I have a memory of someone renting a VHS copy of The Guyver back in the early ’90s and bringing it over to Enterprise House that was down the block from Sadlacks in Raleigh. At first I wasn’t too excited about this choice for movie night. But then someone pointed out the movie starred J.J. from Good Times and Luke Skywalker. I was all eyes at this point. If there were two people who dominated playground culture in the mid-70s. We all tried to use the one liners that Jimmy Walker’s J.J. spouted to his family. Who didn’t impersonate his “Dyn-o-mite!” The person who replaced him as a role model was Mark Hamill. Everyone wanted to fight with his lightsaber. I didn’t care what they were doing in a movie as long as they were facing off. The Guyver proved strange enough to keep me glued to the TV set in the living room and not wander off into the kitchen. Now over thirty years later, The Guyver is arriving in 4K UHD to give us even more of Mark Hamill, Jimmy Walker and an all-star cast in a mutant tale.
A scientist for the Chronos corporation has stolen a mysterious device from work. He’s chased down by a van full of trouble. The goon squad includes M.C. Striker (Good Times‘ Jimmy Walker), Ramsey (Men In Black II‘s Peter Spellos) and Weber (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’s Spice Williams-Crosby). This unruly gang is led by Lisker (The Hills Have Eyes‘ Michael Berryman). They corner the scientist and in an unexpected moment, the guy turns into a humanoid mutant. Although so does Lisker. The fight doesn’t last long. The scientist’s body fuming and melting as the goons take off with a suitcase. They think contains the stolen item. Arriving too late is CIA Agent Max Reed (Star Wars’ Mark Hamill). He was supposed to get the suitcase as part of his investigation of Chronos. He tracks down the scientist’s daughter Mizky (The Last Emperor‘s Vivian Wu) at a dojo to break the bad news and see if she knows about what was in the suitcase. He takes her to the death scene. Spying on them is her martial arts classmate Sean (Student Bodies‘ Jack Armstrong). He finds the mysterious object the scientist hid, but hasn’t a clue what to do with it. The device knows what to do to him when he gets into a fight with a yellow bandana wearing street toughs. Turns out this is device transforms him into The Guyver, an alien fighting machine. Is he going to be able to fight off the mutant goons from Chronos when they want his futuristic body armor?
The Guyver is a great mix of action and science fiction that is a major step above the kind of film you normally found straight to VHS in the early ’90s. If the movie seems a bit cartoony; it’s because the source material is a Japanese manga. The monster effects are extremely top notch. Even with the resolution upgrade, you just marvel at the grotesque beauty. There’s no obvious zippers and seams. This isn’t like some cheap rubber suits used on Saturday morning TV shows.
Most important to making the film work is the great cast. Mark Hamill sports his John Waters-esque mustache as the CIA agent. Jimmy Walker looks like he escaped from a Yo! MTV Raps special with his fashion choices. Michael Berryman is his usual scary self except this time he turns into a Zoanoid mutant alien to give even more of a frightening performance. Two of the stars of Re-Animator reunite with Jeffrey Combs and David Wells working at Chronos. There’s also a shrieking performance from scream queen Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead). This is like a Love Boat episode except with hideous alien mutants instead of water.
The Guyver in 4K UHD plays even better than when I saw it on VHS at Enterprise House. Improving the experience is getting to see the R rated cut. The VHS had toned down the violence to not upset the kids. The joy of seeing Luke Skywalker and J.J. on the screen together still flows. The Guyver remains Dyn-O-Mite!
The release is limited to 5,000 copies. There is also a Blu-ray and DVD release with the new transfer.
Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. 4K restoration of the original R-rated 35mm camera negative by Unearthed Films. The suits look even more impressive with the extra resolution. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 stereo. This is much better than the tiny speaker in the TV set back at Enterprise house. The movie has English subtitles.
Compact Disc of The Guyver Soundtrack composed by Matthew Morse.
Booklet features an essay by score composer Matthew Morise
Commentary with co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang, moderated by Dom O’Brien, the author of Budget Biomorphs: The Making of The Guyver Films. The co-directors have a fun time rewatching their film after 30 plus years. They joke how Dom knows more about the movie than them. They talk about the movie’s backers wanted more comedy to make the film appear to a younger audience that flocked to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. New Line released a PG cut of the film while the version on the 4K UHD is the original R-rated version.
Commentary with actor/SFX artist Evil Ted Smith and creature shop lab tech/miniatures supervisor Wyatt Weed. They talk about their experience as effect monkeys. Both of them think the opening crawl is unnecessary since all of that gets mentioned within the film. But they love the rest of the film. They tell how Jimmy Walker wanted to play his character in a suit, but the directors wanted him to be more J.J.
The commentary tracks are featured on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray. All the other bonus features are on the Blu-ray disc.
Interview with producer Brian Yuzna (35:39) has him admit he didn’t get into movies until he was in his 30s. He did spec house building, sell Christmas trees and didn’t prepare much for the future. He got a 16mm camera in a trade and decided to make a movie. He learned a quick lesson on how to watch his film. He made more films to various degrees of success. He produced Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dolls that were directed by Stuart Gordon and directed Society. Screaming Mad George brought him The Guyver as a project for him to direct. Him and Steve Wang were special effects guys when they stepped up to direct. The investors wanted Vivian Wu. Yuzna didn’t understand the manga or the film, but was there to get George and Steve’s dream on the screen. He reveals the George and Steve went to Steven Seagal’s dojo. New Line went straight to video when they bought the film.
The Altered States of Screaming Mad George (56:48) catches up with the co-director. He gets into his influence of Dali and Ken Russell’s Altered States in his work. He was supposed to work for Rick Baker and when he arrived in Hollywood the special effects wizard decided to take a yearlong break. However, Rick hooked him up to work on Cocoon. He gets into his other great effects work that led to him making The Guyver as a co-director. He would go on to work on the effects for Alex Winter’s Freaked.
Suit Tests (7:06) include a commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang and a second featuring Evil Ted Smith and Wyatt Weed. They talk about designing the suit for practicality and not merely looks. They didn’t want the suit to rip and tear. The second film had them looking more like The Guyver in the magna.
Outtakes (14:31) with commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang. They discuss the difference between working with physical effects and CGI. “Physics is not an issue,” one announces. We do learn where the eye slots are for the actor in the costume.
Gag Reel (10:55) with commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang. We get a montage of color charts and slates. The camera assistant’s family will be getting this as a holiday gift.
Production Gallery (19:35) has behind the artwork for the creatures, the storyboards, the models from the creature shop, photos of the development of the monster suits, behind the scenes photos,
Promotional Gallery (6:22) has toys, photos, a Christmas card, the press book, Japanese promo material, international movie posters, DVD covers, VHS tapes, and press photos. Quite a bit of the promo material mocks The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was released around this time.
Alternate Title Sequence (6:10) for English, German and Spanish releases under the titles Mutronics.
Trailers from when the film was called Mutronics in English (1:45), Spanish (0:54), German (2:32) and French (2:15). No matter what language, Lienna Quigley’s scream is international.
Unearthed Films present The Guyver: Limited Collector’s Edition. Directed by Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang. Screenplay by Jon Purdy. Starring Jack Armstrong, Mark Hamill, Vivian Wu, David Gale, Michael Berryman, Jimmie Walker, Peter Spellos, Spice Williams-Crosby, Willard E. Pugh, Jeffrey Combs, David Wells & Linnea Quigley. Running Time: Rating: R Rated. Release Date: July 2, 2024.
