jfarms1956 The film, the Projectionist, is geared towards those who like weird, cult-type films. I watched this because I usually like to see Rodney Dangerfield. This is Rodney's film debut. This film only gives a glimpse of Rodney Dangerfield's acting/comedic ability. He is not starring as a typical Rodney Dangerfield character. This is a strange film and was difficult to follow. With the exception of seeing Rodney's first flick, watching this film was a total waste of time for me. However, others might like this type of flick to watch. This is not a prime time film. I could see a young college type crowd watching this movie while partying. Definitely, not my cup of tea.

Tad Pole . . . THE PROJECTIONIST is the sort of hit-and-miss, brilliant-one-minute\mediocre-the-next, "all over the map" mash-up that every Tom, Dick, and Harry is doing on the internet nowadays. Chunky Chuck McCann as the title character has an (on-screen) imagination filled with Nazis, war, Ku Kluxers, riots, science fiction horror, lynchings, assassinations, machine-gun fire, Busby Berkeley female kaleidoscopic formations, gang fights, dinosaurs, explosions, cavalry charges, burning dirigibles, concentration camp carnage, super heroes, arch villains, crackpot evangelists, and nude chicks on bearskin rugs. Adolph Hitler features most prominently. References to actual movies are everywhere--on projectionist Fred C. Dobbs' big screen at the Palace Theater, on his film poster-papered apartment walls, and on the marquees of the sidewalks he haunts while off-duty. His brain is filled with snippets from dozens of movies sampled here (director Harry Hurwitz sometimes needs to split the screen five ways to cram everything in). McCann as Dobbs "does" Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, and James Stewart, among others. Did this obscure flick "inspire" Monty Python, Benny Hill, Laugh-In, That was the Week That Was, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and BE KIND, REWIND? Who is to know?

Charles Herold (cherold) Odd little movie about a dumpy projectionist who wanders around not doing much but fantasizing about movies, imagining himself as a superhero and making up stories for friends about his love life. The film is predominately film clips strung together as rather uninteresting collages.I've seen this movie described as one you have to love if you're a film buff. Well, I'm a film buff, and I recognized tons of the clips, and I found the movie quite tedious. The film collages seemed pointless and rather pretentious (especially when you start getting a lot of Hitler footage). The superhero section aims to be a comedic silent take of old movie serials, but the physical humor invariably falls flat.I don't see this movie as something for film buffs. I see it as something for people who like somewhat arty films that reference movies, which is something else altogether.

John Seal The Projectionist is not a great film, but it IS a film that every self-respecting movie fan will love, in whole or in part. Chuck McCann plays a union projectionist who escapes from his day job via black and white fantasy sequences where he 'plays' an overweight super hero or a bit part in Casablanca. The film also features footage from Buck Rogers and lots of other old movies, parodies of Universal horrors, the trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still (original version of course!), and copious newsreel footage featuring Hitler, Mussolini, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John and Bobby Kennedy, and others. We also get Rodney Dangerfield, who gives the best film performance of his career as the manager of the decaying bijou where McCann works, beautiful Ina Balin (sans dialogue) as The Projectionist's (fantasy?) girlfriend, and a bittersweet semi-autobiographical turn by Czech émigré Jara Kohout as the theater's concessions salesman. An obvious labor of love for writer-director-costar Harry Hurwitz, this prophetic post-modern salute to the magic of the motion picture will appeal to admirers of Mohsen Makhmalbhaf's Once Upon a Time...Cinema and Bill Morrison's Decasia, as well as those who just want to soak up some circa 1970 Times Square atmosphere.