This two and a half hour collection from Ban 1 Productions featured some interesting trailers. There were a generous fifty some trailers here plus two advertisements for Grolsch Beer and one for Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes.
The trailers covered a little bit of everything, animal attack films (The Pack, Tintorera), biker flicks (Devil Rider, Road of Death) cannibal attrocities (Dr. Butcher M.D., Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals), mondo movies (Macabro; Taboos of the World) and quite a few sexploitation titles (The Tale of the Dean's Wife; The Dirty Mind of Young Sally - which stars the lovely Colleen Brennan). I am less interested in these latter type than I am horror films, so Grindhouse Universe did not grab me as much as some other collections. However, I have to hand it to whoever selected the trailers; there were trailers for some pretty unusual movies here.
My personal favorite trailers included: a short (but effective) trailer for The Town That Dreaded Sundown; a slideshow for Camille 2000; and the exciting action heavy trailer for The Dog (the full movie - sometimes called A Dog Called Vengeance - is considerably less thrilling).
All in all, this was an entertaining enough collection, but it was not in the same league as the 42nd Street Forever collections released through Synapse . Speaking of those releases, the third, fourth, and fifth had interesting commentaries in addition to the trailers. Grindhouse Universe also included a commentary track, but it was worthless. John Hayes (who wrote a book on Ed Wood) and someone from Ban 1 Productions made less than clever jokes as if they were trying to be the Mystery Science Theater team of their frat house. Worse, in the twenty minutes I watched, the team did not offer one bit of useful information about either the films or the trailers they were supposed to be commenting on. I gave up on the commentary after twenty minutes.
To sum up, trailer fans can do worse than Grindhouse Universe. It does not have the replay value of the 42nd Street Forever or some of the Something Weird Video Dusk to Dawn collections, but it entertains. I would suggest skipping the commentary though.
The trailers covered a little bit of everything, animal attack films (The Pack, Tintorera), biker flicks (Devil Rider, Road of Death) cannibal attrocities (Dr. Butcher M.D., Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals), mondo movies (Macabro; Taboos of the World) and quite a few sexploitation titles (The Tale of the Dean's Wife; The Dirty Mind of Young Sally - which stars the lovely Colleen Brennan). I am less interested in these latter type than I am horror films, so Grindhouse Universe did not grab me as much as some other collections. However, I have to hand it to whoever selected the trailers; there were trailers for some pretty unusual movies here.
My personal favorite trailers included: a short (but effective) trailer for The Town That Dreaded Sundown; a slideshow for Camille 2000; and the exciting action heavy trailer for The Dog (the full movie - sometimes called A Dog Called Vengeance - is considerably less thrilling).
All in all, this was an entertaining enough collection, but it was not in the same league as the 42nd Street Forever collections released through Synapse . Speaking of those releases, the third, fourth, and fifth had interesting commentaries in addition to the trailers. Grindhouse Universe also included a commentary track, but it was worthless. John Hayes (who wrote a book on Ed Wood) and someone from Ban 1 Productions made less than clever jokes as if they were trying to be the Mystery Science Theater team of their frat house. Worse, in the twenty minutes I watched, the team did not offer one bit of useful information about either the films or the trailers they were supposed to be commenting on. I gave up on the commentary after twenty minutes.
To sum up, trailer fans can do worse than Grindhouse Universe. It does not have the replay value of the 42nd Street Forever or some of the Something Weird Video Dusk to Dawn collections, but it entertains. I would suggest skipping the commentary though.
