New to Blu: Outland

Tuesday marks the long overdue arrival of Outland to Blu-ray. Released way back in 1981, Outland and was one of the first films to be influenced by the "lived-in" realism of Alien. Director Peter Hyams wanted to make a western, and when studios nixed the idea, he simply moved the location from a frontier mining town to a mining colony on the frontier of Io, one of Jupiter's moons. The only monsters in Outland are of the two-legged variety.

Connery's police marshal stumbles on bad deeds and conspiracy and like High Noon's Will Kane, gets virtually no help from the moon's inhabitants and soon finds himself marked for murder.

Hyams has had a nice journeyman career as a writer-director, delivering some really great pictures during the eighties and nineties - the awesome Capricorn One, 2010, Running Scared, The Presidio, Narrow Margin, Timecop, The Relic and End of Days among his many films.

For years, Outland suffered from a truly dreadful transfer, the DVD looking like a straight copy off of bad VHS. Thankfully Warners has stepped up and made Outland part of a group of several old chestnuts from their catalog deserving of remastering for Hi-Def, including Altered States, Coma, Brainstorm and Mean Streets - some fantastic titles.

If you've never seen Outland, do yourself a favor and give it a spin - it's a great action picture and makes the most of a very believably rendered sci-fi environment, featuring terrific performances from Connery, Frances Sternhagen and Peter Boyle. Just the ticket for a Friday night on the couch!