Okay. We’ve been working behind the scenes on the basic software that runs the AICN machine for the past however-many-months, and in that time, I’ve been trying to get used to it. I’m technotarded. I write on the internet because it’s a convenient mode of publication and distribution, not because I’m remotely computer-literate. I still write all my first drafts for pretty much everything in longhand in little black notebooks. While we’ve been updating the site and getting familiar with the way it works (and making sure it actually works the way it’s supposed to work), I discontinued the publication of my DVD blog, which I was publishing on the side over at Typepad.

I promised that I would be continuing the sort of coverage I was doing on that DVD blog over here at AICN, and so far, that has not been the case. Now I think we’re finally ready to start, so I’m going to give it a test run this week. For those of you who weren’t reading the blog, it was just a way of me to document my general DVD intake, creating more reviews than weekly “what’s being released” lists. Long reviews, short reviews, or even just random free-form conversations like my VIRGINS FROM HELL “review”. It was a much more loose and fun format than the weekly release charts I’ve been doing here on the main page.

That’s changing today. We’re going to start with just daily articles. At least once a day (and often more than once a day), you’ll be getting my DVD blog. Old titles, new titles, stuff you guys send me... whatever crosses the desk is what gets discussed. That’s the way I watch my films, and it feels to much like I’m shilling for goods when I’m just talking about new releases on the day of. There’s amazing stuff I watch every day, and not all of it is brand-spanking-new.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new format. I want your feedback, though, and I take it seriously. I think you’ll see a wider range of material covered, but if there’s something more you want to see, you’ll have to tell me. I’ll still be doing the weekly release list, but it’ll be much simpler in format, and not the end-all be-all of our coverage.

I’ll be honest. This is what I enjoy doing the most. I published the DVD blog on a fairly relentless schedule for close to a year, just to test the format, and I think it’s the best way for me to express just how drunk on movies I remain, even after ten years of doing this online. This is the least political form of writing about films, and I personally hate the second-guessing and hyper-scrutiny that exists around just trying to have a conversation about film. DVD pushes all that bullshit to the side. It’s the great equalizer. A film is just a film. Every DVD in the player has the same opportunity to entertain you. It doesn’t matter how much money was spent making that disc. It just comes down to whether or not you feel like it’s time well-spent.

This week, I didn’t post a new release list, but if I had, I would have picked 42ND STREET FOREVER, VOL. 2 as the best title of the week:

This is the second time Synapse Films poobah Don May has put out one of these exploitation trailer mix tapes, and just like the first volume, this is a home run. This is one of the most purely entertaining sits I’ve had all year, and I’ve played the entire disc through at least three or four times now.

I admit it. I’m a shameless bitch for movie trailers, particularly from the era when I was a kid going to theaters in Florida. There was one great shitbox theater that my friends and I went to that had kids matinees during the day and crazy programming for adults at night, and the thing that made the theater so beloved among my peer group was the way they showed the same trailer reels at both sets of programming, and the trailer reels would be 15 minutes long, packed with previews for cartoons and horror movies and car chase redneck pictures and mainstream crap, all randomly tossed in. Some of the trailers we saw were better than any movie our parents would take us to at the time.

And in recent years, I rediscovered my love for these trailers at the Alamo Drafthouse, where I feel like a junkie getting my hit every time I go.

Tim League is like a great DJ at a club, and he's also willing to invite in other "guest DJs" like the incomparable Anthony Timpson, and when the Drafthouse really goes all out, you end up with trailer rings like no where else. And I think the best efforts ever are traditionally during the Quentin Tarantino Film Festivals and BNAT, when they use the trailers to not only set the mood for what’s about to be shown, but also to respond to what was just shown. Anyone who ever enjoyed the way that STUNT ROCK trailer ripped the back wall off the place every time it showed understands just what the right trailer can do at the right time.

42nd STREET FOREVER, VOL 2: THE DEUCE is beautifully programmed. Just the cover of the disc gives you a hint of what you’re in for. I see Billy Jack lurking there, and Ms. 45 and a one-sheet for THE POM POM GIRLS. Looks good to me. Sure enough, Abel Ferrara’s MS 45 and BORN LOSERS, the biker flick that introduced Tom Laughlin’s Billy Jack character, are the first two previews on the disc. As you watch, you notice that May has grouped similar films together, and as a result, it’s almost like you’re watching a feature that starts as a biker film and then turns into a cruising movie about the car culture, and then suddenly becomes a blacksploitation film that gives way to a sexploitation film that’s also a giant monster movie, a spy movie, a gladiator movie, and a roller-disco film about a samurai. I’d pay to see that film, and watching this film, it’s like it exists. This would be great at a film nerd party to just have playing in the background, but it’s also just as much fun to sit and watch and enjoy as a whole.

I think Don found the best possible prints for each of these trailers. They’re not all in good shape, but then again, that’s part of the thing I love when I see these trailers in a theater. They’ve been around. They’ve been shown. They’re somewhat worn out. That sense of having been well-used carries a pretty hefty nostalgic charge for me.

And if you buy a copy, I may well get to see a third volume in the future, and that would be a very good thing, so do you and me both the favor. Pick it up, enjoy the shit out of it, and let’s cross our fingers that Don May does some more.

On that note, we’re off and running. Welcome back to the DVD Blog, here on AICN for the very first time. We're going to start with a once a day schedule, and let's see how that goes. I'm sure we'll be running just as soon as we prove we can walk.

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles