Search - Fear City on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1984 DVD Release: 11/28/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 35 mins Studio: Anchor Bay Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Crime, Crime Thriller, Police Detective Film

To paraphrase 1930s wit Wilson Mizner, Fear City is like a trip through a sewer in a glass-bottom boat. In exploitation-flick fashion, the film exposes the seedy "nether world" of contemporary Manhattan. Unsavory Matt (Tom Berenger) and Nick (Jack Scalia) run a topless bar/booking agency, in direct competition with equally scuzzy Goldstein (Jan Murray). It's hard to imagine anyone lower than these low-lives until we're apprised of a serial killer who dutifully keeps a record of his murders in a diary. The killer's victims are all exotic dancers and hookers, prompting Matt to suspect that Goldstein is behind the crimes, and vice versa. Once they've decided that it's better to unite against a common enemy than to throw volleys at each other, Matt and Goldstein arrange between themselves to insure the safety of the women in their employ. Meanwhile, Matt's ex-girlfriend Loretta (Melanie Griffith), saddened by the murder of her lesbian lover Leila (Rae Dawn Chong), resumes her drug habit, while a dispirited Matt begins harking back to his own sordid past. The one redeeming aspect of Fear City is the ultimate triumph over the odds by Loretta, who by process of elimination emerges as the most likeable character in the bunch. For a film of this nature, Fear City boasts an unexpectedly strong cast, including the aforementioned actors and Billy Dee Williams, Rosanno Brazzi, Joe Santos and Michael V. Gazzo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Berenger - Matt Rossi
Billy Dee Williams - Al Wheeler
Jack Scalia - Nicky Piacenza
Melanie Griffith - Loretta
Rossano Brazzi - Carmine

Cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara has earned a sizable cult following over the years for his often violent, lurid art movies that use genre conventions as springboards for personal statements of varying worth. This Anchor Bay DVD release of Fear City, however, shows that at least once he made a straight exploitation flick with no artistic merit. Still, the film is well shot, nicely framed, and Anchor Bay used a pristine source print of Fear City with a fresh widescreen anamorphic transfer. The Dolby Mono audio transfer is of an equally high caliber and remains well-balanced when fed through a home stereo system. There aren't any real DVD bonus materials here, but when a movie casts the classy Continental Rossano Brazzi as a sleazy club owner and features Rae Dawn Chong and Melanie Griffith as strippers, what more does a schlock movie lover want? ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide