Product Details

• Actors: Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Delroy Lindo, Anna Katarina, Vincent D'Onofrio
• Directors: David Webb Peoples
• Writers: David Webb Peoples
• Producers: Brian Rosen, Charles Roven
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 7, 1995
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301930746
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,127 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Play hard, you'll forget the fear. ", October 6, 2003

By 

cookieman108 "cookieman108®" (Inside the jar...) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blood of Heroes (DVD)

I was glad to see this movie finally get released on DVD. My friends and I saw this back when it came out in theaters, and it worked well for what it was, a movie about a post apocalyptic sport where the goal is to put a dog skull on an opposing teams' post starring Rutger Hauer? We were so there. And we weren't disappointed.

Rutger Hauer is Sallow, a once great player in the sport, made a mistake of getting too close to a woman outside his class, and is now reduced to playing matches outside of the system, in the rugged, barren, waste world. His team of 'juggers' consists of five people, including himself. There's Young Gar (Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio), Mbulu (Delroy Lindo), Big Cimber (Anna Katerina), and Dog Boy (Justin Monjo). Each player has his or her own responsibilities, but the main goal is to protect the runner, as that is the player that handles the dog skull, and will ultimately decide the outcome of the game based on his/her ability to place the skull on the opposing team's post. The sport is quite brutal, leading to severe injuries, and, sometimes, even death. No penalties, no rules, anything goes. Sallow and his group travel from town to town, challenging the home team, squeaking out a living. The ultimate goal is to win enough games for the honor to petition the league to compete in the league, opening up a world unknown to many as league players are treated very well. Joan Chen plays Kidda, a wannabe runner who gets into Sallow's clan when Dog Boy is injured. Poor little Dog Boy...anyway, as she learns the ropes, Sallow's team advances, and finally collects enough dog skulls (victories) to petition the league. What happens then? Watch and find out...

I enjoyed this movie, even though it's a familiar story. The game, the players, the weapons, it was all very well thought out and the characters motivations seem simple at first become more complicated. The end game will have you rooting for the underdog, even if you don't care for the movie itself. I would have liked to given this movie another star, but I found the DVD presentation to be somewhat lacking. Where's the clarity? The most noticeable problems are with the darker scenes. The definition was very poor, providing a muddled at best picture. I am surprised Lions Gate couldn't find a better copy to put on DVD. And since I saw this in the theaters, I know it was originally presented in wide screen, but not here. And the sound is pretty poor. At least you can view the subtitles, to see what is being said, but why should you have to? A very disappointing release of a great movie.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Movie, Terrible DVD, February 26, 2004

By 

runner30 "runner30" (LA, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Blood of Heroes (DVD)

I saw this movie in the theater long ago, and could hardly wait for it to come out on DVD. But when it did... Ouch.

Three HUGE problems with the DVD: 1) The color/brightness are terrible, some scenes so dark that they're almost impossible to see -- you have to crank up your TV's brightness to get a clue. 2) The sound is totally muddy -- several lines we had to replay to decipher at all. And 3) why is there no widescreen option?

All of these problems could have been avoided. In theaters, the movie was widescreen, well-lit, and sounded good.

Lions Gate has taken a great post-apocalypse action movie and released a DVD that's best used as a coaster for your drink. I love the movie, but DO NOT BUY THIS DVD.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor version of a great movie, January 7, 2005

By 

whiteshoes "whiteshoes" (Lorton Va.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blood of Heroes (DVD)

As commented on before this is a very poor quality copy of a great movie, it appears as though someone made the dvd off an old worn out VHS copy that was used as a door stop for 10yrs. The picture is very grainy and washed out and the sound is about 1/2 the volume of other movies. As a matter of fact i have a very old VHS copy of this movie i copied from hbo about 15yrs ago and it still looks better than this one. Thanks to Amazon as always for even having the movie available.