My parents had this one and Lassiter (also with Selleck) on the RCA CEDs, and though I know I watched both, multiple times I'm sure, I cannot recall anything about either.Finch wrote:
High Road to China BD
Special Features
Interviews: Bess Armstrong (actor); Frederick Muller (associate producer), Vic Pratt on 'High Road to China', Trailers
Toy Robot Video sublabel
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cdnchris
- Site Admin
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Re: Toy Robot Video sublabel
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dwk
- Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:10 pm
Re: Toy Robot Video sublabel
I appear to be wrong, as Trick or Treat is listed on the High Fliers website.
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colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Toy Robot Video sublabel
I had not been aware of this before now, but High Road To China sounds quite interesting! Is it a Tom Selleck-based action-adventure film coming as a response to his not becoming Indiana Jones? And from the description it seems as if it may have had an influence on the great early 90s point-and-click adventure game Heart of China. Just for those reasons, I would be interested in taking a look!cdnchris wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 4:58 pmMy parents had this one and Lassiter (also with Selleck) on the RCA CEDs, and though I know I watched both, multiple times I'm sure, I cannot recall anything about either.Finch wrote:
High Road to China BD
Special Features
Interviews: Bess Armstrong (actor); Frederick Muller (associate producer), Vic Pratt on 'High Road to China', Trailers
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jazzo
- Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 4:02 am
Re: Toy Robot Video sublabel
That's exactly what it was. I haven't seen it since its release, but I wouldn't get my hopes too high, Colin.
I'm sure the film has its fans, but it did absolutely nothing for 1983's twelve year-old jazzo, and I doubt it has aged well in the four decades since. It made theoretical sense to insert Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes director, Brian Hutton, into the picture, but he brings nothing to the film, and High Road To China feels dated; more akin to those late sixties/early seventies second world war adventure pictures than the (at the time) modern energy of Raiders. Everything just spills out in utilitarian fashion before the camera, and the action sequences don't have a shred of Spielberg's innate panache for those kind of set pieces. The dialogue and characters are as flat as this sentence.
Actually, High Road to China shares more DNA with Temple of Doom (which is a film I still like in spite of its many, many, many problems) than Raiders, even though it precedes the Indy prequel by a year. Tom Selleck's character is more like that iteration of the character; a selfish dickcheese with little of his roguish charm found in the first Indiana Jones film. And poor Bess Armstrong has the unfortunate burden of being saddled with a character whose only defining traits are acting spoiled, shrewish or annoyingly hysterical, often at he same time - not (if you ask me) that dissimilar to Kate Capshaw's Willie Scott.
I remember it being a personality vacuum and a disappointing chore to sit through.
I'm sure the film has its fans, but it did absolutely nothing for 1983's twelve year-old jazzo, and I doubt it has aged well in the four decades since. It made theoretical sense to insert Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes director, Brian Hutton, into the picture, but he brings nothing to the film, and High Road To China feels dated; more akin to those late sixties/early seventies second world war adventure pictures than the (at the time) modern energy of Raiders. Everything just spills out in utilitarian fashion before the camera, and the action sequences don't have a shred of Spielberg's innate panache for those kind of set pieces. The dialogue and characters are as flat as this sentence.
Actually, High Road to China shares more DNA with Temple of Doom (which is a film I still like in spite of its many, many, many problems) than Raiders, even though it precedes the Indy prequel by a year. Tom Selleck's character is more like that iteration of the character; a selfish dickcheese with little of his roguish charm found in the first Indiana Jones film. And poor Bess Armstrong has the unfortunate burden of being saddled with a character whose only defining traits are acting spoiled, shrewish or annoyingly hysterical, often at he same time - not (if you ask me) that dissimilar to Kate Capshaw's Willie Scott.
I remember it being a personality vacuum and a disappointing chore to sit through.