Comments on: Trailer Reel #14

By: Hal

Hal — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:58:04 +0000

I agree, STRUTTERS’ trailer rocks. There were some fan trailers up on YouTube a while back. I don’t think it’s possible to make a bad trailer of that film.

DREAMER is as ordinary as they come, and it is a waste to have Jack Warden in any film from that era without giving him some R-rated language, but Azizi Johari looked phenomenal in her pool hall scene. I wish she’d done more films. It airs occasionally on Fox Movie Channel. Wikipedia has it as a straight-to-video, but it did get some theatrical bookings in 1979.

By: R. Emmet Sweeney

R. Emmet Sweeney — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:33:15 +0000

The Nickel Ride was my greatest surprise this year. I saw it at a Robert Mulligan retrospective, and it seriously deserves a higher profile. It’s a bleak paranoid thriller, but it’s filmed at a slow, languorous pace. The contrast between style and content is striking, and builds a sense of menacing unreality. The lead character, an aging mobster underplayed by Jason Miller (fresh off THE EXORCIST), is being pushed off his turf by younger, brutal corporate types. He’s convinced he’s been tagged for assassination, and Mulligan plays the truth close to the vest. Miller’s either losing his grip or he is hyper-lucid. He’s doomed in either case.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:22:17 +0000

Man, this one sure dregs up memories. That line from Avalanche you quoted is classic. And Dreamer? They should have known that Tim Matheson and Susan Blakely in a blue collar success story wouldn’t work – wrong actors. Should have cast Gary Busey and Amanda Plummer. It still wouldn’t have worked but would have been more fun to watch. Hollywood could remake A Different Story today and it would be considered high concept. I’ve never seen The Nickel Ride but would like to.