This Month in Improbable Films
It’s official: you weirdo’s like watching straight to VHS movies on the big screen. So VHS Night is here to stay. On the first Friday of (almost) every month, we’ll run another lost treasure from the straight to video boom of the 80’s and 90’s.
V.H.S. Night isn’t just about watching the finest in straight to video releases. It’s a celebration of underdog filmmaking. These are movies made by people who wanted to make big genre films, and had absolutely none of the resources to do it.
It’s filmmaking without a safety net, where malfunctioning props were the norm and bad takes had to stay. The end results vary wildly in quality (often within the same movie), but as long as the final cut was fun the filmmakers didn’t worry about ‘why’.
And yeah, we’ll keep playing these movies on VHS. First of all, it looks kind of cool on the big screen. Second, many of these movies were never released in any other format. For example…
TRAXX on VHS
There’s no better film to officially kick things off than TRAXX, a very strange black comedy/action/satire/thing. TRAXX was meant to satirize the gun-toting vigilante heroes of it’s contemporaries, but studio heads weren’t sold on it’s bizarre combination of breezy humor and wholesale murder.
Instead of releasing in theaters as intended, TRAXX was shuffled straight to VHS, where it has remained ever since. Which is a shame. Despite its bizarre sense of humor, TRAXX is probably the most traditionally “good” movie we’ll ever play on V.H.S. night.
TRAXX plays April 1. Random VHS trailers start at 9:30, movie at 10:00.
The Lost City
The Lost City is a throwback. It’s a star powered adventure-romance, with likeable leads, a remarkable number of locations that aren’t computer generated, and a runtime under 2 hours. It was surprisingly well received at SXSW this year, and it looks like the kind of stupid fun we all need right now.
On top of that, it’s not a sequel, spinoff, reboot or connected universe. Basically, it’s exactly the kind of movie we keep saying we wish Hollywood would make more often.
The Lost City runs March 25 - April 7.
Patch Notes?
Ok, yeah. Patch notes may be dead. Providing you all with a quick list of all the little things that go into the theater is a neat idea, but it requires me to keep track of all those little things, and that takes time.
Anyways, here are the lyrics to the TRAXX theme song:
He always goes where trouble is.
If he's around he'll make it his.
You'd be smart to let him by,
Or he may cut you down to size.
He'll find you if you're on the run.
He fight beyond some one-on-one.
Don't ask him why he stays around,
Cuz nothing knock him, knock him down.
Just relax. Here comes Traxx.
Get the facts, or deal with Traxx.
If you've fallen between the cracks, send for Traxx.
And if you've got a problem with some maniacs,
Send them to Traxx.
