American Expendables (2024) Movie Script
1
[music playing]
TOM SEYMOUR: In 2020,
Troma Entertainment
acquired a catalog of films
by North American Pictures.
It made me more interested
in that company.
And I did a deep dive into some
of the films that they created.
NARRATOR: In 1931, the world was
horrified by the motion picture
Frankenstein.
In 1935, horror turned to terror
In 1990, the makers of
Basket Case and Brain Damage
bring you--
Wanna date?
[screams]
NARRATOR: Frankenhooker.
[music playing]
I'm about to
interview Lloyd Kaufman.
Wish me luck.
We talked some
years ago about how
Troma's being able to survive
by buying catalogs of films.
So recently, you acquired
North American Pictures.
LLOYD KAUFMAN: The Glickenhaus
Family became friendly with us
and Jimmy is a great guy and
made some wonderful films.
And you know, this movie is--
this business is full of crooks.
And he was nice
enough to trust us.
And whether we make
any money for him,
I don't know, but Maniac
Cop and Frankenhooker and--
he has a great--
he produced some
wonderful movies.
NARRATOR: There is
something in the streets.
Hey!
NARRATOR: Something in
the shadows, something
in the dark that kills.
You're trying to tell
me two kids did this?
She's got a statement
from an eyewitness who said
she saw the kids attack her.
Officer.
Oh, thank god, it's you.
You think a cop did this?
Why not?
NARRATOR: Reason
cannot stop him.
Bullets cannot kill him.
This is one maniac you'll
have to face alone or die.
The choice is yours.
You can fight him or
remain silent forever.
Starring Bruce Campbell
from Evil Dead, Maniac Cop.
TOM SEYMOUR: Even though North
American Pictures was producing
films well into the 2000s, the
heyday and the bulk of the films
were really from the late
'80s to the mid '90s.
The films in the catalog
I was most interested in
were the low budget
action films.
So I picked four films to talk
one through three.
But before we start
in, James Richardson
is going to give us a little
background on how martial arts
films were introduced
into the United States.
I remember my
father first taking
me to see Enter
the Dragon in 1972.
I couldn't have been any more
than six or seven years old.
And I remember
watching Bruce Lee
and being absolutely
amazed by the whole concept
of martial arts, which was kind
of new for American audiences.
It was kind of the first
time that a lot of us
were exposed to this
on a very wide range.
There was this movie
theater near my house
called the Roosevelt Theater.
And there would be all
of the old Kung Fu movies
that would be running there,
Five Fingers of Death,
Five Deadly Venoms,
the list goes on.
But I remember after 1972, Bruce
Lee died shortly during the time
that the movie was being
promoted in the US.
So as soon as we
kind of got hyped
on Bruce and the martial arts,
the major figure was gone.
But that didn't stop
companies or stop filmmakers
from trying to continue
that whole genre.
So you had a whole lot of people
who rushed into the vacuum
to essentially fill that void.
NARRATOR: In a time
just beyond tomorrow,
when the surface world
has become a war zone,
the underworld cities have
become electronic fortresses.
And the only hope is an
ex-cop.
NARRATOR: They
killed his partner
and created the perfect
killing machine.
I give to you the TC 2000 X.
Zoey, it's me.
Zoey, stop it.
NARRATOR: Starring Bolo Yeung,
Jalal Merhi, Billy Blanks,
Matthias Hues, TC 2000.
TOM SEYMOUR: This
film essentially
was advertised as a sort
of futuristic Terminator 2
slash Escape from
New York scenario.
I should talk
about Billy Blanks.
He was born in 1955.
Billy Blanks earned a name
for himself in the 1970s
and '80s when he won a series
of martial arts competitions.
A seven-time world
karate champion,
he was captain of
the US karate team
and won 36 gold medals in
international competition.
And most people
know Billy Blanks
from like the Tae Bo series.
Well, a lot of
people really don't
know Billy Blanks was legit.
So we always looked at Billy
kind of like he's real.
Michael Jai White talked
about the legitimate skills
that Billy Blanks had
as a martial artist.
And Michael Jai White
is no joke either.
The Billy Blanks taught him
some things that he still
integrates into his on screen
presence from time to time.
TOM SEYMOUR: So Billy
Blanks really cut his teeth
doing these movies.
Some of them did show in some
theaters, but a lot of them
were direct-to-video.
There were several
martial artists
that had fame in the time when
their films were out on video.
The film also stars Bolo Yeung.
Bolo Yeung really doesn't
need an introduction.
He's known as the
Chinese Hercules
and was in Enter the Dragon.
So the guy's just a legend.
So the guys at North
American Pictures,
you know that they were making
some pretty cool casting
decisions when they were
putting this movie together.
When you went to
the video store,
you didn't know
exactly when a film
was sort of B grade or A grade.
You didn't always know because
sometimes the cover was just
super hot.
And back then, if you
didn't know all the stars,
you're just starting
to rent movies,
let's say you're a teenager
or you're in your 20s,
but you might say,
oh, Bolo Yeung,
he's from Enter the Dragon,
so you rent this thing.
When we would finish
martial arts classes,
we would go rent movies at the
local video store or wherever.
And these are on like
VHS not even like DVD.
I'm talking about this
was purely the VHS era.
We would go rent
all of these films,
take them back to the
dojo, and watch them.
We consumed as much martial
arts material as we could,
the good movies and the bad.
If we could basically learn
or try some type of technique,
you know.
And we, no matter
what movie it was,
we tried to basically emulate
whatever the hell it was.
I remember, like, we would have
fights after class or fights
before class.
I remember almost damn near
pulling my groin muscle out
of whack because I tried to do
the like the Van Damme split.
TOM SEYMOUR: It's
shot all on location.
They're obviously
using real factories.
You can see there's a sort of
control booth in the beginning.
It looks like some kind of
power facility they're in.
And it looks like they got a few
locations in which they could
sort of build a believable
story in which this
is sort of an underground
bunker type scenario.
They're using lasers and
smoke to sort of create
what looks like forest fields.
They're using motorcycles.
They're using real stunt people.
There was a pretty
awesome fire stunt.
There is a lot of fighting.
North American Pictures,
there was so much action.
They didn't waste
time on the story.
The story was there.
It was very kind of sort of
vague, if you will, just basic,
but they gave you
pound for pound,
so much action from the
opening scene to the end scene.
They would spend a little
bit of time, a few lines
back and forth.
You see the good guy, bad guy,
but they're going to fight
and they're going
to fight a lot.
So it really fills the void
of giving the people exactly
what they want.
And this kind of movie,
they may have not always
been the most five star actor.
What?
Never mind.
We're in a terminal station
that your father built.
How do we stop this thing?
But they gave everything like
it was a $20 million movie.
TOM SEYMOUR: This is what I
think is smart about TC 2000.
They didn't have a ton of
money for special effects.
So as long as they can shoot
most of the stuff in a location
that feels industrial
or post-industrial.
Like it could be sci-fi-ish.
If they just had a lot of fight
scenes between characters,
they could essentially make
a 90-minute film in this way.
And it's smart because
it's a lot of action,
but it's just people.
It's literally a fight between
one or two people, cuts away,
it's a fight between
two other people.
And so what you have is some
pretty entertaining action,
but you're not bleeding money.
It's not giant set pieces.
It's not like an oil tanker
crashing into the beach
or something, you know?
So films like this are smart
and some of the ways they
figure out a way to
make action for cheap.
Billy Blanks is an incredibly
gifted martial artist.
So you can see there
are scenes in TC 2000
where you're like, he's doing
these crazy double kicks.
His form is amazing.
There's some really
cool slow motion shots.
They're using him well.
Bolo Yeung who is just a
brilliant martial artist
and super famous, it feels
like they don't really
give him that much to
do that is spectacular.
He has some fight scenes, but
there's no real showcases.
JAMES RICHARDSON:
Most of the people
who were Bruce Lee
adjacent really
gained a lot of popularity
and a lot of notoriety.
Bolo Yeung, for example,
was one of those people.
Everybody knows Bolo
from Enter the Dragon.
He was Han's enforcer.
As a result, after Bruce died
,
you saw Bolo start popping up in
a lot of low budget martial arts
films.
He never really talked much,
but he was imposing enough
that he didn't really have to.
You just needed enough of a
story to justify the action.
TOM SEYMOUR: But back
when you were watching
these direct to video films, if
you saw a couple wild martial--
kicks, karate kicks,
you'd rewind that.
You'd watch it over again.
I mean, it was pretty awesome.
Like, people were
just easier to please.
I mean, that's the
easiest way to put it.
When you're renting
something, it was precious.
And you kind of knew you had
to commit to it because you
paid the $5 for it.
So you were going to go
home and watch that thing
and you were going to give
it the benefit of the doubt.
And now the viewing
audience is really cynical.
They really just-- they
don't like low budget stuff.
For narrative, they hate that.
But when it really
comes to narrative,
they judge pretty harshly.
If you were in your late
teens and early 20s in the mid
'90s, you might think that
Billy Blanks was the same thing
as like a Jean-Claude Van Damme.
I think that was the illusion of
the sort of direct-to-video era.
That's what they capitalized on.
Can you cut a trailer that
looks sort of like a Hollywood
trailer?
Can you make the box art that
looks sort of like a Hollywood
box art, you know?
I would actually argue that some
of these action films at this
point, the ones that were in
late '80s and early '90s are
sort of a window
into the culture.
And I guess that's always
been the case for films.
But Glickenhaus and
Shapiro, the guys
who ran North American Pictures,
got out of the film industry
at a certain point because
none of the economics
seemed to make sense.
He has a great--
he produced some
wonderful movies.
He's moved on
because he realized
that if he wanted to
make a lot of money,
this wasn't the way to go.
And he went into
other businesses.
TOM SEYMOUR: The films that
Glickenhaus made fit so
perfectly in the Troma catalog.
LLOYD KAUFMAN: Yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: It's as
if Troma made them.
But was that more just about
the era in which they were made,
that level of experimentation?
I don't--
I think Jimmy Glickenhaus
was a serious filmmaker.
And I think he's
also a businessman.
And back then, those
movies like Maniac Cop
and if they were serious kind
of horror or serious violence--
the Exterminator, it's great
film, but it's serious.
It's not a comedy.
His films, I think, Glickenhaus
movies are more commercial than
Troma's.
NARRATOR: In war, you
have to kill to survive.
[explosion]
On the streets of
New York, the choice
is the same for
the exterminator.
The search is on.
The police are chasing a killer
who's not only smarter than they
are, he's doing their job.
That's what it's
like to be a victim.
NARRATOR: The Exterminator.
TOM SEYMOUR: Maybe it's
important to remember
the literally thousands of films
no one talks about anymore.
Another martial artist that
Glickenhaus and Shapiro used
a lot was Cynthia Rothrock.
Cynthia Rothrock was the basis
Sonya Blade.
SPEAKER: Sonya.
[body thumps]
TOM SEYMOUR: And they
based Sonya Blade
upon Cynthia Rothrock.
When she started doing films
for North American Pictures,
she did these Tiger
Claws Film.
And by the time we get to
the second and third film,
they are essentially
Mortal Kombat knockoffs.
It's a knockoff played by
someone who the Mortal Kombat
character was based
upon to begin with.
So is it really a knockoff?
Cynthia Rothrock was a five-time
world champion weapons expert.
And she beat out
everyone at a time where
there was no women's league.
So she beat out all the
men many, many, many, times
and is a famous world champion.
She has done films, China with
Michelle Yeoh and Sammo Hung.
Some of the greatest living
martial artist Cynthia Rothrock
has been in there and held her
own and sometimes excelled.
And so she is a fascinating
human being, underappreciated,
I think.
If you look at the film
TC 2000, one of the things
is Billy Blanks
is the star of it.
Phillips is the co-star.
So you have essentially a film
where it's fairly diverse.
And if we look back in
the direct-to-video era,
I would actually say that
was more common than people
would admit to.
We seem to have a bit of
amnesia in this country.
When we look back--
because you look
back at all the films
and you're only thinking
about like the top 20
films for that year, and you
forget about the thousands
of other films that had--
especially direct-to-video
and independent
which have always had
more diverse casts.
And they've always done more.
They've always
invented everything
that the studio
films then take from.
I think it's more
than just nostalgia.
These are the B-list
of action stars.
The reason why I'm calling
it American expendables
is that for every
Van Damme and Seagal,
there is a Billy Blanks,
a Cynthia Rothrock.
When I did Tiger Claws,
it was back from Hong Kong
so I wasn't really used to
doing that many American films,
but I was so excited
about this one
because this one was going to
be shot in Toronto, Canada.
And any opportunity I
have to get out of L.A,
I'm just really happy.
So when I get there, they
don't have a stunt coordinator.
And I'm like, where's
the stunt coordinator?
Who's going to do the action?
And they go, oh, well,
we thought you just
would do your own action.
I'm going, but I'm not
a stunt coordinator.
So then I said, all right.
Well, I'll coordinate my
action, but everybody else
has to do theirs.
And I never did that before.
So it was my first
time being the actor
and doing my own
action choreography.
So there's a scene you'll
notice where I have a purse
and I swing it around
like a steel whip.
I was trying to
take a little Jackie
Chan from his movies
of using things
that are just laying
around as a weapon,
but it worked pretty good.
NARRATOR: On the streets of
New York's Chinatown stocks
a new and deadly
killer, a serial killer
on the loose with ancient
martial arts skills.
Now two of New
York's toughest cops
must use all their skills,
all their knowledge,
and all their courage
to catch Tiger Claws.
It must be 10,000 martial
artists in New York alone.
He's not a lunatic.
And he's not out of control.
And that's what makes
him so dangerous.
Don't ever underestimate him.
He did that with a sword?
No, his hand.
It's Tiger Claws.
I've been accepted
to train with them.
Defend yourself.
He came at me with the same
pattern, but I need more time.
There's no more time.
[grunts]
Me and you, we are the same.
We're not the same.
NARRATOR: Jalal Merhi,
Cynthia Rothrock.
Hey, everyone,
I'm Tom Seymour.
I'm here with Mr. Tim Kulig.
You look at some of the--
I mean, it's 30
years old now, right?
I mean, released
1991, which is crazy.
I mean, it makes me
feel incredibly old,
but I look at Cynthia Rothrock,
very woman empowerment.
I mean, that's
really in the kind
of in the zeitgeist
of movie-making
and even Disney films
nowadays, right?
The last several years,
that's been a big thing.
TOM SEYMOUR: I was actually
thinking about this concept.
One of the things
is when they're
looking at diversity
in film and TV,
the average person is not
looking back that far,
and they're not looking into
anything but the mainstream.
In the essentially, the
direct-to-video genre,
the B-movie genre,
there's a shitload.
I mean, first of all, Cynthia
Rothrock starring, Jalal Merhi's
Brazilian.
You have Bolo Yeung
who's Chinese.
So we just watched TC 2000.
That's Billy Blanks.
Direct-to-video and
independent and B movies
had a shitload more diversity.
Someone like Bolo
Yeung, you might
be able to cast even though
he was in like Double
Impact and Bloodsport.
TIM KULIG: A lot of the
shots, they were atypical,
but they weren't--
I didn't feel like
there was anything
going on that was over the
top like say Samurai Cop.
You know what I mean?
Obviously, gratuitous
fighting scenes,
but I felt they were really
well choreographed and somewhat
believable street fights.
Not these crazy things where
people are on like pulleys
and like jumping up walls
and stuff like that.
I mean, I loved her
over the head kicks.
Those are believable.
And then the Sonya
move that she did.
That was totally cool.
TOM SEYMOUR: She's similar to
Chuck Norris in that he was more
into fighting and less weapons.
He was like a world champion
who then got into movies.
And Cynthia Rothrock
was the same thing.
She was a martial artist
who then got into movies.
TIM KULIG: Right.
TOM SEYMOUR: And so
you can tell when
you're talking about the fight
scenes, she's awesome in them.
And the other guy,
Jalal Merhi, also
gifted martial artists as well.
TIM KULIG: You know, this is
pre-mainstream CGI like we
see now and people just had
to kind of do their thing
and people had to use camera
angles and jump cuts and stuff
to make it believable that or
speed up the film slightly,
right?
I mean, that's a standard too
with a lot of these martial arts
films from the '80s.
What you've seen is
martial arts at its best.
TOM SEYMOUR: You know,
the average person
would know who Jackie Chan
is, but they might not
know who Sammo Hung is
who is his sidekick, who
is heavier guy, but could
do just as crazy stuff.
TIM KULIG: Right.
TOM SEYMOUR: And I think
Cynthia Rothrock's like that.
The other thing too is I believe
that Tarantino, his Kill Bill
series, obviously Uma Thurman
is wearing literally Bruce Lee's
outfit from Game of Death,
but I think it's undeniable
that Uma Thurman is--
partially, her character is
influenced by Cynthia Rothrock.
TIM KULIG: Yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: He's
seen all her films.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's just no way.
[grunts]
You realize that this,
really, production value,
it's not that much different
than like a Seagal movie
or a Van Damme movie
in their prime.
It's not that different from
Double Impact, or something
like that, or Lionheart.
The film was made
far better than I
thought it was going to
be, especially by the end.
Another thing about Tiger
Claws is when we were filming,
Jalal was supposed to have--
Jalal who was the producer,
the actor, the director,
and the money man, and the car
didn't come for him to blow up.
So he said just take
my car and blow it up.
And I was like, but
you have a Porsche.
It's a nice Porsche.
He goes, yeah, I don't care.
It's for the movie.
I want the movie to be good.
So he blew his own
Porsche up in that scene.
I was like, oh, my god.
That's dedication.
I wouldn't do that.
That was my car.
I've been expecting you.
NARRATOR: It is the
right of the people
to provide for the
common defense.
Does this rebel
army have any money?
It's not enough.
NARRATOR: It is the
right of the people
to promote the general welfare.
This is our annual
fundraising drive.
And we would like you to
contribute $10 million.
NARRATOR: It is the right of the
people to rise up, to bear arms,
to wage war.
TOM SEYMOUR: They
had produced films
that had like Christopher Walken
and Dolph Lundgren, but Dolph--
Dolph Lundgren coming off of
some of his higher profile
stuff.
NARRATOR: In Rocky IV, he
fought for his country.
What the hell is this?
NARRATOR: Now Dolph Lundgren
is taking off his gloves
and taking on n entire army,
The impetus behind the
rebellion is this man.
He is your targeted objective.
NARRATOR: His one mistake
meant a death sentence.
I leave you as an
insult to your people.
How could you fail?
NARRATOR: Their one mistake--
We will have a Band-Aid.
You're breaking my
bleeding heart, Moose.
NARRATOR: --was not
finishing the job.
We will deliver our response.
This is the rebel army.
Pride of the Soviet army.
[explosion]
NARRATOR: First, he
was their weapon.
Now he's their punishment.
They think they control him.
Let's kick some.
NARRATOR: Think again.
Mike, I might need some help.
TOM SEYMOUR: Though, like the--
these guys, Glickenhaus
and Shapiro,
who are running North
American Pictures,
they got out of
the film industry
partially because it did
become too expensive to pay
some of these people.
TIM KULIG: Yeah,
TOM SEYMOUR: So if they're
paying like Christopher Walken
a certain amount of money,
the finances didn't really
add up at a certain point.
TIM KULIG: Well, I mean that's
evidenced in the '90s, I mean,
when we were really getting
focused on and interested
in film.
You start seeing actors
and actresses earning
$7, $10, $15 million a film.
I mean, now you're talking
some people earn in excess
of $20, $30 million a film.
And it's like, how can
you justify that when
there's an entire other
staff and there's a profit
margin that you're hoping for?
I mean, it's tax budget
and everything else.
I mean, $200 million, laying
out a quarter of $1 billion
practically on something.
NARRATOR: Mill Basin is a
nice town with good schools.
Julie, what did Emerson
mean by the red slayer?
Emerson?
NARRATOR: But trouble's
coming to Mill Basin.
And this town will
never be the same.
TOM SEYMOUR: If you knew a
film was going direct-to-video,
you would still shoot it on 16
or 35 to retain that cinematic
quality and to make it a product
that someone would actually buy
because at that time, late '80s,
early '90s, the video is just--
looks purely electronic.
like news, 30 frames a second.
There's no in between.
So you had to shoot on
film to be taken seriously.
But in order to
save costs, they'd
have it typically transferred
onto Beta SP tape,
something like that, which
was like a broadcast standard.
And then they would
edit purely on tape.
And they'd make a tape master.
You'd lose an incredible
amount of data
because it's a
standard definition
electronic format versus
actual motion picture film.
TIM KULIG: Right, right.
And now with the phones that
we have today, I mean, god,
you can-- there's 4k cameras
on the back of those, right?
TOM SEYMOUR: Yeah, they
look-- they would look-- yeah,
I mean, you're still not getting
the quality of lenses and things
like that, but I guess the point
is, though, the only master is
probably like a Beta SP.
TIM KULIG: Wow.
That's incredible.
TOM SEYMOUR: I would say with
some of these Glickenhaus films,
I think because so
many of them screened,
at least some kind
of limited screening,
they probably do have
prints of all of these.
And if they have
prints of all of them,
then we're going
to see, if Troma
could get their
hands on them, we're
going to see much nicer
looking transfers.
He's all excited.
NARRATOR: This time,
he's not alone.
TOM SEYMOUR: Bolo
Yeung, the villain
has this deadly claw technique.
They kind of push it to a--
TIM KULIG: Almost hammy, yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: Hammy like a
mild superpower, you know?
Like, he's--
TIM KULIG: Like the tiger roar.
Like [roars] when
he starts attacking.
It's borderline camp.
TOM SEYMOUR: Yeah.
It's almost supervillain.
On three, I'm not
in it that much.
OK, there's a reason.
In the beginning,
you think I die.
And then, in the
end, I come back.
Well, the reason I wasn't in
it is because I was pregnant.
Actually, 21 years from
today, my daughter was born.
She just turns 21.
Would have terrible
morning sickness.
And I was like getting sick.
And I said, OK, Jalal, I
can't really fight hard.
I can't fight hard.
They told me to
take it easy, right?
And he goes, OK, well,
when that camera came on,
and they said action, I
just started fighting hard.
I could not not fight hard.
[grunts]
There's a scene where they
throw a spear at me or a dart
or something, and
I have a staff,
and I'm supposed to hit it.
Well, they're like,
obviously, you're
not going to get the staff
and hit that spearhead, right?
So just try the best you can
and we'll take a pickup later
and try to get it in close.
So I said, OK.
So first take
comes in, and I hit
that spearhead, and everybody's
eyes were like stunned.
TOM SEYMOUR: Plot
is basically someone
is on a murdering spree
killing martial arts masters.
And these two cops have
to delve into that world.
And when you think about
it, that's pretty badass.
It's a cool idea.
Yeah, you just
realize that if you
were in that time period, you--
like Van Damme wasn't Van
Damme yet probably in '91.
These people may have
not broken out in the way
that you know them now.
If the movie had
a decent box cover
or if we recognized the actor
who was in it and we liked him,
we would rent it.
Simple as that.
DEBBIE ROCHON: North
American Pictures, they
filled a gap that we needed.
There was no way that
Hollywood could keep up
with the demand and
the voracious appetite
that we all had going into
the video store rental places.
I mean, there's just--
they couldn't keep up.
So they were taking everything.
And god-willing, it was
going to be a good movie.
The box art was always good.
NARRATOR: MCA Universal Home
Video is pleased to announce
the release of
the action packed,
science fiction
adventure Timemaster,
an exciting journey through time
and space where a 12-year-old
boy must make a desperate
attempt to save his family from
an uncertain fate.
needed for big, surefire sci-fis
rentals, time travel,
action, outer space, heroes,
and villains, not to mention
highly popular and recognizable
stars like Pat Morita
of Karate Kid fame.
A December release
date of Timemaster
has been strategically
timed to coincide
with peak rental periods.
And it's a perfect
opportunity to have
fresh product in your store
when demand is at its highest.
There'll be an exciting
marketing program
starting with a pre-pack offer.
Just buy three
units of Timemaster
and receive a special desk
clock with a built-in calculator
and a Babe baseball jersey.
Also look for a highly
visible trade print
campaign and an aggressive
mailer campaign.
Street date is set
for December 27,
a science fiction adventure
the entire family will love.
Timemaster from MCA
Universal Home Video.
TOM SEYMOUR: It makes
sense why these--
like, there was just so
many of these action films
because martial
arts was super hot.
There were McDojos
on every corner.
I remember I studied martial
arts at Tracy Kenpo for years,
from high school into college.
TIM KULIG: Yeah, I
dip my toe in there
for a short period of time too.
Then we were filming now in
the winter time in Toronto.
It was freezing.
I'm trying to warm up.
We couldn't warm the muscles up.
I ended up pulling
two hamstrings.
You know how hard that hurts?
It hurts so bad that you
can't even touch your knees.
And I had to kick and
do the rest of the movie
with two pulled hamstrings.
So I was like, all right, you
got to do what you got to do.
TIM KULIG: She's
done over 60 films
so I mean that's no small feat.
And she's still
relatively young.
Honestly, I went in with that
'80s era expectations of, you
know, performance narrative.
And of course, I mean,
there were the Sergeant
sat on his words a few times.
Don't tell me you've got
another lunatic out of control.
TIM KULIG: It's like, that's it.
That's it.
That's the only cut we have.
We got to put it in.
Back then, you
didn't really care.
And especially
because of what I said
earlier, which is the
narrative was less important
than the action.
It was filling in.
And you're like, OK, whatever.
They're going to have this
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
OK, well, who are you
going to hit next?
Many of them were
legit martial artists.
They weren't actors per se.
[sobs]
No!
At that time, they didn't need
to be Bruce Lee or the greatest
on camera martial artists
in order for the movies
to basically be
produced and sold.
We needed enough of a plot
to justify the action.
That's it.
And most of those
movies at the time
usually revolved around revenge,
protecting the neighborhood,
or something along those lines.
But it was all about revenge.
You killed my teacher.
You killed my girlfriend.
You blew up my school.
You're hurting people.
Now I'm coming after you.
TIM KULIG: I guess I give
these movies from this era
little bit of a reprieve.
And I'm probably more--
I probably beat up modern
films a heck of a lot
more because there's
an expectation.
Like, look, I can go out and
get a 4k camera today and spend
what?
A couple $1,000 with
some lenses, the decent--
the base camera and
everything else,
and make a feature
film of high quality.
You know what I mean?
And back then, I mean, you
had to come up with many times
that just to get the
equipment on set.
TOM SEYMOUR: Oh, yeah.
I mean, you're burning--
that's the thing is
you're burnt, especially
in those action
scenes, shooting 35,
you're burning
money, burning money.
Now that I think about
it, I get why it was
so expensive to some degree.
But yeah, I think that
you can't put expectations
on to a 30-year-old film.
It doesn't make any sense.
Trying to analyze those
films from today's perspective
is not fair.
It really isn't.
A lot of the stuff that
they did was more practical.
You had stunt people who
actually did their stunts.
But in the US, you didn't
have a whole lot of wire work.
The films, to a
certain extent, are
far more realistic than, in some
ways, than what we have today.
We didn't have the CGI.
We don't shoot on film so it
becomes a lot easier for us
to have multiple
takes because we don't
have to develop our stuff.
Digital filming allows
you to essentially film
it and get an immediate
reaction of seeing how it is.
The lights that we
have are not LED lights
and not like the lights
that they had back then.
You would blow bulbs constantly
and had to replace them.
All of those things were
added to the overall expense.
TIM KULIG: If I had titled
discovered this back
in the early '90s, I think
I would have followed
Cynthia's career closer.
I've got the curiosity
of her other work,
and we'll probably just
keep going and checking
out some more of it because
she was clearly very good.
And it was enjoyable.
If you really, really
watch the movies,
you just see the heart
put into those movies.
I mean, these guys are-- they're
putting themselves out there.
And Cynthia Rothrock, she is
someone that is very famous.
At the same time, yes, it's
true, she should be more so.
CYNTHIA ROTHROCK: But Tiger
Claws was a lot of fun for me.
It's a movie that a
lot of people remember.
It was a lot of fun.
It was great working with you
all and all the other people.
It was great working with Bolo.
So we had so much fun on that.
I have myself made
movies with some
of the people who
worked directly
with North American Pictures
like Christian Ingvordsen.
He did a number of movies
that are in their catalog.
NARRATOR: Blue Vengeance.
And I sort of started
working with him right
at the beginning of the end.
I think the action movie,
just for sake of action,
was really starting to go
out like in the mid '90s.
The martial arts
movies and stuff,
they were sort of being traded
off, it seems, for mafia movie.
And of course, you had the
horror movies and stuff
like that.
Listen, many, many people
that I knew at that time
made movies specifically for
buyers, buyers from Blockbuster.
It could just be one
outfit, but they had them
all over the country
and other countries.
So all you needed was one good
buyer with a promise of X amount
of units that they would buy.
And they would
tell you what they
wanted or needed to fill the
shelves and what was renting.
Just do something in this
genre, along these lines,
and I'll get it.
I'll pick it up.
But yeah, the sellers
started dropping off
like flies in that
transition period.
In the early, early 2000s, it
never had the kick that it could
have had had it been
five years earlier.
I think honestly if
Glickenhaus' movies
and if Troma's movies--
we have hundreds of them-- were
in the hands of stronger people,
they'd be--
they're better than
what's on Netflix.
I'm sorry.
There's some great stuff
on Netflix, but most of it
is garbage.
It's boring.
It's got nothing to say.
It's just the same old crap.
Everything we do
is one of a kind,
but the problem is we've
never had any good sales.
We put all our money
into making art.
We've not put any money into
hiring the elite salespeople who
all know each other.
And unfortunately, we're
out sucking hind tit
because we don't
have any contacts.
Denny.
What?
You just won the contest.
What contest?
The wet t-shirt
contest, motherfucker!
[gunshots]
I've got it.
TOM SEYMOUR: I mean, does anyone
ever come out of the woodwork
and say, hey, you know Lloyd?
You've done well.
You're--
Stan Lee was a big supporter.
He got us into Marvel comics.
And I was friends with
him until he died.
And John G. Avildsen
with whom I worked
on Joe, Cry Uncle!, Rocky,
and we were lifelong friends.
He was realistic, but he
also would say to me--
he told me I had
a bad reputation
and that there's no chance
I'm going to get hired,
but as a director on some
bigger stuff because I--
obviously, the stuff
I do is rather person.
NARRATOR: Meet little Melvin.
He's a 90-pound weakling.
Everyone hated Melvin.
Yeah, I'm going to take
this mop and shove it
down your throat.
NARRATOR: They teased him.
I want to do it with you.
OK.
NARRATOR: They taunted him.
They tormented him until he
had a horrifying accident
and fell into a vat
of nuclear waste,
transforming little Melvin into
a hideously deformed creature
of superhuman size and strength.
Melvin became the Toxic Avenger,
the first superhero born out
of nuclear waste.
Holy shit!
I don't know what it
was, but it saved my life.
All right, everybody,
drop your tacos
or I'll blow your brains out.
NARRATOR: The vandals and
the perverts had their way
with the little
people of Tromaville
until the Toxic Avenger
ripped them apart.
The Toxic Avenger, his
face is so terrifying we
can't show it to you now.
You'll have to see the
movie for yourself.
The Toxic Avenger can bend
steel with his bare hands.
Moronic kid.
Get it.
NARRATOR: Leap small
cars in a single bound.
He crushes drug pushers,
smashes hit and run drivers.
For incredible explosive action,
He's a different kind of hero.
The Toxic Avenger is
coming to your town.
Look out.
But he also would say, hey,
look what you've accomplished.
You've got this company that's
been going for all this time.
You've created The Toxic
Avenger and Sgt. Kabukiman
N.Y.P.D. There is a Troma
universe, Dolphinman, Class
of Nuke 'em High, the cretins.
But you know, nobody cares.
Nobody wants to care because
there's not enough in it
for them.
New York Times wants
the advertising.
So they have to twist themselves
into a pretzel to say that
a zombie movie brought to you
by 20th Century Fox or the fifth
t
even a movie, you can't win.
It's just-- I don't
know what more I can do.
And The Toxic Avenger
remake, we'll see.
I think that's going
to be very good.
But again, we're
only minor players.
TOM SEYMOUR: I mean,
that director I like.
I mean, first of all--
Macon Blair.
TOM SEYMOUR: He's a great actor.
And then his movie, I Don't
Feel at Home in This World.
Yeah, it's terrific.
He isn't-- we are very
fortunate, legendary.
Again, I knock on
wood, but they get it.
They get it.
And Macon Blair gets it.
And Dinklage was a
Toxic Avenger fan.
What's interesting is I wanted
to ask the cast when I was
on set, did you hear of the--
most of them weren't even born
when we made Toxic Avenger.
And it's remarkable how
many people enjoy the film.
It's just-- unless we have
a huge amount of money
in the right PR
people, we're fucked.
We're dead in the
water, basically.
The only reason Troma is
still here is our fans.
That's the secret sauce.
Our fans, they
book our theaters.
# They gave us money for
#ShakespearesShitstorm
We got about 10% of
the budget, which was--
we got $35,000 more, not
quite 10%, from Bad Dragon.
Bad Dragon is a company
that makes adult toys.
And they gave us $35,000 just to
help us as patrons of the arts.
They didn't even ask
for a piece of the movie
because they knew that
it wouldn't really be--
it'd be better to
buy Google stock.
# And the cast of
#ShakespearesShitstorm,
everybody on it was a Troma fan.
And it was the
greatest experience
of my filmmaking career
because everybody
was so devoted to the movie.
And we ended up
making a $50 million
movie for under maybe
half a million bucks.
We did nine days in Albania,
terrific place to film.
TOM SEYMOUR: So
yeah, why was that?
Just cheap?
We got a deal we
couldn't refuse thanks
to Justin Martell who has
a specialty of developing
industries, or travel, or
tourism in obscure new places.
And he had a relationship
with the Albanian government.
TOM SEYMOUR: I was
curious if there
was any Shakespearean
quotes or even
within Shitstorm that you
felt applied to you or Troma.
Oh, fuck yeah.
I waited until I was in my
dotage to tackle the Tempest.
I would have done it when
James Gunn was around,
when we did Tromeo
and Juliet, but I
wanted to wait till I was old.
And boy, I'm Prospero for sure.
It's a play that's druggy
as hell and has a monster
and has got fairies and
a beautiful love story.
And it's Troma all the way.
So I'm Prospero and I feel it.
NARRATOR: Our revels
now are ended.
And these are actors as I
foretold you are spirits
and are melted into
air, into thin air.
And like the baseless
fabric of this vision,
the cloud capped mountains,
the solemn temples,
the glorious palaces, the
great globe itself, yay,
all which it inherit
shall dissolve.
Those scat covered snowflakes
are caught in the shitstorm.
I found a cure for
opioid addiction.
What I didn't realize is
that the opioid addiction
is a $50 billion industry,
enriching the elites.
There I was, my life's
work stolen from me,
betrayed by my own sister,
shunned from society.
All these years I've
been planning my revenge
against Avon Bard
and all the world.
I had Ariel
infiltrate their boat,
and using gallons,
gallons of whale laxative,
lured them to their doom.
How beauteous mankind is,
oh, brave new world that
has such people in it.
Yes!
His eyes blinking in.
Time's up and welcome
to your final reckoning.
NARRATOR: We are such
stuff as dreams are made of
and our little life is
rounded with a sleep.
Woo!
TOM SEYMOUR: Hey, I'm here
with Mr. John Brennan,
producer of
Shakespeare's Shitstorm.
How are you doing tonight?
Thank you, I'm doing well.
And I appreciate
you speaking to me
on this very prestigious
evening where
# we've premiered
#ShakespearesShitstorm
at the Museum of
the Moving Image.
Honestly, this has been
a humongously cathartic.
We've been watching this
movie on, I don't know,
computer screens and television
screens for about three
or four years.
And this is the
first time that I
got to see the movie
in a big screen
with the sound
and all that stuff
and to see it with a bunch
of people and the laughter
and it's just a
different experience.
I mean, this is a communal
movie and it played really well.
I mean, all the jokes that
we wanted to hit, hit,
all the gags hit.
And it was just--
it was unbelievable.
So I feel like
post-pandemic, this
is the movie that you
have to see in a theater.
It's all about trying to
bring people together.
And Lloyd's message essentially
for one of the themes
is that if we all work
together as the human race
that we'll get to
a better place.
Thank you for having me.
This was absolutely a pleasure.
And I just want to say
quickly that I owe it
all to Lloyd Kaufman who gave
me a shot to produce this movie.
This was the second movie that
I ever produced, second feature.
And it's invaluable.
I mean the Troma System works.
There's an old infomercial
from the '90s called the Troma
System.
And the thing that
they say throughout
is the Troma System
worked for me.
And for me, in my life,
that absolutely is true.
The Troma System worked for me.
Not many people have done what
Lloyd and Michael Herz and Troma
have done over the
course of 50 years now.
And it's hard to deny.
They never really sold out.
I mean, selling
out is one thing,
but they never really were
betrayed their own hearts is
what I'm trying to say.
And they made movies the way
that they wanted to make them.
And they made movies
that they wanted to see.
And a lot of people
give that up in order
to get a glory or a
paycheck or something.
So they've always been
true to themselves.
And I respect that about Troma.
And I hope it keeps going.
I hope that Lloyd
and Michael can
keep it going for the
next younger generation
and get those people inspired
and get the next, like Lloyd
says, the next James Gunn's
and things like that out there.
Sometimes it's good to give
yourself away for free.
I came to Troma as
a editing volunteer.
And I edited some of Lloyd's
.
And I guess he liked
it so I stuck around.
Then I got to be his assistant,
did that for a few years,
then I got to produce
a couple of his movies.
So with that, I then got
to get on a TV show called
The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob
t
Manjourides.
So I owe--
All Troma alumni.
I owe a lot to Troma.
And I would like to say that
Lloyd is such a generous guy.
And I wouldn't have the career
that I have without him.
So thank you, Lloyd.
Well, thank you
very, very much, but--
It's interesting that
Troma invested a lot of money
in getting some of
these old action films.
And hopefully, promoting
them again because they
are interesting
from time to time.
One of the things
I'm actually shocked
that we don't have a lot of
filmmakers today creating
action films with the equipment
that we currently have.
When it's a lot
less expensive, you
can basically have
higher quality
in terms of the resolution.
It's not as expensive to light.
And finding martial artists
in New York or any major city,
especially with
the rise of the UFC
and people being
into martial arts
far more now than
they used to be,
I'm shocked that we don't have
more independent filmmakers
making these films on the cheap.
TOM SEYMOUR: After examining
the films of North American
Pictures, I can see the
expectations were just
far different 30 years
ago than they are today.
We can't judge these
films by 2024 standards.
We have to look at
the audience they
were created for 30 years ago.
And when we do that, we
see that these were really
interesting martial arts films.
The people that
starred in them were
professional martial artists.
This is different than
a lot of modern films
where actors learn martial
arts and then act in a film.
This has been an examination
of Troma Entertainment's
new catalog by North
American Pictures.
And long live independent film.
[music playing]
[music playing]
TOM SEYMOUR: In 2020,
Troma Entertainment
acquired a catalog of films
by North American Pictures.
It made me more interested
in that company.
And I did a deep dive into some
of the films that they created.
NARRATOR: In 1931, the world was
horrified by the motion picture
Frankenstein.
In 1935, horror turned to terror
In 1990, the makers of
Basket Case and Brain Damage
bring you--
Wanna date?
[screams]
NARRATOR: Frankenhooker.
[music playing]
I'm about to
interview Lloyd Kaufman.
Wish me luck.
We talked some
years ago about how
Troma's being able to survive
by buying catalogs of films.
So recently, you acquired
North American Pictures.
LLOYD KAUFMAN: The Glickenhaus
Family became friendly with us
and Jimmy is a great guy and
made some wonderful films.
And you know, this movie is--
this business is full of crooks.
And he was nice
enough to trust us.
And whether we make
any money for him,
I don't know, but Maniac
Cop and Frankenhooker and--
he has a great--
he produced some
wonderful movies.
NARRATOR: There is
something in the streets.
Hey!
NARRATOR: Something in
the shadows, something
in the dark that kills.
You're trying to tell
me two kids did this?
She's got a statement
from an eyewitness who said
she saw the kids attack her.
Officer.
Oh, thank god, it's you.
You think a cop did this?
Why not?
NARRATOR: Reason
cannot stop him.
Bullets cannot kill him.
This is one maniac you'll
have to face alone or die.
The choice is yours.
You can fight him or
remain silent forever.
Starring Bruce Campbell
from Evil Dead, Maniac Cop.
TOM SEYMOUR: Even though North
American Pictures was producing
films well into the 2000s, the
heyday and the bulk of the films
were really from the late
'80s to the mid '90s.
The films in the catalog
I was most interested in
were the low budget
action films.
So I picked four films to talk
one through three.
But before we start
in, James Richardson
is going to give us a little
background on how martial arts
films were introduced
into the United States.
I remember my
father first taking
me to see Enter
the Dragon in 1972.
I couldn't have been any more
than six or seven years old.
And I remember
watching Bruce Lee
and being absolutely
amazed by the whole concept
of martial arts, which was kind
of new for American audiences.
It was kind of the first
time that a lot of us
were exposed to this
on a very wide range.
There was this movie
theater near my house
called the Roosevelt Theater.
And there would be all
of the old Kung Fu movies
that would be running there,
Five Fingers of Death,
Five Deadly Venoms,
the list goes on.
But I remember after 1972, Bruce
Lee died shortly during the time
that the movie was being
promoted in the US.
So as soon as we
kind of got hyped
on Bruce and the martial arts,
the major figure was gone.
But that didn't stop
companies or stop filmmakers
from trying to continue
that whole genre.
So you had a whole lot of people
who rushed into the vacuum
to essentially fill that void.
NARRATOR: In a time
just beyond tomorrow,
when the surface world
has become a war zone,
the underworld cities have
become electronic fortresses.
And the only hope is an
ex-cop.
NARRATOR: They
killed his partner
and created the perfect
killing machine.
I give to you the TC 2000 X.
Zoey, it's me.
Zoey, stop it.
NARRATOR: Starring Bolo Yeung,
Jalal Merhi, Billy Blanks,
Matthias Hues, TC 2000.
TOM SEYMOUR: This
film essentially
was advertised as a sort
of futuristic Terminator 2
slash Escape from
New York scenario.
I should talk
about Billy Blanks.
He was born in 1955.
Billy Blanks earned a name
for himself in the 1970s
and '80s when he won a series
of martial arts competitions.
A seven-time world
karate champion,
he was captain of
the US karate team
and won 36 gold medals in
international competition.
And most people
know Billy Blanks
from like the Tae Bo series.
Well, a lot of
people really don't
know Billy Blanks was legit.
So we always looked at Billy
kind of like he's real.
Michael Jai White talked
about the legitimate skills
that Billy Blanks had
as a martial artist.
And Michael Jai White
is no joke either.
The Billy Blanks taught him
some things that he still
integrates into his on screen
presence from time to time.
TOM SEYMOUR: So Billy
Blanks really cut his teeth
doing these movies.
Some of them did show in some
theaters, but a lot of them
were direct-to-video.
There were several
martial artists
that had fame in the time when
their films were out on video.
The film also stars Bolo Yeung.
Bolo Yeung really doesn't
need an introduction.
He's known as the
Chinese Hercules
and was in Enter the Dragon.
So the guy's just a legend.
So the guys at North
American Pictures,
you know that they were making
some pretty cool casting
decisions when they were
putting this movie together.
When you went to
the video store,
you didn't know
exactly when a film
was sort of B grade or A grade.
You didn't always know because
sometimes the cover was just
super hot.
And back then, if you
didn't know all the stars,
you're just starting
to rent movies,
let's say you're a teenager
or you're in your 20s,
but you might say,
oh, Bolo Yeung,
he's from Enter the Dragon,
so you rent this thing.
When we would finish
martial arts classes,
we would go rent movies at the
local video store or wherever.
And these are on like
VHS not even like DVD.
I'm talking about this
was purely the VHS era.
We would go rent
all of these films,
take them back to the
dojo, and watch them.
We consumed as much martial
arts material as we could,
the good movies and the bad.
If we could basically learn
or try some type of technique,
you know.
And we, no matter
what movie it was,
we tried to basically emulate
whatever the hell it was.
I remember, like, we would have
fights after class or fights
before class.
I remember almost damn near
pulling my groin muscle out
of whack because I tried to do
the like the Van Damme split.
TOM SEYMOUR: It's
shot all on location.
They're obviously
using real factories.
You can see there's a sort of
control booth in the beginning.
It looks like some kind of
power facility they're in.
And it looks like they got a few
locations in which they could
sort of build a believable
story in which this
is sort of an underground
bunker type scenario.
They're using lasers and
smoke to sort of create
what looks like forest fields.
They're using motorcycles.
They're using real stunt people.
There was a pretty
awesome fire stunt.
There is a lot of fighting.
North American Pictures,
there was so much action.
They didn't waste
time on the story.
The story was there.
It was very kind of sort of
vague, if you will, just basic,
but they gave you
pound for pound,
so much action from the
opening scene to the end scene.
They would spend a little
bit of time, a few lines
back and forth.
You see the good guy, bad guy,
but they're going to fight
and they're going
to fight a lot.
So it really fills the void
of giving the people exactly
what they want.
And this kind of movie,
they may have not always
been the most five star actor.
What?
Never mind.
We're in a terminal station
that your father built.
How do we stop this thing?
But they gave everything like
it was a $20 million movie.
TOM SEYMOUR: This is what I
think is smart about TC 2000.
They didn't have a ton of
money for special effects.
So as long as they can shoot
most of the stuff in a location
that feels industrial
or post-industrial.
Like it could be sci-fi-ish.
If they just had a lot of fight
scenes between characters,
they could essentially make
a 90-minute film in this way.
And it's smart because
it's a lot of action,
but it's just people.
It's literally a fight between
one or two people, cuts away,
it's a fight between
two other people.
And so what you have is some
pretty entertaining action,
but you're not bleeding money.
It's not giant set pieces.
It's not like an oil tanker
crashing into the beach
or something, you know?
So films like this are smart
and some of the ways they
figure out a way to
make action for cheap.
Billy Blanks is an incredibly
gifted martial artist.
So you can see there
are scenes in TC 2000
where you're like, he's doing
these crazy double kicks.
His form is amazing.
There's some really
cool slow motion shots.
They're using him well.
Bolo Yeung who is just a
brilliant martial artist
and super famous, it feels
like they don't really
give him that much to
do that is spectacular.
He has some fight scenes, but
there's no real showcases.
JAMES RICHARDSON:
Most of the people
who were Bruce Lee
adjacent really
gained a lot of popularity
and a lot of notoriety.
Bolo Yeung, for example,
was one of those people.
Everybody knows Bolo
from Enter the Dragon.
He was Han's enforcer.
As a result, after Bruce died
,
you saw Bolo start popping up in
a lot of low budget martial arts
films.
He never really talked much,
but he was imposing enough
that he didn't really have to.
You just needed enough of a
story to justify the action.
TOM SEYMOUR: But back
when you were watching
these direct to video films, if
you saw a couple wild martial--
kicks, karate kicks,
you'd rewind that.
You'd watch it over again.
I mean, it was pretty awesome.
Like, people were
just easier to please.
I mean, that's the
easiest way to put it.
When you're renting
something, it was precious.
And you kind of knew you had
to commit to it because you
paid the $5 for it.
So you were going to go
home and watch that thing
and you were going to give
it the benefit of the doubt.
And now the viewing
audience is really cynical.
They really just-- they
don't like low budget stuff.
For narrative, they hate that.
But when it really
comes to narrative,
they judge pretty harshly.
If you were in your late
teens and early 20s in the mid
'90s, you might think that
Billy Blanks was the same thing
as like a Jean-Claude Van Damme.
I think that was the illusion of
the sort of direct-to-video era.
That's what they capitalized on.
Can you cut a trailer that
looks sort of like a Hollywood
trailer?
Can you make the box art that
looks sort of like a Hollywood
box art, you know?
I would actually argue that some
of these action films at this
point, the ones that were in
late '80s and early '90s are
sort of a window
into the culture.
And I guess that's always
been the case for films.
But Glickenhaus and
Shapiro, the guys
who ran North American Pictures,
got out of the film industry
at a certain point because
none of the economics
seemed to make sense.
He has a great--
he produced some
wonderful movies.
He's moved on
because he realized
that if he wanted to
make a lot of money,
this wasn't the way to go.
And he went into
other businesses.
TOM SEYMOUR: The films that
Glickenhaus made fit so
perfectly in the Troma catalog.
LLOYD KAUFMAN: Yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: It's as
if Troma made them.
But was that more just about
the era in which they were made,
that level of experimentation?
I don't--
I think Jimmy Glickenhaus
was a serious filmmaker.
And I think he's
also a businessman.
And back then, those
movies like Maniac Cop
and if they were serious kind
of horror or serious violence--
the Exterminator, it's great
film, but it's serious.
It's not a comedy.
His films, I think, Glickenhaus
movies are more commercial than
Troma's.
NARRATOR: In war, you
have to kill to survive.
[explosion]
On the streets of
New York, the choice
is the same for
the exterminator.
The search is on.
The police are chasing a killer
who's not only smarter than they
are, he's doing their job.
That's what it's
like to be a victim.
NARRATOR: The Exterminator.
TOM SEYMOUR: Maybe it's
important to remember
the literally thousands of films
no one talks about anymore.
Another martial artist that
Glickenhaus and Shapiro used
a lot was Cynthia Rothrock.
Cynthia Rothrock was the basis
Sonya Blade.
SPEAKER: Sonya.
[body thumps]
TOM SEYMOUR: And they
based Sonya Blade
upon Cynthia Rothrock.
When she started doing films
for North American Pictures,
she did these Tiger
Claws Film.
And by the time we get to
the second and third film,
they are essentially
Mortal Kombat knockoffs.
It's a knockoff played by
someone who the Mortal Kombat
character was based
upon to begin with.
So is it really a knockoff?
Cynthia Rothrock was a five-time
world champion weapons expert.
And she beat out
everyone at a time where
there was no women's league.
So she beat out all the
men many, many, many, times
and is a famous world champion.
She has done films, China with
Michelle Yeoh and Sammo Hung.
Some of the greatest living
martial artist Cynthia Rothrock
has been in there and held her
own and sometimes excelled.
And so she is a fascinating
human being, underappreciated,
I think.
If you look at the film
TC 2000, one of the things
is Billy Blanks
is the star of it.
Phillips is the co-star.
So you have essentially a film
where it's fairly diverse.
And if we look back in
the direct-to-video era,
I would actually say that
was more common than people
would admit to.
We seem to have a bit of
amnesia in this country.
When we look back--
because you look
back at all the films
and you're only thinking
about like the top 20
films for that year, and you
forget about the thousands
of other films that had--
especially direct-to-video
and independent
which have always had
more diverse casts.
And they've always done more.
They've always
invented everything
that the studio
films then take from.
I think it's more
than just nostalgia.
These are the B-list
of action stars.
The reason why I'm calling
it American expendables
is that for every
Van Damme and Seagal,
there is a Billy Blanks,
a Cynthia Rothrock.
When I did Tiger Claws,
it was back from Hong Kong
so I wasn't really used to
doing that many American films,
but I was so excited
about this one
because this one was going to
be shot in Toronto, Canada.
And any opportunity I
have to get out of L.A,
I'm just really happy.
So when I get there, they
don't have a stunt coordinator.
And I'm like, where's
the stunt coordinator?
Who's going to do the action?
And they go, oh, well,
we thought you just
would do your own action.
I'm going, but I'm not
a stunt coordinator.
So then I said, all right.
Well, I'll coordinate my
action, but everybody else
has to do theirs.
And I never did that before.
So it was my first
time being the actor
and doing my own
action choreography.
So there's a scene you'll
notice where I have a purse
and I swing it around
like a steel whip.
I was trying to
take a little Jackie
Chan from his movies
of using things
that are just laying
around as a weapon,
but it worked pretty good.
NARRATOR: On the streets of
New York's Chinatown stocks
a new and deadly
killer, a serial killer
on the loose with ancient
martial arts skills.
Now two of New
York's toughest cops
must use all their skills,
all their knowledge,
and all their courage
to catch Tiger Claws.
It must be 10,000 martial
artists in New York alone.
He's not a lunatic.
And he's not out of control.
And that's what makes
him so dangerous.
Don't ever underestimate him.
He did that with a sword?
No, his hand.
It's Tiger Claws.
I've been accepted
to train with them.
Defend yourself.
He came at me with the same
pattern, but I need more time.
There's no more time.
[grunts]
Me and you, we are the same.
We're not the same.
NARRATOR: Jalal Merhi,
Cynthia Rothrock.
Hey, everyone,
I'm Tom Seymour.
I'm here with Mr. Tim Kulig.
You look at some of the--
I mean, it's 30
years old now, right?
I mean, released
1991, which is crazy.
I mean, it makes me
feel incredibly old,
but I look at Cynthia Rothrock,
very woman empowerment.
I mean, that's
really in the kind
of in the zeitgeist
of movie-making
and even Disney films
nowadays, right?
The last several years,
that's been a big thing.
TOM SEYMOUR: I was actually
thinking about this concept.
One of the things
is when they're
looking at diversity
in film and TV,
the average person is not
looking back that far,
and they're not looking into
anything but the mainstream.
In the essentially, the
direct-to-video genre,
the B-movie genre,
there's a shitload.
I mean, first of all, Cynthia
Rothrock starring, Jalal Merhi's
Brazilian.
You have Bolo Yeung
who's Chinese.
So we just watched TC 2000.
That's Billy Blanks.
Direct-to-video and
independent and B movies
had a shitload more diversity.
Someone like Bolo
Yeung, you might
be able to cast even though
he was in like Double
Impact and Bloodsport.
TIM KULIG: A lot of the
shots, they were atypical,
but they weren't--
I didn't feel like
there was anything
going on that was over the
top like say Samurai Cop.
You know what I mean?
Obviously, gratuitous
fighting scenes,
but I felt they were really
well choreographed and somewhat
believable street fights.
Not these crazy things where
people are on like pulleys
and like jumping up walls
and stuff like that.
I mean, I loved her
over the head kicks.
Those are believable.
And then the Sonya
move that she did.
That was totally cool.
TOM SEYMOUR: She's similar to
Chuck Norris in that he was more
into fighting and less weapons.
He was like a world champion
who then got into movies.
And Cynthia Rothrock
was the same thing.
She was a martial artist
who then got into movies.
TIM KULIG: Right.
TOM SEYMOUR: And so
you can tell when
you're talking about the fight
scenes, she's awesome in them.
And the other guy,
Jalal Merhi, also
gifted martial artists as well.
TIM KULIG: You know, this is
pre-mainstream CGI like we
see now and people just had
to kind of do their thing
and people had to use camera
angles and jump cuts and stuff
to make it believable that or
speed up the film slightly,
right?
I mean, that's a standard too
with a lot of these martial arts
films from the '80s.
What you've seen is
martial arts at its best.
TOM SEYMOUR: You know,
the average person
would know who Jackie Chan
is, but they might not
know who Sammo Hung is
who is his sidekick, who
is heavier guy, but could
do just as crazy stuff.
TIM KULIG: Right.
TOM SEYMOUR: And I think
Cynthia Rothrock's like that.
The other thing too is I believe
that Tarantino, his Kill Bill
series, obviously Uma Thurman
is wearing literally Bruce Lee's
outfit from Game of Death,
but I think it's undeniable
that Uma Thurman is--
partially, her character is
influenced by Cynthia Rothrock.
TIM KULIG: Yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: He's
seen all her films.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's just no way.
[grunts]
You realize that this,
really, production value,
it's not that much different
than like a Seagal movie
or a Van Damme movie
in their prime.
It's not that different from
Double Impact, or something
like that, or Lionheart.
The film was made
far better than I
thought it was going to
be, especially by the end.
Another thing about Tiger
Claws is when we were filming,
Jalal was supposed to have--
Jalal who was the producer,
the actor, the director,
and the money man, and the car
didn't come for him to blow up.
So he said just take
my car and blow it up.
And I was like, but
you have a Porsche.
It's a nice Porsche.
He goes, yeah, I don't care.
It's for the movie.
I want the movie to be good.
So he blew his own
Porsche up in that scene.
I was like, oh, my god.
That's dedication.
I wouldn't do that.
That was my car.
I've been expecting you.
NARRATOR: It is the
right of the people
to provide for the
common defense.
Does this rebel
army have any money?
It's not enough.
NARRATOR: It is the
right of the people
to promote the general welfare.
This is our annual
fundraising drive.
And we would like you to
contribute $10 million.
NARRATOR: It is the right of the
people to rise up, to bear arms,
to wage war.
TOM SEYMOUR: They
had produced films
that had like Christopher Walken
and Dolph Lundgren, but Dolph--
Dolph Lundgren coming off of
some of his higher profile
stuff.
NARRATOR: In Rocky IV, he
fought for his country.
What the hell is this?
NARRATOR: Now Dolph Lundgren
is taking off his gloves
and taking on n entire army,
The impetus behind the
rebellion is this man.
He is your targeted objective.
NARRATOR: His one mistake
meant a death sentence.
I leave you as an
insult to your people.
How could you fail?
NARRATOR: Their one mistake--
We will have a Band-Aid.
You're breaking my
bleeding heart, Moose.
NARRATOR: --was not
finishing the job.
We will deliver our response.
This is the rebel army.
Pride of the Soviet army.
[explosion]
NARRATOR: First, he
was their weapon.
Now he's their punishment.
They think they control him.
Let's kick some.
NARRATOR: Think again.
Mike, I might need some help.
TOM SEYMOUR: Though, like the--
these guys, Glickenhaus
and Shapiro,
who are running North
American Pictures,
they got out of
the film industry
partially because it did
become too expensive to pay
some of these people.
TIM KULIG: Yeah,
TOM SEYMOUR: So if they're
paying like Christopher Walken
a certain amount of money,
the finances didn't really
add up at a certain point.
TIM KULIG: Well, I mean that's
evidenced in the '90s, I mean,
when we were really getting
focused on and interested
in film.
You start seeing actors
and actresses earning
$7, $10, $15 million a film.
I mean, now you're talking
some people earn in excess
of $20, $30 million a film.
And it's like, how can
you justify that when
there's an entire other
staff and there's a profit
margin that you're hoping for?
I mean, it's tax budget
and everything else.
I mean, $200 million, laying
out a quarter of $1 billion
practically on something.
NARRATOR: Mill Basin is a
nice town with good schools.
Julie, what did Emerson
mean by the red slayer?
Emerson?
NARRATOR: But trouble's
coming to Mill Basin.
And this town will
never be the same.
TOM SEYMOUR: If you knew a
film was going direct-to-video,
you would still shoot it on 16
or 35 to retain that cinematic
quality and to make it a product
that someone would actually buy
because at that time, late '80s,
early '90s, the video is just--
looks purely electronic.
like news, 30 frames a second.
There's no in between.
So you had to shoot on
film to be taken seriously.
But in order to
save costs, they'd
have it typically transferred
onto Beta SP tape,
something like that, which
was like a broadcast standard.
And then they would
edit purely on tape.
And they'd make a tape master.
You'd lose an incredible
amount of data
because it's a
standard definition
electronic format versus
actual motion picture film.
TIM KULIG: Right, right.
And now with the phones that
we have today, I mean, god,
you can-- there's 4k cameras
on the back of those, right?
TOM SEYMOUR: Yeah, they
look-- they would look-- yeah,
I mean, you're still not getting
the quality of lenses and things
like that, but I guess the point
is, though, the only master is
probably like a Beta SP.
TIM KULIG: Wow.
That's incredible.
TOM SEYMOUR: I would say with
some of these Glickenhaus films,
I think because so
many of them screened,
at least some kind
of limited screening,
they probably do have
prints of all of these.
And if they have
prints of all of them,
then we're going
to see, if Troma
could get their
hands on them, we're
going to see much nicer
looking transfers.
He's all excited.
NARRATOR: This time,
he's not alone.
TOM SEYMOUR: Bolo
Yeung, the villain
has this deadly claw technique.
They kind of push it to a--
TIM KULIG: Almost hammy, yeah.
TOM SEYMOUR: Hammy like a
mild superpower, you know?
Like, he's--
TIM KULIG: Like the tiger roar.
Like [roars] when
he starts attacking.
It's borderline camp.
TOM SEYMOUR: Yeah.
It's almost supervillain.
On three, I'm not
in it that much.
OK, there's a reason.
In the beginning,
you think I die.
And then, in the
end, I come back.
Well, the reason I wasn't in
it is because I was pregnant.
Actually, 21 years from
today, my daughter was born.
She just turns 21.
Would have terrible
morning sickness.
And I was like getting sick.
And I said, OK, Jalal, I
can't really fight hard.
I can't fight hard.
They told me to
take it easy, right?
And he goes, OK, well,
when that camera came on,
and they said action, I
just started fighting hard.
I could not not fight hard.
[grunts]
There's a scene where they
throw a spear at me or a dart
or something, and
I have a staff,
and I'm supposed to hit it.
Well, they're like,
obviously, you're
not going to get the staff
and hit that spearhead, right?
So just try the best you can
and we'll take a pickup later
and try to get it in close.
So I said, OK.
So first take
comes in, and I hit
that spearhead, and everybody's
eyes were like stunned.
TOM SEYMOUR: Plot
is basically someone
is on a murdering spree
killing martial arts masters.
And these two cops have
to delve into that world.
And when you think about
it, that's pretty badass.
It's a cool idea.
Yeah, you just
realize that if you
were in that time period, you--
like Van Damme wasn't Van
Damme yet probably in '91.
These people may have
not broken out in the way
that you know them now.
If the movie had
a decent box cover
or if we recognized the actor
who was in it and we liked him,
we would rent it.
Simple as that.
DEBBIE ROCHON: North
American Pictures, they
filled a gap that we needed.
There was no way that
Hollywood could keep up
with the demand and
the voracious appetite
that we all had going into
the video store rental places.
I mean, there's just--
they couldn't keep up.
So they were taking everything.
And god-willing, it was
going to be a good movie.
The box art was always good.
NARRATOR: MCA Universal Home
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A December release
date of Timemaster
has been strategically
timed to coincide
with peak rental periods.
And it's a perfect
opportunity to have
fresh product in your store
when demand is at its highest.
There'll be an exciting
marketing program
starting with a pre-pack offer.
Just buy three
units of Timemaster
and receive a special desk
clock with a built-in calculator
and a Babe baseball jersey.
Also look for a highly
visible trade print
campaign and an aggressive
mailer campaign.
Street date is set
for December 27,
a science fiction adventure
the entire family will love.
Timemaster from MCA
Universal Home Video.
TOM SEYMOUR: It makes
sense why these--
like, there was just so
many of these action films
because martial
arts was super hot.
There were McDojos
on every corner.
I remember I studied martial
arts at Tracy Kenpo for years,
from high school into college.
TIM KULIG: Yeah, I
dip my toe in there
for a short period of time too.
Then we were filming now in
the winter time in Toronto.
It was freezing.
I'm trying to warm up.
We couldn't warm the muscles up.
I ended up pulling
two hamstrings.
You know how hard that hurts?
It hurts so bad that you
can't even touch your knees.
And I had to kick and
do the rest of the movie
with two pulled hamstrings.
So I was like, all right, you
got to do what you got to do.
TIM KULIG: She's
done over 60 films
so I mean that's no small feat.
And she's still
relatively young.
Honestly, I went in with that
'80s era expectations of, you
know, performance narrative.
And of course, I mean,
there were the Sergeant
sat on his words a few times.
Don't tell me you've got
another lunatic out of control.
TIM KULIG: It's like, that's it.
That's it.
That's the only cut we have.
We got to put it in.
Back then, you
didn't really care.
And especially
because of what I said
earlier, which is the
narrative was less important
than the action.
It was filling in.
And you're like, OK, whatever.
They're going to have this
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
OK, well, who are you
going to hit next?
Many of them were
legit martial artists.
They weren't actors per se.
[sobs]
No!
At that time, they didn't need
to be Bruce Lee or the greatest
on camera martial artists
in order for the movies
to basically be
produced and sold.
We needed enough of a plot
to justify the action.
That's it.
And most of those
movies at the time
usually revolved around revenge,
protecting the neighborhood,
or something along those lines.
But it was all about revenge.
You killed my teacher.
You killed my girlfriend.
You blew up my school.
You're hurting people.
Now I'm coming after you.
TIM KULIG: I guess I give
these movies from this era
little bit of a reprieve.
And I'm probably more--
I probably beat up modern
films a heck of a lot
more because there's
an expectation.
Like, look, I can go out and
get a 4k camera today and spend
what?
A couple $1,000 with
some lenses, the decent--
the base camera and
everything else,
and make a feature
film of high quality.
You know what I mean?
And back then, I mean, you
had to come up with many times
that just to get the
equipment on set.
TOM SEYMOUR: Oh, yeah.
I mean, you're burning--
that's the thing is
you're burnt, especially
in those action
scenes, shooting 35,
you're burning
money, burning money.
Now that I think about
it, I get why it was
so expensive to some degree.
But yeah, I think that
you can't put expectations
on to a 30-year-old film.
It doesn't make any sense.
Trying to analyze those
films from today's perspective
is not fair.
It really isn't.
A lot of the stuff that
they did was more practical.
You had stunt people who
actually did their stunts.
But in the US, you didn't
have a whole lot of wire work.
The films, to a
certain extent, are
far more realistic than, in some
ways, than what we have today.
We didn't have the CGI.
We don't shoot on film so it
becomes a lot easier for us
to have multiple
takes because we don't
have to develop our stuff.
Digital filming allows
you to essentially film
it and get an immediate
reaction of seeing how it is.
The lights that we
have are not LED lights
and not like the lights
that they had back then.
You would blow bulbs constantly
and had to replace them.
All of those things were
added to the overall expense.
TIM KULIG: If I had titled
discovered this back
in the early '90s, I think
I would have followed
Cynthia's career closer.
I've got the curiosity
of her other work,
and we'll probably just
keep going and checking
out some more of it because
she was clearly very good.
And it was enjoyable.
If you really, really
watch the movies,
you just see the heart
put into those movies.
I mean, these guys are-- they're
putting themselves out there.
And Cynthia Rothrock, she is
someone that is very famous.
At the same time, yes, it's
true, she should be more so.
CYNTHIA ROTHROCK: But Tiger
Claws was a lot of fun for me.
It's a movie that a
lot of people remember.
It was a lot of fun.
It was great working with you
all and all the other people.
It was great working with Bolo.
So we had so much fun on that.
I have myself made
movies with some
of the people who
worked directly
with North American Pictures
like Christian Ingvordsen.
He did a number of movies
that are in their catalog.
NARRATOR: Blue Vengeance.
And I sort of started
working with him right
at the beginning of the end.
I think the action movie,
just for sake of action,
was really starting to go
out like in the mid '90s.
The martial arts
movies and stuff,
they were sort of being traded
off, it seems, for mafia movie.
And of course, you had the
horror movies and stuff
like that.
Listen, many, many people
that I knew at that time
made movies specifically for
buyers, buyers from Blockbuster.
It could just be one
outfit, but they had them
all over the country
and other countries.
So all you needed was one good
buyer with a promise of X amount
of units that they would buy.
And they would
tell you what they
wanted or needed to fill the
shelves and what was renting.
Just do something in this
genre, along these lines,
and I'll get it.
I'll pick it up.
But yeah, the sellers
started dropping off
like flies in that
transition period.
In the early, early 2000s, it
never had the kick that it could
have had had it been
five years earlier.
I think honestly if
Glickenhaus' movies
and if Troma's movies--
we have hundreds of them-- were
in the hands of stronger people,
they'd be--
they're better than
what's on Netflix.
I'm sorry.
There's some great stuff
on Netflix, but most of it
is garbage.
It's boring.
It's got nothing to say.
It's just the same old crap.
Everything we do
is one of a kind,
but the problem is we've
never had any good sales.
We put all our money
into making art.
We've not put any money into
hiring the elite salespeople who
all know each other.
And unfortunately, we're
out sucking hind tit
because we don't
have any contacts.
Denny.
What?
You just won the contest.
What contest?
The wet t-shirt
contest, motherfucker!
[gunshots]
I've got it.
TOM SEYMOUR: I mean, does anyone
ever come out of the woodwork
and say, hey, you know Lloyd?
You've done well.
You're--
Stan Lee was a big supporter.
He got us into Marvel comics.
And I was friends with
him until he died.
And John G. Avildsen
with whom I worked
on Joe, Cry Uncle!, Rocky,
and we were lifelong friends.
He was realistic, but he
also would say to me--
he told me I had
a bad reputation
and that there's no chance
I'm going to get hired,
but as a director on some
bigger stuff because I--
obviously, the stuff
I do is rather person.
NARRATOR: Meet little Melvin.
He's a 90-pound weakling.
Everyone hated Melvin.
Yeah, I'm going to take
this mop and shove it
down your throat.
NARRATOR: They teased him.
I want to do it with you.
OK.
NARRATOR: They taunted him.
They tormented him until he
had a horrifying accident
and fell into a vat
of nuclear waste,
transforming little Melvin into
a hideously deformed creature
of superhuman size and strength.
Melvin became the Toxic Avenger,
the first superhero born out
of nuclear waste.
Holy shit!
I don't know what it
was, but it saved my life.
All right, everybody,
drop your tacos
or I'll blow your brains out.
NARRATOR: The vandals and
the perverts had their way
with the little
people of Tromaville
until the Toxic Avenger
ripped them apart.
The Toxic Avenger, his
face is so terrifying we
can't show it to you now.
You'll have to see the
movie for yourself.
The Toxic Avenger can bend
steel with his bare hands.
Moronic kid.
Get it.
NARRATOR: Leap small
cars in a single bound.
He crushes drug pushers,
smashes hit and run drivers.
For incredible explosive action,
He's a different kind of hero.
The Toxic Avenger is
coming to your town.
Look out.
But he also would say, hey,
look what you've accomplished.
You've got this company that's
been going for all this time.
You've created The Toxic
Avenger and Sgt. Kabukiman
N.Y.P.D. There is a Troma
universe, Dolphinman, Class
of Nuke 'em High, the cretins.
But you know, nobody cares.
Nobody wants to care because
there's not enough in it
for them.
New York Times wants
the advertising.
So they have to twist themselves
into a pretzel to say that
a zombie movie brought to you
by 20th Century Fox or the fifth
t
even a movie, you can't win.
It's just-- I don't
know what more I can do.
And The Toxic Avenger
remake, we'll see.
I think that's going
to be very good.
But again, we're
only minor players.
TOM SEYMOUR: I mean,
that director I like.
I mean, first of all--
Macon Blair.
TOM SEYMOUR: He's a great actor.
And then his movie, I Don't
Feel at Home in This World.
Yeah, it's terrific.
He isn't-- we are very
fortunate, legendary.
Again, I knock on
wood, but they get it.
They get it.
And Macon Blair gets it.
And Dinklage was a
Toxic Avenger fan.
What's interesting is I wanted
to ask the cast when I was
on set, did you hear of the--
most of them weren't even born
when we made Toxic Avenger.
And it's remarkable how
many people enjoy the film.
It's just-- unless we have
a huge amount of money
in the right PR
people, we're fucked.
We're dead in the
water, basically.
The only reason Troma is
still here is our fans.
That's the secret sauce.
Our fans, they
book our theaters.
# They gave us money for
#ShakespearesShitstorm
We got about 10% of
the budget, which was--
we got $35,000 more, not
quite 10%, from Bad Dragon.
Bad Dragon is a company
that makes adult toys.
And they gave us $35,000 just to
help us as patrons of the arts.
They didn't even ask
for a piece of the movie
because they knew that
it wouldn't really be--
it'd be better to
buy Google stock.
# And the cast of
#ShakespearesShitstorm,
everybody on it was a Troma fan.
And it was the
greatest experience
of my filmmaking career
because everybody
was so devoted to the movie.
And we ended up
making a $50 million
movie for under maybe
half a million bucks.
We did nine days in Albania,
terrific place to film.
TOM SEYMOUR: So
yeah, why was that?
Just cheap?
We got a deal we
couldn't refuse thanks
to Justin Martell who has
a specialty of developing
industries, or travel, or
tourism in obscure new places.
And he had a relationship
with the Albanian government.
TOM SEYMOUR: I was
curious if there
was any Shakespearean
quotes or even
within Shitstorm that you
felt applied to you or Troma.
Oh, fuck yeah.
I waited until I was in my
dotage to tackle the Tempest.
I would have done it when
James Gunn was around,
when we did Tromeo
and Juliet, but I
wanted to wait till I was old.
And boy, I'm Prospero for sure.
It's a play that's druggy
as hell and has a monster
and has got fairies and
a beautiful love story.
And it's Troma all the way.
So I'm Prospero and I feel it.
NARRATOR: Our revels
now are ended.
And these are actors as I
foretold you are spirits
and are melted into
air, into thin air.
And like the baseless
fabric of this vision,
the cloud capped mountains,
the solemn temples,
the glorious palaces, the
great globe itself, yay,
all which it inherit
shall dissolve.
Those scat covered snowflakes
are caught in the shitstorm.
I found a cure for
opioid addiction.
What I didn't realize is
that the opioid addiction
is a $50 billion industry,
enriching the elites.
There I was, my life's
work stolen from me,
betrayed by my own sister,
shunned from society.
All these years I've
been planning my revenge
against Avon Bard
and all the world.
I had Ariel
infiltrate their boat,
and using gallons,
gallons of whale laxative,
lured them to their doom.
How beauteous mankind is,
oh, brave new world that
has such people in it.
Yes!
His eyes blinking in.
Time's up and welcome
to your final reckoning.
NARRATOR: We are such
stuff as dreams are made of
and our little life is
rounded with a sleep.
Woo!
TOM SEYMOUR: Hey, I'm here
with Mr. John Brennan,
producer of
Shakespeare's Shitstorm.
How are you doing tonight?
Thank you, I'm doing well.
And I appreciate
you speaking to me
on this very prestigious
evening where
# we've premiered
#ShakespearesShitstorm
at the Museum of
the Moving Image.
Honestly, this has been
a humongously cathartic.
We've been watching this
movie on, I don't know,
computer screens and television
screens for about three
or four years.
And this is the
first time that I
got to see the movie
in a big screen
with the sound
and all that stuff
and to see it with a bunch
of people and the laughter
and it's just a
different experience.
I mean, this is a communal
movie and it played really well.
I mean, all the jokes that
we wanted to hit, hit,
all the gags hit.
And it was just--
it was unbelievable.
So I feel like
post-pandemic, this
is the movie that you
have to see in a theater.
It's all about trying to
bring people together.
And Lloyd's message essentially
for one of the themes
is that if we all work
together as the human race
that we'll get to
a better place.
Thank you for having me.
This was absolutely a pleasure.
And I just want to say
quickly that I owe it
all to Lloyd Kaufman who gave
me a shot to produce this movie.
This was the second movie that
I ever produced, second feature.
And it's invaluable.
I mean the Troma System works.
There's an old infomercial
from the '90s called the Troma
System.
And the thing that
they say throughout
is the Troma System
worked for me.
And for me, in my life,
that absolutely is true.
The Troma System worked for me.
Not many people have done what
Lloyd and Michael Herz and Troma
have done over the
course of 50 years now.
And it's hard to deny.
They never really sold out.
I mean, selling
out is one thing,
but they never really were
betrayed their own hearts is
what I'm trying to say.
And they made movies the way
that they wanted to make them.
And they made movies
that they wanted to see.
And a lot of people
give that up in order
to get a glory or a
paycheck or something.
So they've always been
true to themselves.
And I respect that about Troma.
And I hope it keeps going.
I hope that Lloyd
and Michael can
keep it going for the
next younger generation
and get those people inspired
and get the next, like Lloyd
says, the next James Gunn's
and things like that out there.
Sometimes it's good to give
yourself away for free.
I came to Troma as
a editing volunteer.
And I edited some of Lloyd's
.
And I guess he liked
it so I stuck around.
Then I got to be his assistant,
did that for a few years,
then I got to produce
a couple of his movies.
So with that, I then got
to get on a TV show called
The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob
t
Manjourides.
So I owe--
All Troma alumni.
I owe a lot to Troma.
And I would like to say that
Lloyd is such a generous guy.
And I wouldn't have the career
that I have without him.
So thank you, Lloyd.
Well, thank you
very, very much, but--
It's interesting that
Troma invested a lot of money
in getting some of
these old action films.
And hopefully, promoting
them again because they
are interesting
from time to time.
One of the things
I'm actually shocked
that we don't have a lot of
filmmakers today creating
action films with the equipment
that we currently have.
When it's a lot
less expensive, you
can basically have
higher quality
in terms of the resolution.
It's not as expensive to light.
And finding martial artists
in New York or any major city,
especially with
the rise of the UFC
and people being
into martial arts
far more now than
they used to be,
I'm shocked that we don't have
more independent filmmakers
making these films on the cheap.
TOM SEYMOUR: After examining
the films of North American
Pictures, I can see the
expectations were just
far different 30 years
ago than they are today.
We can't judge these
films by 2024 standards.
We have to look at
the audience they
were created for 30 years ago.
And when we do that, we
see that these were really
interesting martial arts films.
The people that
starred in them were
professional martial artists.
This is different than
a lot of modern films
where actors learn martial
arts and then act in a film.
This has been an examination
of Troma Entertainment's
new catalog by North
American Pictures.
And long live independent film.
[music playing]