The Corner Penthouse

Crash and Burn (1990) is a low-budget sci-fi thriller - set in the distant year of 2035 - from Full Moon Pictures starring Paul Ganus, Megan Ward, Bill Moseley, and Eva LaRue. It has always been a favorite of mine, and not just because of the lovely Ms. Ward. I've owned the Koch Vision DVD that came out in 2000, which features a very crummy 4:3 letterbox transfer. For 25 years, I've been hoping for a better copy. Well, with Full Moon's recent release of the film on Blu-ray, that day has finally come.

In addition to the Koch Vision DVD from 2000, which featured a 4:3 letterbox presentation of a 1.66:1 aspect ratio matted film, there have been several other DVD releases over the past two and a half decades. None of them is perfect. Koch has a piss-poor transfer, utilizing an old laserdisc master, with pauses at four film reel change spots, and a 4:3 letterbox presentation. Circa 2010, Shout Factory put out an open matte 4:3 fullscreen presentation (1.33:1 aspect ratio) on a "Giant Robot Action Pack" single disc double-feature with Robot Wars, but removed all of the special features. Full Moon itself reused the Koch transfer in its "Charles Band Collection Volume One" and "Murder Machines" DVD sets around 2013. Finally, there's the Blu-ray that was released in June 2025 by Full Moon, supposedly sourced from the "recently unearthed" original 35mm negative.

My old notes about the 2013 DVD released directly by Full Moon Pictures: The movie is the same 4:3 Letterbox version as on Koch DVD, but the picture quality is FAR WORSE. Details are lost when frames are compared to Koch. It seems like they deinterlaced the movie or something because it plays kinda jerky at spots. When it cuts from one shot to the next, the previous shot lingers for a second like a shadow. I don't know how better to describe it. It has the same black spots, too. Also, it's missing the trailer for the movie, but adds 9 "bonus" trailers for other recent Full Moon movies.

So, with that history out of the way, there are actually a few things that I will be comparing. (1) The trailer included on the Koch DVD and the Full Moon Blu-ray. (2) The reel change blackness spots on the Koch DVD and the Full Moon Blu-ray. (3) The framing on the Koch DVD, Shout Factory DVD, and the Full Moon Blu-ray. (4) Picture quality and framing on the Koch DVD and the Full Moon Blu-ray.



The trailer on the Blu-ray is a FAKE re-creation using shots from the new HD transfer of the movie (evident by the color grading of the title shot) set to the original trailer's audio track. Since the original trailer has shots that are not in the final film, Full Moon used different shots for this fake trailer. I have witnessed this type of trickery before. There's a fake trailer on the Ghostbusters Blu-ray that was released in 2014. It was replaced with the real thing for the 2019 4K & Blu-ray. Below is the real trailer, ripped from the Koch DVD, followed by the fake trailer from the Blu-ray.





One problem with the Koch DVD, besides a very dark and dirty film print, is that at these four spots in the movie, it will suddenly cut to black for two seconds: 19:37, 37:24, 57:21, and 1:14:38. (For the Blu-ray, add 20-seconds to the DVD times due to the addition of the new Full Moon logo at the start.) These are the spots where film reels were changed, as evident by the changeover marks (the large black circles) that appear in the upper right corner of the screen. (These cue marks tells the projectionist that it is time to change the film reel.) I suspect that these are also the spots where the movie was split in the original source; likely a laserdisc master. In an effort to document this, I have put together this short video showing what the DVD looks like at these four spots. It is followed by video from the Blu-ray which shows that it doesn't have the markings or the blackness pauses.





Back on June 15, 2011, I posted some images to the DVD Compare forum showing a few frames from the beginning of the film from the Koch DVD. I asked fellow member Eric_Cotenas/ECC, if he could grab the same frames from the Shout Factory DVD so we could compare the framing of the two. I just grabbed the same frames from the Blu-ray, so now we can compare the framing on all three releases. The Koch DVD is 1.66:1, the Shout Factory DVD is 1.33:1, and the Blu-ray is 1.78:1.

Timecodes are provided for the DVDs. (For the Blu-ray, add 20-seconds to the DVD times due to the addition of the new Full Moon logo at the start.) Koch is first, Shout is second, Blu-ray is third. Click on all images for full-size DVD and Blu-ray enlargements.







Now it's time for the main course... a comparison between the Koch DVD and the Full Moon Blu-ray, which will show the differences in image quality, framing, and color grading. I narrowed it down to 20 images, from beginning to end. Time codes are provided, in case you want to play along. Remember that for the Blu-ray, add 20-seconds to the DVD times due to the addition of the new Full Moon logo at the start. It's going to be obvious that the Blu-ray is the clear winner all around. Some shots may show more picture on the DVD, and the Blu-ray isn't properly color graded (especially day-for-night shots), but the master used for the DVD is so dark and poor that it can't compete.

Please be aware of the following in regards to the DVD: It is heavily interlaced, so when I went through it frame by frame, I noticed that shots dissolved into the next instead of being straight cuts. This made it hard to get exact frames to match the Blu-ray, especially when I was trying to get the very first or last frame of a shot. Also, I cropped out the blackness in the DVD images, which was present on all sides. (All of the Koch images above show the blackness around the edges.) It should be noted that the DVD image did not have straight top and bottom edges - yes, the master used was that bad - so part of the image was cropped out, too. It's just a few pixels; not enough to prevent a comparison between the two images.

In regards to the color grading differences, it generally boils down to every day-for-night shot of the satellite dish, antenna tower, and robot from 0:15:01(DVD)/0:15:19(BLU) to 0:51:00(DVD)/0:51:15(BLU). For that reason, I did not bother to grab images of every single one of these shots. Also, I'm pretty sure the same shots were repeated a few times. The quick and dirt list of color grading differences is below. All times codes noted in this section are DVD first and Blu-ray second. Finally, all images can be enlarged for full size DVD and Blu-ray framegrabs.

0:00:03/0:00:21 - Opening Shot: hazy orange, bright blue sky.
0:00:28/0:00:43 - Opening Credits Text: orange, yellow.
0:13:04/0:13:22 - Clouds: orange, grey/green.
0:15:01/0:15:19 - Day For Night (3 Shots): filtered, unfiltered.
0:21:09/0:21:26 - Day For Night (4 Shots): filtered, unfiltered.
0:24:09/0:24:25 - Interior Night (1 Shot): filtered, unfiltered.
0:25:14/0:25:31 - Day For Night (3 Shots): filtered, unfiltered. (same as second set?)
0:26:13/0:26:26 - Day For Night (3 Shots): filtered, unfiltered.
0:51:00/0:51:15 - Day For Night (2 Shots): filtered, unfiltered.
1:20:40/1:20:54 - End Credits Text: white, yellow.

01. (0:00:03.680 / 0:00:21.284) - The opening shot shows us some color grading differences. It went from a orange hazy sky to a clear blue sky. Given that the movie takes place in a rather desolate world with an impending storm, I kinda feel like the orange haze is the right coloring here.


02. (0:00:28.819 / 0:00:46.146) - The text went from orange to yellow.


03. (0:11:05.596 / 0:11:23.201) - The motorcycle also went from orange-ish to clearly yellow. This shot also shows how poor the DVD image is, as you can't even make out Megan Ward's beautiful face.


04. (0:13:04.755 / 0:13:22.627) - The shot of clouds shows another color grading difference; from hazy orange to rather clear.


05. (0:14:15.133 / 0:14:32.682) - A nice shot to show how clear the Blu-ray is. The text on the maps and charts in the background can't be read at all on the DVD.


06. (0:15:15.055 / 0:15:32.686) - Not only is the DVD quite dark, but it's also slanted!


07. (0:15:29.358 / 0:15:46.957) - The adorable Megan Ward. This shot shows an interesting framing difference on the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray moves the picture area upwards so you can see above Megan's head.


08. (0:15:33.288 / 0:15:50.871) - Same thing here with Eva LaRue.


09. (0:17:56.240 / 0:18:13.842) - Elizabeth Maclellan as Sandra and Katherine Armstrong as Christie. More detail on the Blu-ray, though it loses a little bit of the image at the bottom (the area under Katherine's necklace).


10. (0:24:09.150 / 0:24:25.930) - This is a most interesting shot. It seems to be a day-for-night interior shot, which is something I've never seen before. It's late at night with everyone sleeping in the medical area, right before an alarm goes off, basking the room in flashing red light. The DVD is very dark, a little too dark. The Blu-ray just seems a little too bright to me; as if they're sleeping with the lights on.


11. (0:26:11.545 / 0:26:28.418) - While there were many day-for-night exterior shots earlier, I chose this one because the same shot also exists in the real trailer on the DVD. That gives us a third image to look at. This is supposed to take place at night, but you wouldn't know that on the Blu-ray. However, the DVD is so freaking dark and muddled that you can't make out much of anything in the shot, either. The trailer actually looks the best in terms of coloring.


12. (0:26:17.996 / 0:26:34.712) - This day-for-night shot of the satellite dish crashing through the roof follows the previous shot. Another where we can look to the trailer (third image) for the proper color grading.


13. (0:27:51.032 / 0:28:07.181) - A lot of the interior shots on the DVD are really dark. Here is one example.


14. (0:31:47.523 / 0:32:04.167) - I picked this shot of Megan Ward sleeping not because it gives me another chance to include an image of her, but because of a strange artifact in the DVD image. There are very light, but noticeable, horizontal lines in the image. Scan lines, perhaps? These lines don't exist on the Blu-ray.


15. (0:43:17.202 / 0:43:33.290) - The gang gathered around the kitchen table to do blood tests shows us more darkness on the DVD, and some of the infrequent use of horizontal cropping on the Blu-ray. There a huge chunk missing from the left, as well as the bottom.


16. (0:51:08.819 / 0:51:23.671) - This day-for-night shot of the awakening robot shows how freaking dark the DVD is. Sure, the Blu-ray may make the "night" shot look like it's in broad daylight, but at least you can see what's in the shot.


17. (1:10:35.868 / 1:10:50.408) - Not only is the computer monitor sharper on the Blu-ray, but you can also see the area on the sides. Now you know what that little white dot is on the right side of the DVD. (It's actually light reflected on a metal handle.)


18. (1:17:18.128 / 1:17:31.257) - Scratch (Kristopher Logan) standing outside of Bud's Last Chance. In this case, the Blu-ray near-exactly matches the framing of the DVD.


19. (1:20:01.531 / 1:20:14.797) - The final shot of the movie is kinda like the first. It goes from a dark orange haze to a light orange haze. Also, a big chunk is cropped off on the right side of the Blu-ray (look at the bushes).


20. (1:20:41.787 / 1:20:54.454) - Even the end credits have a color grading difference. The text goes from white to yellow. The DVD text is also slanted slightly due to the print being so bad.



Well, that's about all I have for this. I never planned on doing such a deep dive, but after reading about the unfiltered day-for-night shots, I just had to watch the film side-by-side to see how bad it is. While I wish those shots were graded properly, the Koch DVD is so bad, and the Blu-ray is so much better, that the incorrect color grading doesn't bother me. Honestly, I'm more bothered by the fake trailer on the Blu-ray. Full Moon should have just used the standard definition original trailer from the previous DVDs. I don't think anyone would have complained that the trailer wasn't in high definition. Anyway, the Blu-ray is available to buy right now and is RECOMMENDED.