TRAILER WARS

Last night was a dream come true! Two hours of grindhouse trailers in 35mm at Nitehawk Cinema (at midnight), where they serves food and drinks (yes, alcohol). The first trailer was WORLD WAR OF KUNG FU, a 70's chop socky opus that features nudity by samurai sword, bad mustaches, kid fu, a supple Chinese woman kicking the ass of a grunting sumo wrestler (literally!), etc. It was revelatory how majestic even arm swinging old school kung fu fighting looks on the big screen. Brought me back!

WARNING! THIS VIDEO IS UNAPOLOGETICALLY SLEAZY! (How many times will we see that word in this post?)

So, RUN, don't walk, to see Drafthouse Film's labor of love in its limited theatrical release. And you can buy the blu-ray / DVD, which has some trailers that are not in the 35mm showcase, for example, WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7 (in the triple threat trailer above), a gloriously sleazy Italian women in prison movie, starring giallo queen Anita Strindberg. The blu-ray also has an appropriately sordid and gonzo Mexican Easter egg, and some cool special features, including a commentary where one of the guys from Alamo Drafthouse, in segueing from the ARGOMAN trailer to the INFRA MAN trailer, say, "Speaking of wild superhero shit..." He later follows,"...and I remember thinking Princess Dragon Mom was a very pretty girl...that I wanted to kiss."

  And of course there's a good segment with Joe "Trailers from Hell" Dante, where he talks about cutting trailers for New World and so forth.        Now, this one, I hope they turn into a series. I don't htink I'll ever tires of watching these sorta vintage coming attractions (I said the word 'trailers' way too many times already), while drinking and howling at the screen. I would say the best movies usually play out like a constant promo reel for itself anyway, meaning no filler, just those KAHRAAAZZZYYY bits they show to get the asses in the seats!