I can't remember the last time that I watched all of the content on a disk. I don't just mean the featured show but all of the extras as well. I watched everything on Alamo Drafthouse's movie preview collection Trailer War.
First, there were the trailers themselves. As I expected, having watched the fifth volume of 42nd Street Forever, the employees of The Alamo Drafthouse have turned in some wild trailers. Some trailers were familiar to me. I have enjoyed the trailers for Amin The Rise and Fall, Deranged, and Starcrash in the past and enjoyed watching them again here.
Other trailers were new to me but for films that I have previously seen. These included the trailers for Inframan, The Dungeonmaster, The Northville Cemetery Massacre, Who Saw Her Die? (with that great Ennio Morricone children's choir), and the great trailer for Thunder Cops, which ended the disk with a bang! All of these were good trailers for films that I have enjoyed. I was happy to see the films represented.
Finally, this wouldn't be an Alamo Drafthouse collection without the trailers for obscure films. Some of these included: Animal Protector (which looked like it could be the most inept action movie ever made), Argo the Fantastic Superman, Eunuch of the Western Palace, and Voyage of the Rock Aliens. All of these were new to me!
Trailer War offered two hours of great movie previews. So what about the rest of the disk? The blu-ray featured a good interview with director Joe Dante who reminisced on his days of making trailers for Roger Corman at New World Pictures. There was a brief, but interesting, talk with Alamo Drafthouse employee Lars Nielsen about the American Genres Film Archives. The disk also featured trailers for other Alamo Drafthouse releases. Here was where I had one of my criticisms with disk. After setting through a disk with two hours of great movie trailers, it was disappointing to see such boring trailers for other Drafthouse releases (Miami Connection excepted). I would guess that the Alamo Drafthouse was stuck with whatever the film companies sent them, but still they were disappointing, particularly since I have seen a far, far better trailer for one of the releases, Wake in Fright under its alternative title The Outback ("What happened to him? The Outback!").
Finally, the main extra of the disk was a commentary track by Alamo Drafthouse programmers Lars Nielsen and Zack Carlson. These two were also on the commentary tack for 42nd Street Forever Volume Five. Nielsen and Carlson were entertaining to listen to and provided some useful information. However, their track was slightly disappointing for two reasons. Nielsen and Carlson have not seen all of the films for which they have trailers (this is understandable since some of the films are quite obscure). Harder to overlook was the lack of preparation. Doing a little background research on the films would have cleared up a few points. The most glaring example was when Nielsen and Carlson debated whether or not George Lazenby appeared in the trailer for Who Saw Her Die? (yes, guys, he was the leading actor!). In spite of this, the commentary track was well worth listening to, with the comments for Lola's Mistake and The Northville Cemetery Massacre being particularly of interest.
I am a fan of trailer collections, and Trailer War ranks high up. I still prefer the 42nd Street Forever collections, but Trailer War would be just under them.
