Just in time for Independence Day, one of the most unabashedly patriotic action movies ever made gets the grand Trailers from Hell treatment as 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II becomes the latest recipient of a TFH commentary courtesy of Alan Spencer, the creator of the cult classic action comedy television series Sledge Hammer! and Bullet in the Face.

Whew, that was a mouthful. You can check out the video here below.

For Groundhog Day today, we proudly present — what else? — the trailer for the 1993 Harold Ramis comedy Groundhog Day, which starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

The trailer here comes from the site Trailers From Hell, a site in which trailers for films (classic, cult, and otherwise) are run with some brief commentary wraparounds from esteemed directors or other people involved in the biz. Screenwriter/director Chris Wilkinson (Nixon, Ali) is at the helm here for this one, in which he pokes fun at the repetitive narrative of the film, in which the character played by Murray finds himself having to relive his day over and over again, with of course the typical comedic results one would usually find in a Murray-led vehicle such as this.

Check out the Trailers From Hell version of the movie trailer here below.

I don’t know about you, but Psycho IV: The Beginning was never on my radar. The 1990 direct-to-cable TV movie served as a prequel and sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film Psycho (1960) and saw star Anthony Perkins return as Norman Bates.

Perkins, who starred in and directed the previous film, Psycho III, was skipped over as director for Psycho IV and Universal brought on Mick Garris (Critters 2) instead.

Garris recently did a short commentary on Psycho IV for Trailers From Hell, where he talked about directing veteran actor Anthony Perkins and E.T. star Henry Thomas on the sequel and stepping into the shoes of the master Alfred Hitchcock.

Check out the 3-minute commentary video here below.

Trailers from Hell! Volume Two
DVD
Starring Joe Dante, John Landis, Guillermo Del Toro, and Roger Corman
Shout! Factory
Release Date: July 5, 2011

I love DVD collections of old movie trailers. Since 2005, Synapse Films has been releasing volumes of classic grindhouse and drive-in exploitation trailers on DVD under the 42nd Street Forever and early this year unleashed their first Blu-ray edition in the series. One of those discs can provide an entire evening’s entertainment for the true connoisseur of cinema. Independent home video distributors understand the slim but still lucrative market value of a movie trailer collection. If you ask a bunch of people what their favorite part of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez B-movie double feature homage Grindhouse was, chances are most of them will say they loved the spoof trailers directed by Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Rodriguez. Movie geek meccas like the Alamo Drafthouse and the New Beverly Cinema often program vintage trailers to go along with that night’s film selection. People still make their old trailer compilations for fun. Roth even talked about making a feature film in the form of a reel of trailers.

Trailers from Hell is a highly-addictive website where film directors, writers, and producers provide introductions and commentaries for the trailers to some of their favorite films. From beloved classics to obscure cult flicks, from Oscar-winning epics to kinetic blasts of pure psychotronic insanity, there is no vintage preview that the TFH crew will not unearth and gab about to the delight of movie geeks everywhere. They’ve even started releasing DVD collections of the finest trailers and commentaries on their site that they could secure the rights to through the amazing Shout! Factory, a true friend to film fans with expansive DVD and Blu-ray libraries (and this is the part where yours truly sheepishly raises his hand). So with that in mind I bring you Trailers from Hell! Volume Two.