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Jan 28, 2015 Web Exclusive By Mike Hunchback

Upon its release in 2000, Supernova had a legendary, infamously rocky production history. Behind-the-scenes creators included uncredited directors Walter Hill (as Thomas Lee) and Francis Ford Coppolla, coming aboard at different times to “rescue” what studio heads considered a rapidly sinking ship. Just as they did with their jaw-dropping Maniac Cop 3 making-of, Shout Factory’s Supernova featurette pulls no punches; the included mini-doc further establishes the company’s Scream Factory sub-division releases as valuable slices of genre film history.

Supernova was originally intended as small-budgeted “punky” science fiction movie before MGM started to pour tens of millions into it, soon finding reasons to sabotage its investment. The story would have played wonderfully in such circumstances: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Forster, Wilson Cruz and Robin Tunney are a medical patrol ship’s crew, replete with burgeoning sexual tension. Peter Facinelli is a hot, mysterious fellow who convinces the under-staffed crew to allow him aboard, only to slowly undermine the crew’s existing relationships. But the inflated budget and studio involvement don’t totally squash the original idea’s raw tone; attraction and sexuality are genuine story elements here, and not merely the crass byproduct of suits with statistics.

In the 15-year wake of the Hollywood fluff that passes as SF today, the complaints one could level at Supernova are scant; and land merely in the direction of the obviously trimmed violence (relatively minor here). With all the awfulness promised by the film’s word-of-mouth notoriety and the admissions from the film’s cast and crew, Supernova is actually a pretty damn good movie; pulpy, crazy, amd implausibly fun buttressed by a surprisingly intelligent idea which lends it artistic credence. It’s certainly one of the bigger surprises in Shout Factory’s latest batch of releases, and hopefully its new life on Blu-ray will help the film find the audience it deserves. (www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-horror/supernova)

Author rating: 7.5/10