Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Wonderfully cheeseball 80s scifi flick, about Jack Deth, an ex-cop, (or bounty hunter, something like that) begins in the 23rd century, with Deth being sent back in time to 1985 LA, to sort of retroactively eliminate trancers: mindless zombies controlled by a guy called Whistler, who uses them to do his evil bidding. Whistler has gone into the past to kill the ancestors of those who try to stop him in the future, and Jack Deth is sent to inhabit the body of one of his own ancestors, to try to stop Whistler. Opening scenes have effects straight out of an old 1950s kiddie movie, but that's part of the fun. We've had killer Santas, now we have a Trancer Santa (I can't even type that without chuckling at how ridiculous it sounds) In the future, L.A. is underwater, Jack Deth is even searching for the underwater remains of Grauman's Chinese Theatre! Helen Hunt, back when she was still really cute, takes Deth to hear a punk band playing Jingle Bells. Tim Thomerson is a blast as Jack Deth, clad in a trenchcoat, cigarette dangling from one side of his mouth, often times illuminated by neon lighting, he looks like a character straight out of a 1940s B-movie. The goofball even strikes a match on his teeth! The (many) sequels, of varying quality, never could match the charm and wonder of this; nor could its maker, Charles Band.

Jack Deth is a Trancer hunter from the future, chasing arch-enemy and trancer guru cult leader Martin Whistler through time, but not in your ordinary time machine. Time travel(in the original film) is only possible by sending a person's consciousness into a D.N.A. relative/ancestor. Deth hooks up with Leena (the lovely Helen Hunt in an early, hair-dyed-blue role), and together they hunt for the ancestors of two future council members, who if killed by Whistler, will destroy the future.I love this movie. This is one of those cult classics which I would say is representative of the b-movie/low budget style of some of the best stuff in sci-fi/horror/fantasy th 80's had to offer. It's got a cool, far-fetched storyline and despite it's lower budget, it does wonders with its effects. Truly good stuff from director Charles Band, who not too much later formed his Full Moon Entertainment, which released the entertaining Trancers sequels.

I saw "Trancers" on Joe Bob Briggs's show "Monstervision" one night some years ago. Briggs explained how it was a "Terminator" rip off in which a man goes back in time to stop someone. Obviously, that violates the paradox of time travel (meaning that if you change one thing in history, the future gets completely altered). But the overall point is that this movie is kinda silly - although I was surprised to learn that Helen Hunt was starring in movies all the way back then.I understand that it was the '80s, and thus many movies seemed like clones of each other. Well, the rules still apply. This movie is only good as pure entertainment value.

Oh, the decade of 80, how many memories... it was an unforgettable time in all the aspects: fashion, music, movies, finally, in all the cultural manifestations. Trancers it's a film that belongs to that time, and for that it should be analyzed is tended that in mind. It's an action piece, labeled of B-Movie, but that gets to accomplish your role very well of entertaining. The history, as all the ones that work with the subject of the displacement in the time, it's very cool. Tim Thomerson faces with a lot of honesty your role and it gets to transmit Jack Deth's afflictions well. Helen Hunt as usual gets to give life and a same depth tone emotionally in such a simple character. It's also always very cool to see the L.A. of the 80's , only that would already be worthwhile Good movies are those that arrest you in the screen, for that parameter " Trancers'' is a Hit!!! And just for reminding, the continuations are also fine, of course not so much as that, but they are not the dirt that is announced thereabout...