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Released by: Video-X-Pix
Released on: 6/10/2009
Director: various
Cast: various
Year: various
Purchase From TLA
The Movie:
Beloved by so many fans of exploitation movies is the trailer compilation. There're quite a number of them on the market covering single genres or mixed ones, but not a whole lot of them cover just porno flicks. One of the latest to come down the pike hails from Video X Pix. This set has trailers for some really good titles covering skin flicks from the 1970s and 1980s with many of the big names in the business of that time period such as Vanessa del Rio, Juliet Anderson, Tracy Adams, Carol Kane, Harry Reems, Marc Stevens, and yes John Holmes, to name but a few.
Featured are trailers for 28 movies, running times varying from under a minute long to four minutes long, listed here in alphabetical order and NOT in the order they play on disc: Babylon Blue/Bel Ami/Blonde Ambition/Blonde Goddess/Blue Jeans/Bon Appetit/Centerfold Fever/Danish Pastries/Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle/Dirty Blonde/Eaten Alive/Erotic World of Angel Cash/Every Inch A Lady/Expose Me Lovely/Fascination/Felicia/Female Athletes/Girls Best Friend/Inside Jennifer Wells/Inside Seka/In The Pink/Joy/Little Oral Annie Takes Manhattan/ Maraschino Cherry/People/Slit Skirts/Tigresses.
There are only a couple of repeats of trailers featured on the other two compilations in this reviewer's collection, and that's a good thing. It's nice to have as many different trailers as possible and who wants the same thing. Right? Right. One of the best trailers on this compilation is for Blonde Goddess. Aside from the meat slappin' moments it looks like a trailer for a really cheesy movie that'd be fun to watch and laugh at with a bunch of friends. The one for Inside Seka is interesting too. Seka is sitting with her husband talking about the movie and how horny she is and he's just kind of sitting there looking like he's thinking “Hey…guess what? I fuck Seka whenever she lets me.â€
The disc starts out with an auto-play intro showing photos of 42nd Street in its hey day (well, prudes might not agree with that) which is a nice little segment (one chick in a photo looks like she's going “Ewwwww!†when walking in front of The Avon Theater). Then the disc goes to one of three menu pages with trailers on it. There is no “play all†function, so you need to start on the first one and let it run. Where that's a minor annoyance it really doesn't affect the viewing experience. However, if you're only interested in watching isolated ones, you'll need to stop the disc once you watch the selection you want. It just keeps playing otherwise and doesn't automatically jump back to the menu. That can be a nuisance and scores the disc some negative points. One other thing…the disc proudly says “Special Collector's Edition†on the box front. What is it that makes the disc a special collector's edition? There's nothing indicating a print run; the contents are basic; there's not a booklet inside; the box isn't an Annie Sprinkle blow job head…it doesn't make sense. It also doesn't ruin the fun in watching the trailers, but it could effect someone's satisfaction with their purchase.
Video/Audio/Extras:
35mm Grindhouse Trailers is presented in 4:3 Full Frame, which as with the “Special Collector's Edition†claim, leads to confusion. Since when does 35mm have a 4:3 aspect ratio? It appears the trailers are taken from VHS tape sources and where the 4:3 makes that apparent so does the video quality. The look of the trailers range of just ok to pretty awful, but they're all certainly watchable regardless. There are lots of imperfections to be found: print damage; some trailers look darker than others; some clearer than others; bad colors; blurry images; tracking issues. Many of the people who watch these sort of things can handle the lower quality (and in some cases welcome it as it may seem more like watching it in those nasty old theaters), but to call it “35mm Grindhouse Trailers†and then show them as though they were on a VHS tape is like offering someone a Coca-Cola and giving them Sam's Choice Cola instead. Seems a bit misleading.
For the audio, the disc uses 2.0 Dolby Digital and it sounds so-so. Some trailers are louder than others, some muddled. There didn't appear to be any major issues with it, other than the quality is on par with the video. Serviceable but nothing special.
Extras: None. Another disappointment and another reason to scratch your head over the “Special Collector's Edition†label. Even a chance to watch the intro would have been something.
The Final Word:
Trailer compilations are always fun to watch, and this one is no exception. The movies featured are among some great ones and this is a good disc to throw on at a bachelor party or a party with some movie geek friends. The real downer though is the video quality. That and the lack of anything to lead the collector to believe this to be the special edition the cover claims it to be. You shouldn't be disappointed with the selection of trailers, but be prepared to not be knocked out of your underwear by the overall release.
