Past Tense - The Invasion Starts On Your VCR Part I


Another brand new entry! And a somewhat rare, but still available title. This outing we get alien invasion wrapped in hyper 1980s pop culture in "Remote Control"...



Why not the poster, above? The cover art and poster are the same; instead of having a lot of repeats - here's the original VHS covers instead.

The motion picture opened on April 7th, 1988. It was made with a budget of $3,000.000 (estimated). It fizzed out and didn't even hit the top forty on the box office when it opened. So I have no more stats.

The feature opened against "Biloxi Blues", "Good Morning Vietnam", "3 Men And A Baby", "Beetle Juice" and "Moonstruck".

No slipcover was issued for either versions; DVD or Blu-Ray. The cover (on the wraparound) was autographed by director Jeff Lieberman - "[your first name]! Control Yourself! Best - Jeff Lieberman".

Had to break this into two since - I wrote too much. It's what I do.

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Yes, I had a different PT in mind, but this arrived and I'm super excited, how lucky I am. Anyhow, say thank you, this title required a lot of research - was hair pullers



"Remote Control: 25th Anniversary Edition" has been remastered in 2K. Both formats (region 0) are exclusives from the filmmaker's own website "JeffLiebermanDirector" (you know how to do it). Still active as I post this. Both were streeted on March 22nd, 2013... on the surface. I'll get into that in a moment.

Tax free and free shipping - domestically. The DVD is $19.95. The BD is $25.95. Same extras on both. There is international shipping available.

When this first came out - were limited editions, only 1,000 copies made (each format) which were MODs, Manufacture On Demand discs; DVD-R and BD-R releases. Over the years those burned discs have been fetching insane prices.

Amazon is selling the BD-R in their marketplace for $79.99 plus shipping. That's a steal. On eBay that was going for - wait for it... $499.99 (free shipping). WTF? Also on eBay the DVD was going for $199.99, free shipping too. Can you see why I'm happy?

I had learned about this sometime in 2014 on the former cinema information site, IMDb - their film message board. Was not happy about it be a DVD-R. So I didn't bother buying. Flash forward to late April (2021) and it popped to head. I want this now, is it still available?

You read my search results. That was way over my wallet. But wanted at least, some closure and kept looking. A bit later I ended up on the director's website. On his store page I saw it; this had been years old. Can it be still valid? Took a chance.

Yes it is - ordered (PayPal) on May 3rd, '21, shipped from New York - arrived on the 14th.

Opened the package and my jaw dropped. Sometimes it pays to wait. The back cover has no number written on it; "# [blank] of 1000". This isn't a DVD-R, it's a pressed disc! There must have been a second pressing for it, so Lieberman opted to get them made, not burned.

What I can surmise, this run is less than a thousand copies. I would imagine - because it is a real DVD; it has got to be among the rarest titles in my collection. So glad I have it, damn fortunate that I waited. Real deal. Sway! The site reads, "All Sales Are Final!" I'm happy.

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Rant.

The DVD came in a cheap case, but the disc is mint. No problem, I can move to a better case. That's when I discovered that it's double sided. Okay, no worries - I can move it into a transparent case, which is where it is now. The inside of the wraparound is the various credits, the folks who made the remastering happen (from vault elements); a lot of people. Good for them.

Okay, I had to mod the wraparound. It was too wide to fit the case. So I used a flat edge sheet of plastic, I was saving for some unknown use. The sides are all 90 degrees. And got out my exacto knife; probably got it some time in the 1990s, still razor sharp. I put the sheet over the wraparound with a tiny sliver exposed, took my time to make it right. Then sliced off, so that the spine text is centered.

Turned out great, fits right in.



The movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen in 2.0 stereo. The disc comes with commentary by the director and a slide show gallery of thirty-two images. I wanna talk about this - new to me. I've never ran into this before - the static menu screen.

When the disc starts for the first time it's a motion menu; above left. Then when you pick something - go back to main menu... you get a static image with options. How do you get back to motion? Took me awhile to figure it out. You need to hit "title" to get back to the 'summit' menu. That is bizarre.

So - who are they, the image above? That's the hero couple - the movie within the movie. Listed on the credits as "Heroine" - Lisa Aliff and "Young Hero" - Ty Kelley.

Incidentally, Aliff did a lot of episodic television in the 1980s and early '90s, she even did an episode of "Freddy's Nightmares" in 1989 ("Photo Finish" aired October 29th, '89; one of the episodes where Freddy appeared in; Aliff had a bit role as a tormented model). The two season, syndicated TV series spin-off from "Nightmare On Elm Street" movie franchise.

And yes, Robert Englund did reprise is iconic role of Freddy Krueger. Nope. Not on DVD or any home video, like it never existed. The show was a horror anthology with Freddy as the host, though he did appear in a couple of episodes, like mini-sequels; like Vegas, the house always wins. By the way, a cardboard cutout of Freddy appears in the movie at the second video store.

Sadly there is no trailer included on the anniversary release, should've been there. The film is rated R and is eighty-eight minutes long.



The back of the wraparound, the cover art wasn't modded for DVD. It reads - "Remote Control in fully remastered Blu-Ray!". Okay. The "25th Anniversary Edition" notice is only on the front cover, not the rear or spine. Or even in the printed artwork on the disc.

I know most of you have no clue what this is.

It wasn't even a sleeper hit; it came and went at the theaters as fast. I still remember a TV commercial for it. So I ended up seeing it on home video - where most discovered the VHS... at their local video rental shop. A film made for that time period - for that very business. It was quite meta.

By the way, Amazon is selling that old VHS for $44.98, used. This came out on VHS in 1989 from IVE, International Video Entertainment, Inc.

There was a re-release on cassette on April 1st, 1991 by Avid Home Entertainment, but most hate it. The company put it out in EP speed (six hours on one tape), as a shortened VHS. The tape standard was SP, two hours per cassette which had the better resolution and sound quality.

Now I can't say if Avid was regional, say Canada. Because also in 1991 it was re-release by Live Home Video in SP.



Now there are two moments, less than a second - each; what looks like oil or a grease blot on the print. Less than a minute from each other in the same scene. I'm not making a fuss over it.

I'm only pointing them out. It's odd that they were not digitally removed.

What is this about?

Cosmo (Kevin Dillon) works for his friend Georgie (Christopher Wynne) at "Village Video" which is a video rental shop inside a refurbished movie theater - "Warner Grand"; multi-leveled. Which is pretty cool, no - damn cool!

Where I'm at; this happened in the early 1990s, an old theater was turned into a video rental store along with home theater equipment (sound systems too) - back when these were not flat screens, but large projection TVs.