First off i love most stuff from the legendary B movie producer/director CHARLES BAND.
I grew up watching his, then Empire Pictures productions/ films like Troll, Dolls, Ghoulies 1,2 & 3, Robot Jox, Arena & then later onto his Full Moon Features like, Prehysteria, Demonic Toys & Puppet Master 1&2.
I always loved the fun fantasy worlds Band created & the wacky characters that existed in those worlds. Band created lots of fun & inventiveness on tiny budgets & created some loved Nostalgic B movies that thrived in the better video store days.
I finally watched TRANCERS!!! Well i double billed the first two TRANCERS films. I'm only interested in the first two because the others look so too silly & too cheap.
Trancers (1984) was a good low-budget sci-fi fun.
A nice mix of Terminator & Blade Runner with a dash of old fashioned Detective noir.
I loved B movie royalty TIM THOMERSON (Dollman, Nemesis, Dollman vs Demonic Toys) as the tough no-nonsense old school cop from the neon-lit Los Angeles of future of 2247. Thomerson plays Jack Deth, a trooper/cop/bounty hunter from Angel City (the future Los Angeles) who specialises in tracking down & eliminating Trancers. The Trancers are humans overtaken by an evil force that turns them into zombie-like killers. Trancers are created by an evil cultist warlord criminal known as Whistler. Whistler uses his psychic powers to control the weak minded of people as his violent soldiers. Trooper Jack Deth has a history with his arch Nemesis who killed his wife some time ago & now Jack is gonna track down Whistler by going bk in time to 1980's Los Angeles. I loved the sci-fi fantasy story & Tim Thomerson is awesome as the old fashioned hard boiled Detective that feels like he's straight out of an old black & white noir B movie.
Tim Thomerson owns the role & is a B movie legend in his own right & is awesome on screen.
The time travel is done smart & fun with future cops being able to transport their consciousness into an old ancestor of the time period they want, the 80's.
There's some fun gags with the ancestor stuff.
The spunky fun Helen Hunt (Twister) is great fun as Jack's girlfriend named Helena, she's a cool, punky girl who likes the adventure of the situation & Hunt is great in her role & works wonderfully with Thomerson.
The two race around 1980's LA trying to stop assassinations & to stop Whistler's evil plans. The Beginning of the movie used the best practical FX of the whole movie with its neon-lit nighttime futuristic opening sequence in a diner, great scene & introduction to the world & its characters.
There's a dark, punk tech-noir mood to the film & it's low-budget helps it feel trashy & rough around the edges in a good fun way.
The Trancers are ok for what they are, humans that turn quickly into Demonic faced killers in a few seconds & die just like any human would.
This first film could also be classed as a "Xmas movie" as its set over Christmas time in Los Angeles. We get some fun Xmas action scenes but it always feels weird & outta place when Xmas is portrayed in sunny LA.
Anyway Trancers is good fun, not Brilliant but damn good.
Trancers probably did need more action & stuff but for its very low-budget Charles Band did what he could with what he had & it's a definitely fun.
I liked the performances of Tim Thomerson & Helen Hunt as they keep movie fun & there's some good action & a good pure 80's synthesiser score.
The film looks decent enough for its time, like 40 years ago, & i really liked the Trancers universe that's created & directed by Charles Band. Trancers maybe the best film directed by Band.
Trancers 2 is good fun as well.
I love cult films & B movies & this is a damn good one.
I grew up watching his, then Empire Pictures productions/ films like Troll, Dolls, Ghoulies 1,2 & 3, Robot Jox, Arena & then later onto his Full Moon Features like, Prehysteria, Demonic Toys & Puppet Master 1&2.
I always loved the fun fantasy worlds Band created & the wacky characters that existed in those worlds. Band created lots of fun & inventiveness on tiny budgets & created some loved Nostalgic B movies that thrived in the better video store days.
I finally watched TRANCERS!!! Well i double billed the first two TRANCERS films. I'm only interested in the first two because the others look so too silly & too cheap.
Trancers (1984) was a good low-budget sci-fi fun.
A nice mix of Terminator & Blade Runner with a dash of old fashioned Detective noir.
I loved B movie royalty TIM THOMERSON (Dollman, Nemesis, Dollman vs Demonic Toys) as the tough no-nonsense old school cop from the neon-lit Los Angeles of future of 2247. Thomerson plays Jack Deth, a trooper/cop/bounty hunter from Angel City (the future Los Angeles) who specialises in tracking down & eliminating Trancers. The Trancers are humans overtaken by an evil force that turns them into zombie-like killers. Trancers are created by an evil cultist warlord criminal known as Whistler. Whistler uses his psychic powers to control the weak minded of people as his violent soldiers. Trooper Jack Deth has a history with his arch Nemesis who killed his wife some time ago & now Jack is gonna track down Whistler by going bk in time to 1980's Los Angeles. I loved the sci-fi fantasy story & Tim Thomerson is awesome as the old fashioned hard boiled Detective that feels like he's straight out of an old black & white noir B movie.
Tim Thomerson owns the role & is a B movie legend in his own right & is awesome on screen.
The time travel is done smart & fun with future cops being able to transport their consciousness into an old ancestor of the time period they want, the 80's.
There's some fun gags with the ancestor stuff.
The spunky fun Helen Hunt (Twister) is great fun as Jack's girlfriend named Helena, she's a cool, punky girl who likes the adventure of the situation & Hunt is great in her role & works wonderfully with Thomerson.
The two race around 1980's LA trying to stop assassinations & to stop Whistler's evil plans. The Beginning of the movie used the best practical FX of the whole movie with its neon-lit nighttime futuristic opening sequence in a diner, great scene & introduction to the world & its characters.
There's a dark, punk tech-noir mood to the film & it's low-budget helps it feel trashy & rough around the edges in a good fun way.
The Trancers are ok for what they are, humans that turn quickly into Demonic faced killers in a few seconds & die just like any human would.
This first film could also be classed as a "Xmas movie" as its set over Christmas time in Los Angeles. We get some fun Xmas action scenes but it always feels weird & outta place when Xmas is portrayed in sunny LA.
Anyway Trancers is good fun, not Brilliant but damn good.
Trancers probably did need more action & stuff but for its very low-budget Charles Band did what he could with what he had & it's a definitely fun.
I liked the performances of Tim Thomerson & Helen Hunt as they keep movie fun & there's some good action & a good pure 80's synthesiser score.
The film looks decent enough for its time, like 40 years ago, & i really liked the Trancers universe that's created & directed by Charles Band. Trancers maybe the best film directed by Band.
Trancers 2 is good fun as well.
I love cult films & B movies & this is a damn good one.