TRANCERS (1985: Dir. Charles Band)
I am not a Christmas movie fan, so my choice viewing for the season is an irreverent one. It features no heartwarming scenes by a fireplace and certainly no moral lessons about giving and receiving. Instead, it features a wise-ass cop from the future, his intelligent and resourceful female companion, and a scene where a marauding mall Santa turns green and foams at the mouth. The mid Eighties were a tough period for independent genre filmmakers. The drive-in theatre circuits that had been the life's blood of the industry were failing and video was fast becoming the favourite medium for horror and science fiction fans. Enterprising producer-director Charles Band saw this new frontier and formed Empire Pictures, a video and theatrical distribution company where he could make his own films and sell them directly to the audience without Hollywood interference. Following The Dungeonmaster (1984), the second film from this maverick new outfit was Trancers, a smart and funny Blade Runner riff, starring actor/stand-up comedian Tim Thomerson. Thomerson, a journeyman performer with numerous character credits, had never starred in a feature film before, but you wouldn't know it based on his work here. From the very first scene as his laconic world-weary narration describes an embattled dystopian Los Angeles, Thomerson inhabits the sarcastic and sardonic role of Jack Deth with a confident style that instantly turned the character into a cult hero on a par with Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard. The film kicks into higher gear when we are introduced to a comely young Helen Hunt, also starring in her first adult role. Starting out initially as Jack's unwilling partner when her job as Santa's helper at the local shopping mall turns deadly, she wisely starts to question the reality of her predicament. Demonstrating an immediate and relaxed chemistry, these two actors enthusiastically negotiate their way through the various time-travelling plot contrivances dreamed up by debuting screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (The Rocketeer), whose cheerfully derivative script allows director Band to deliver a crowd pleasing special effects film on a ridiculously low-budget. There would be five (and a half!?) sequels all released direct to home video with diminishing returns, but none of these cash-ins could ever cheapen the memory of the original Jack Deth adventure. DVD & BLU-RAY
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