Trancers (1985)

I love this movie so much

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This movie takes place in the distant future in which a cop by the name of "Jack Deth" (Tim Thomerson) has been on a mission to destroy a cult created by a madman named "Whistler" (Michael Stefani). So when Whistler escapes into the past Jack is sent to follow him—back to Los Angeles in the year 1983. Unfortunately, Whistler has managed to acquire a lot of power and once Jack gets there he soon discovers that rather than being the hunter he has become the hunted. So armed with only a .38 revolver, a pretty guide named "Leena" (Helen Hunt) and very little time, Jack has to somehow subdue Whistler before history is changed forever. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this 80's sci-fi film still manages to entertain despite the fact that it's over 30-years old. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this movie and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Wonderfully cheeseball 80s scifi flick, about Jack Deth, an ex-cop, (or bounty hunter, something like that) begins in the 23rd century, with Deth being sent back in time to 1985 LA, to sort of retroactively eliminate trancers: mindless zombies controlled by a guy called Whistler, who uses them to do his evil bidding. Whistler has gone into the past to kill the ancestors of those who try to stop him in the future, and Jack Deth is sent to inhabit the body of one of his own ancestors, to try to stop Whistler. Opening scenes have effects straight out of an old 1950s kiddie movie, but that's part of the fun. We've had killer Santas, now we have a Trancer Santa (I can't even type that without chuckling at how ridiculous it sounds) In the future, L.A. is underwater, Jack Deth is even searching for the underwater remains of Grauman's Chinese Theatre! Helen Hunt, back when she was still really cute, takes Deth to hear a punk band playing Jingle Bells. Tim Thomerson is a blast as Jack Deth, clad in a trenchcoat, cigarette dangling from one side of his mouth, often times illuminated by neon lighting, he looks like a character straight out of a 1940s B-movie. The goofball even strikes a match on his teeth! The (many) sequels, of varying quality, never could match the charm and wonder of this; nor could its maker, Charles Band.

Trancers is a breathtaking film. Made on a minute budget, the sets clearly suffer from costings yet despite this the film is consistently humorous and riveting. Tim Thomerson blasts his way through many bad Trancers dude in his sarcastic and wry style - the scene where he tells a well toned body-builder (Michael McGrady) that his tan suits Christmas well is brilliant as are many of the daft remarks. Featuring a pre-fame Helen Hunt as Leena and a great range of supporting actors we also have to be grateful to the writers, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (later to concentrate on computer games understandably) who tone the film in ways that Charles Band (as director) could never have done alone.

I saw "Trancers" on Joe Bob Briggs's show "Monstervision" one night some years ago. Briggs explained how it was a "Terminator" rip off in which a man goes back in time to stop someone. Obviously, that violates the paradox of time travel (meaning that if you change one thing in history, the future gets completely altered). But the overall point is that this movie is kinda silly - although I was surprised to learn that Helen Hunt was starring in movies all the way back then.I understand that it was the '80s, and thus many movies seemed like clones of each other. Well, the rules still apply. This movie is only good as pure entertainment value.