Despite the pleas by my demigod cohorts and obedient zealots, I like the TRANCERS series! Yes, the last 2 or 3 were pretty bile inducing, but the first 2 are fun for the whole family (if your family consists entirely of ME! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!)! Anyway, this movie from Charles Band's 80's studio "Empire Pictures" features Tim Thomerson (B-movie alumni) as the out-of-his-time zombie hunter Jack Deth and Helen Hunt (yes, before she became a stuck-up Hollywood beeyotch) as Lena, Jack's love interest. To start this off, let's Fast Forward into the distant future where legalized bad-ass Deth has finally taken out the last member of a "trancers" cult he's been hunting for the last 7 months. It all culminates when he kills a traced out waitress in a diner (using the cheesiest ray gun this side of FLASH GORDON). Afterwards, Jack decides to take a little time off doing what he likes best: getting drunk and going on a sex spree across the brothels of the future! Well, actually, he goes deep sea exploring in the submerged city of Lost Angeles (yes, that IS a 't'). Well, his happiness is interrupted when it turns out that Whistler, the trancer cult leader, has gone back in time to kill the ancestors of the High Council (no, they're NOT a political team of stoners). Basically, if their ancestors were killed they would cease to exist, and without the High Council, there'd be anarchy or Whistler would rule, or the world will be destroyed... sorry, but I'm getting lost in myself! So, in order to get Whistler once and for all and avenge his long dead wife (murdered by Whistler and his trancer followers), Jack goes "down the line" to stop the big jerk. Back in L.A., December 1985, into the body of his journalist ancestor Phil, Jack awakens to the "old days". The big problem that's gonna give Jack trouble is that Whistler's ancestor is (dramatic pause) a cop! But, at least Jack's got a nubile young Helen Hunt who's "Mad About Deth" (insert *groan* here)... actually, she's Jack's girlfriend... I mean, she's Phil's girlfriend... uhm, if you don't get the idea, then I'm not gonna try explaining it to you... Anyway, not even in the 80's for 20 minutes and Jack kills Santa Claus (that's right kids, the REAL one!) who is of course a trancer (and has been for years). Jack and Lena are now on the run, saving each other's asses left and right, from such dangers as a tanning booth set on overdrive and Whistler and his police officer underlings. But, thanx to "the long second" (which is a watch that stops time for the wearer for 10 seconds) and Jack's boss Mignolti (in his 8 year old female ancestor's body!). But, they screw up a couple times, and an ex-pro baseball player-turned-drunken-hobo named Ashby is the only ancestor of the High Council left alive. Pickin' up Ashby and outrunning the fuzz (the cops, not lint), after Deth once again fails to stop Whistler, Ashby (a former pro pitcher remember) *whacks* Whistler in the skull with a couple empty bottle of Vodka, then Jack sends Whistler "up the line"... but with no body waiting for him, ol' Whis' is gonna have his consciousness lost in limbo forever! Ah, a punishment ALMOST worthy of one of my own. Anyway, the other antidote vial is broken in the last "tussle", so Jack stays with Lena in 1985... until the first sequel that is! Like I said, despite how mis amigos feel about these movies, I enjoy them almost beyond belief! In fact, the only reason this wasn't one of those PERFECT flix was the way Jack drives (awful straight for turning the wheel so much) and that fucking campy FLASH GORDON gun! But hey, I only took off the one 1/2, so any fans out there (which is like me and some dork in Boca Raton) don't mess yourselves. Why did I say that? I'M BABBLING! MAKE IT STOP!... okay... I'm okay... time for cocaine..

Sequels: TRANCERS II: THE RETURN OF JACK DETH, TRANCERS III: DETH LIVES, TRANCERS 4: JACK OF SWORDS, TRANCERS 5: SUDDEN DETH

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: BLADE RUNNER or THE TERMINATOR