American Expendables (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[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.

b*ll*ts cannot k*ll 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 w*r zone,

the underworld cities have

become electronic fortresses.

And the only hope is an

ex-cop.

NARRATOR: They

k*lled his partner

and created the perfect

k*lling 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 sh**t

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 w*r, you

have to k*ll to survive.

[expl*si*n]

On the streets of

New York, the choice

is the same for

the exterminator.

The search is on.

The police are chasing a k*ller

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

k*ller, a serial k*ller

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 k*ll 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 w*r.

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.

[expl*si*n]

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 sh**t 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 sh**t 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

k*lling 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,

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an exciting journey through time

and space where a 12-year-old

boy must make a desperate

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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 k*lled my teacher.

You k*lled 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, sh**ting 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 sh**t 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, m*therf*cker!

[g*nshots]

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 sh*t!

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 expl*sive 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 f*cked.

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, f*ck 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]