Heaven for Film Buffs? Trailers from Hell!
Three days a week, the website Trailers From Hell offers up a trailer for an older film along with a new commentary by a moviemaker who loves it. Called "Gurus" because that's totally what they are, the three dozen-ish commentators include site founder Joe Dante (director of Matinee and Gremlins) and contemporaries such as John Landis, along with younger kids like Eli Roth and the e'er-adorable Edgar Wright.
Hell has sent more than 600 trailers so far, and Dante's commentary on The Angry Red Planet is a great place to start. His love for the art of movies as well as trailers -- even when one or both are, shall we say, artless -- is palpable, infectious, and shared by all the Gurus.
Let's look at more of my favorites!
I've probably watched Edgar Wright discussing The Black Hole a few dozen times by now. Good lord, he's cute. I mean, he's just so ... Right. I'm digressing.
Josh Olson has done the most commentaries (by my count), and he often seems downright giddy -- though he can also get righteously cranky. School 'em, Olson! (He has great things to say about The Warriors -- and also about preserving original films in the wake of directors' cuts.)
Betcha didn't know the director of The Blues Brothers and Animal House, John Landis, played Roddy McDowall's human slave in the last of the original Planet of the Apes films:
Next: A nerdy kid gets superpowers in a disfiguring accident -- and seeks vengeance on those who put him down.
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