne, a girl from his teenage years who he had failed to protect from a gang rape. He secretly follows her, confessing to Claire that he needs closure but possibly still in love with her. One night following her to lovers lane with boyfriend Dave (James Daughton, ANIMAL HOUSE), he is nearly caught and runs head first into a low tree branch escaping. When he wakes up in the hospital, he is blind but the doctors cannot find any physical reason that his eyes are not functioning. Going stir crazy in his apartment and helpless trying to maneuver around the city on his own, Jonathan learns from a colleague (Charles Nicklin, THE FOG) of a Dr. Steiger (Keir Dullea, BLACK CHRISTMAS) who is experimenting with technology that allows sensory information to bypass damaged organs directly to the brain. Despite the warning that once installed, Jonathan can never hope for his sight to return normally (if the cause is indeed psychological), he undergoes the operation and is fitted with an implant connected to a device disguised inside a Walkman that allows him to map people and objects in front of him visually through sonar. After settling some scores with a trio of punks who mugged him (THE HUNGER's Michael Howe, Gerard Kelly, and DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS' Gerry Sundquist), Jonathan resumes trailing Rachel. On the way home one night, however, he comes face to face with The Scalpel Killer who has been slaughtering beautiful women all over the city. Although he cannot identify the killer from the limited visual input of the device, he discovers that seizures caused when he hooked the device up into a video game triggered buried memories in his subconscious and thinks he can do it again to recall clues; however, he may have put the killer on the trail of not only himself but also the women in his life.Promoted as "The ultimate hi-tech thriller," BLIND DATE was the fourth directorial effort of director Nico Mastorakis who had started making films in his native Greece before his script for THE GREEK TYCOON lead to his toiling in Hollywood for a couple years unable to greenlight projects with John Carpenter (HALLOWEEN) and Ridley Scott (BLADE RUNNER) at Paramount. Returning to Greece, he was the local representative for the tax shelter disaster that was BLOOD TIDE before deciding to work independently, starting with the science fiction film THE TIME TRAVELLER/THE NEXT ONE with Adrienne Barbeau (SWAMP THING) and Dullea followed by BLIND DATE. It is part serial killer film and science fiction – the melding of the two almost giallo-like and the killer's use of a taxi cab to pick up victims anticipating Dario Argento's GIALLO – but not entirely successful as either. The film's first act is quite leisurely with more emphasis on production value than thrills with a couple kills – including an early appearance by STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Marina Sirtis as a prostitute (topless, as in Death Wish 2 and THE WICKED LADY) – before Jonathan's accident and drawing out the middle of the film before trying to cram a lot into the last twenty minutes. The film also frustrates expectations of the plot with Steiger not even registering as a red herring, no setting up of Jonathan as a suspect in the killings (his seemingly restored eyesight that allows him to run around Athens and even drive around recklessly complicating the excuse that he could not be the killer because he is blind), leading up to a stalking finale that culminates in a gag that Meg Foster would also employ against her stalker in Mastorakis' far more accomplished thriller THE WIND. The film also features the debut of model-turned-actress Valeria Golino, topless (HOT SHOTS, RAIN MAN) in a bit part. The film's primitive visual effects and the score were mixed in England which is presumably where some pickup scenes were also shot with British actors in bit parts. The score – released on LP by Varese Sarabande – was composed by Stanley Myers (CASTAWAY) in collaboration with Richard Harvey (HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS) before Myers' decade-long collaborative relationship with Hans Zimmer (GLADIATOR, BADLANDS), and also featured songs by John Kongos including a title track.Bonus content helpfully features nudity that wound up on the cutting room floor as well as 50 minute doc (part one of four) on the directors output up until this film.Released theatrically by New Line Cinema and VHS by Lightning Video, BLIND DATE bypassed a budget release through Simitar like some of Mastorakis' other titles and was not released on DVD until 2003 in a new remastered director's cut through Image Entertainment along with several of his other productions. The director's cut has been remastered again in high definition for Scorpion's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray. The 4K-mastered image from the original camera negatives is crisp and colorful but reveals the rough edges of the production in somewhat grainier night sequences and some eighties diffusion. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is conservatively remixed from the Dolby Stereo original which is included as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 option with clear dialogue and being most active during the POV sequences. The theatrical cut (101:24 versus 105:37) is provided in standard definition with a Dolby Digital 5.1 .

There's a serial killer running amok...and no one knows who it is. Suddenly, through a tragic accident, a well-to-do business man has an accident & is blinded. He tries an experimental CGI chip implanted in his brain to help him "see" again. He witnesses one of the murders & "sees" an outline of the madman. Now the blind man must stop the killer before he kills again. Will he do it or be killed himself? Watch & find out! Great visuals! An erotic thriller!

If you want to see what beautiful women looked like in 1984 then this movie is for you. The major problem with Blind Date other than the horrible title is pacing. It's slower than a geriatric turtle race. But it's so damn entertaining on a novel level. They approached it with total earnestness and it makes the movie a must see. It takes itself so serious that only true movie fanatics would appreciate.Lots of stuff for video gamers and tech affecianados to drool over plus the succulent pieces of women meat. ?? Loves to objectify these bevy of beauties and I don't mind at alThey sure did love their Walkmans in 1984.Almost like an American wannabe giallo picture that turned out more like gelato. You don't see many like this one that's for sure.Some other fun films to "watch" other actors acting blind. See No Evil Hear No Evil starring the dynamic duo of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, the 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn, Scent of a Woman hoo-wahhhhhhh, the underground 1972 gem Butterflies Are Free and of course the classic that sets the bar of the genre A Patch of Blue and pretend with Sydney Pottier. Bonus half mention is the exploitation cult film, Thriller A Cruel Picture because she only loses one eye.

Just finished watching this after having it for about a year or so and finally getting around to it. Well, I guess I could've waited even longer because it wasn't very good or really worth seeing at any particular time. I've seen worse so I was still able to sit through it and besides, it's loaded with typical nondescript 1980's music by unknown acts (at least here in the States, probably), bad acting, bad photography, bad special effects, bad writing and bad directing, so watching it was a kind of excercise in sadomasochistic patience. If you're a connoisseur of bad films then this one will certainly delight you.