Cheezy Trailers (Action/Exploitation/Science Fiction V. 1 & V.2/Cheezy
Flicks DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C- Extras: C Compilations: B
You can
never have enough collections of movie trailers on DVD and YouTube just does
not cut it or replace it. We see them
here and there, but can never see enough and Cheezy Flicks has issued several
collections. The first four we will look
at are one on Action films, one on Exploitation and two on Science Fiction, all including some
films we have reviewed elsewhere on this site.
The Cheezy Action set is mostly comprised
of a cycle and practical genre of adventure films that have more to do with
British Cinema and their action films that portrayed imperialism that built the
British Empire as a fun adventure and all world’s outside the U.K. as places
of “the other”. This made a big comeback
post-WWII peaking with the 70mm Technirama epic Zulu, included here.
There are
several attempts MGM made to revive Tarzan and continue him as a profitable
franchise by adding color and widescreen cinematography, but none made a dent
in the success of the Johnny Weissmuller series, no matter who they cast. Some lasted a while and Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure even had a soon-to-be-known Sean
Connery in a supporting villain role and you can see him here too.
Among the
other films include Sword Of Sherwood
Forest, a full color, widescreen, scope feature film that was a sequel to
the 1950s British Robin Hood TV series (reviewed elsewhere on this site) that
replaced almost the entire TV cast save lead Richard Green and Man From Deep River (1972), the first
of a series of cannibal cycle films popular at the time for grindhouses. We also get howlers like Morgan The Pirate, Hell On
Devil’s Island, Sandokan The Great,
Journey To The Lost City, Two Sane Nuts, Watusi, Perils Of Nyoka,
Shark Reef and higher profile
releases like Mogambo, the 1950 King Solomon’s Mines, Zulu (as noted)
and a few John Wayne films.
Cheezy Exploitation is more like sexploitation as the
list is a combination of B-movie exploitation made prior to the advent of
X-rated films and exploitation films celebrated by the likes of Quentin
Tarantino like Switchblade Sisters
(which Tarantino reissued himself), Black
Mama/White Mama and Myra
Breckinridge. It shows how the counterculture
influence affected filmmaking all the way to the major studios. Some of the titles are too silly to list
because they are simple as anything, but early drug-oriented films are
included.
The two Science Fiction volumes feature many
films that are not B-movies, but classics like Them! and 2001: A Space
Odyssey. It is also the only volume
here where some of the films are available in High Definition editions on
Blu-ray.
Volume
One:
First Men In The Moon
Fantastic Voyage
Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers
Thunderbirds Are Go!
One Million Years B.C.
War Of The Worlds (1954)
Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (short trailer)
Godzilla (1954)
Fire Maidens From Outer Space
Five Millions Years To Earth (aka Quatermass & The Pit)
The Green Slime (1968, aka Battle Beyond The Stars)
The Giant Behemoth
It Came From Outer Space
The Incredible Melting Man
The Love Factor (aka Zeta One)
Gorgo
Barbarella (widescreen trailer)
Phantom Planet
Konga
The Incredible Melting Man
Attack Of The Puppet People
Phantom From Space
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Unidentified Flying Objects (1956)
Mysterious Island
Volume
Two:
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1950)
The Flesh Eaters (1964)
The Brain Eaters (1958)
The Atomic Man (1955, aka Timeslip)
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Last Days Of Man On Earth (1973, aka The Final Programme)
Day Of The Animals
Invisible Invaders
Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman
The Return Of The Fly
Empire Of The Ants
The Day Mars Invaded Earth
Superargo & The Faceless
Giants (1968, a
sequel)
Barbarella (TV trailer)
Enemy From Space
Rollerball (1975)
Giant Spider Invasion
It! The Terror From Beyond Space
2001: A Space Odyssey
Forbidden Planet
Planet Of The Vampires
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Futureworld (1976)
The Day Of The Triffids (1962)
Silent Running
The Navy vs. The Night Monsters
Women Of The Prehistoric Planet
The Time Machine (1960)
Fantastic Planet
Five Millions Years To Earth (aka Quatermass & The Pit)
Laserblast (teaser)
Message From Space
Phase IV (1976 teaser)
Death Race 2000 (1976)
Battle For The Planet Of
The Apes
Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes
The various
aspect ratios are presented at 1.33 X 1 and include material framed differently
than final releases (you can get a 1.33 X 1 trailer for a 2.35 X 1 scope film)
and some films that were in color have black and white trailers here. Part of the reason is TV did not go color
until the mid-1960s, while such trailers were still made afterwards for black
and white TV stations. Some 2.35 X 1
letterboxed trailers need a 16 X 9 HDTV to unsqueeze the scope image. The PCM 16/48 2.0 Mono is very mixed and you
should be careful of audio switching and playback levels, but that is typical
of such compilations. Some jumpcuts also
exist on some prints.
Extras are
limited on all volumes to trailers for other Cheezy Flicks DVDs and
Intermission Trailers from back in the day.
Cheezy
Flicks has also issued two on Horror we hope to cover next and expect they will
do more down the line. The sooner the
better.
You can
purchase these releases under their respective genres of Action, Science
Fiction and “Mature” for Exploitation at:
http://www.cheezyflicks.com/
Just
click on the CATEGORIES button on the upper left hand corner.
- Nicholas Sheffo