TrailerClub: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop (1988) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: From Beyond

From Beyond (1986) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Repossessed

Repossessed (1990) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Sin City

Sin City (2005) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Romeo + Juliet

Romeo + Juliet (1996) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Heart and Souls

Heart and Souls (1993) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Martino's Summer

Martino's Summer (2010) [Original Post]

TrailerClub: Master of the Flying Guillotine

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) [Original Post]

After watching One-Armed Boxer you know I had to get a little Master of the Flying Guillotine action. The killer sequel with some juicy tournament gathering and the ultimate martial gimmick. Dig it.

TrailerClub: Nowhere

Nowhere (1997) [Original Post]

There aren't a lot of Nowhere trailers that come up straight away on YouTube and they're all terrible. [They] don't even scratch at a fraction of the style and force of will that elevates otherwise middling material. The Doom Generation looks more recognizable as a film, but because of that it just seems lacking by comparison. The TV spot is less tragic than the stock Teen Movie home video trailer, but it's still funny to think somebody actually tried to trick regular people into seeing Nowhere.

TrailerClub: One-Armed Boxer

One-Armed Boxer (1972) [Original Post]

Before there was the Master of the Flying Guillotine there was the One-Armed Boxer: Yu Tien Lung -- a skilled two-armed martial artist who is dealt a terrible injustice and forced to hone his remaining fist to be an ultimate weapon of unfeeling destruction. Through dedication and intelligence he will bring the league of vile mercenary combatants to justice. This is my jam and was a terrific watch recently.

TrailerClub: SLC Punk

SLC Punk! (1998) [Original Post]

You ever see the SLC Punk! poster? The one with the lime green and bright orange? I sure have -- but it still took me this long to actually check the movie out. It's one of those ones that comes up from time to time. It always seemed potentially interesting, even if I thought it might have weak fundamentals, and play about as convincing to its subject as Hackers was to being cool. When the subject came up again I thought about having never seen SLC Punk and wondered if I might enjoy SLC Punk. So I watched SLC Punk. And it was good. Generally good. A fun movie unto itself, populated with interesting characters, and an amusing reflection on its subject. Weirdly nostalgic as an artifact of 1998 as much as anything else. Matthew Lillard is a treat: lankily filling the screen with character and awkward charm as he impotently hops and down with mohawk flopping, and generally pontificating a philosophy that inevitably runs its course. I like a bit of chaos within strict borders of rigid rule -- lines that must not be crossed -- but these days we could probably all do with a little bit of punk in our lives.

TrailerClub: Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue (2006) [Original Post]

It feels as if Karl Urban is experiencing his twelfth career breakout with The Boys. Various roles have brought him international recognition (even if people don't always remember he's the same guy as something else), but I'll always think of Out of the Blue -- one of the weightier entries in his filmography. A devastatingly arresting New Zealand production based on a real-life siege. Chilling in its semi-rural suburban normalcy, broken by the actions of one individual. Worth tracking down.

TrailerClub: The Singing Detective

The Singing Detective (2003) [Original Post]

This represents the point in the double helix of fate when Mel Gibson was in good favour, and Robert Downey Jr was one more heroin/cocaine speedball bender away from ruining his life, or somebody else's. The solution: strap him to a bed, cover him head-to-toe in latex make-up effects, and sing the classics. I never watched the 1986 BBC television series this was based on, but throw me an old fashioned gangster and The Chordettes' Mr. Sandman, and I'm pretty much pleased. Revisiting this after a solid decade or two away turned out to be a real nice time. If I didn't buy the DVD when it first came out, it'd be unearthing a hidden gem. If you've participated in the great forgetting, perhaps you'd like to find it for yourself. At this point, the twisting internalized whodunnit of the psoriatic novelist might even pass for something less than cliche. Also noteworthy as an early entry in the attempted theatrical legitimacy of Katie Holmes. Ask your parents, kids.

TrailerClub: Chuck

Chuck (2016) [Original Post]

Biopics in the age of Content have become increasingly tedious exercises in children cosplaying events that were probably on film, but Chuck has the benefit of coming a little ahead of that curve, and with a cast of adults that may or may not be familiar with the subject matter, but at least know better. Still, the prospect of a film based on the guy that inspired Rocky might sound like a tough sell, but Liev Schreiber gives the title character -- Chuck Wepner, boxer who almost went the distance with World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali in 1975 -- warmth and charisma. He's a rogue far less likely to be redeemed than his fictional counterpart, but that's okay. It's a good watch.

TrailerClub: Clockwatchers

Clockwatchers (1997) [Original Post]

I haven't seen this, but after the good turn of Party Girl -- I would like to. This time Parker Posey is a temp agent working in an office. Hijinks ensue. Lisa Kudrow and Toni Collette are along for the ride. That sounds good to me. Maybe it isn't, but who cares? This is the nineties. Anything is possible, and 1997 is really the time to be alive. Nostalgia is a factor, but I really think this might be a good watch. I'm toying with picking it up on DVD. It's $5, but it's 4:3, so I'm not totally sold.

TrailerClub: Party Girl

Party Girl (1995) [Original Post]

I was happy in the nineties. Obnoxiously so. I consumed the world ravenously, but I missed Party Girl. A lot of people did, apparently. It's become a bit of a rediscovered classic. I think it's part of the Criterion Collection now. I'm glad it is. Sure, it's nostalgic to revisit a 1995 that means something to me, but isn't always on screen. I'd like to think there's a little bit more than that in play, though. Parker Posey cracks me up. She's subtly hilarious and in fine form in Party Girl. I still haven't decided how best to compare this to Clueless -- the better remembered "chick flick"from '95. Clueless, but for cool people? Clueless, but for twenty-somethings? Clueless, but in New York? I don't know. It's just the kind of movie that Clueless kinda eclipsed, against better judgment. Music, fashion, a whole scene. Enjoyed the heck out of this. Even with Liev Schrieber playing a very dubious English would-be sex offender.

TrailerClub: Baraka

Baraka (1992) [Original Post]

I used to see Baraka in the video section all the time. It always caught my eye. It came out a year before Mortal Kombat II clumsily appropriated the word, but that kind of thing occurs to a young man. These days I view it differently. With more gratitude and respect. Our world doesn't feel the same as it used to those many years ago. Cinema like Baraka, Samsara, and the Qatsi trilogy capture this world in flux. The majesty and the horror. The exoticism of Baraka's voyeuristic slice of life from elsewhere on the globe gives it an instant appeal. I enjoy sampling other cultures, and it offers that visually and audibly. A good selection for Earth Day, and the kind of movie you can just put on and appreciate to your own degree, with grim foreboding, or wonderous joy.

TrailerClub: The 10th Victim

The 10th Victim (1965) [Original Post]

They used to show weird, cult cinema from around the world on television. It was a good time. I can't really remember if The 10th Victim was one of the movies I saw, or just similar to something, perhaps another Italian offering from the sixties or seventies. It seems ahead of its time. Sixties futurism with a nihilistic edge. Dead men killing for reality television. The Running Man a couple of decades early. There's another movie I'd like to find. I saw it late one or two nights. I think it might've been Italian, but I don't remember anything significant about it. Red walls. An apartment high rise with an elevator inside and large walled walkways outside. Modern, paranoid, mysterious. The 10th Victim doesn't seem to be it, but hey. At least there are jazzmen standing on cubes playing saxophone. That's the kind of thing I like.

TrailerClub: Conan The Destroyer

Conan The Destroyer (1984) [Original Post]

A pulp and mythology binge inevitably brings me to Conan The Barbarian, but through ignorance or forgetfulness, I prefer the 1984 Schwarzenegger sequel. My vague memories of the two films has Arnold more present in the second one, with more robust adventures. It doesn't hurt that this is also the one with Grace Jones and Wilt Chamberlain. Larger than life characters on an epic quest. This is part of my sweatpants phase of viewing, but that's just fine by me. Why wouldn't we want a good time?