Ah… Can you smell that buttery stale popcorn? Look at all those boxes of brightly-colored, tooth-rotting candy confections! Put down your life savings to buy soda by the bucket! That’s right… We’re going to the movies. As you walk into the auditorium, you hear the familiar skrriitch, skrriiitch of the bottom of your shoes as they stick to the floor with each step. You find a plush seat and fold it down, admiring the stains left behind from all those who had come before to bask in the effervescent illumination of the theatrical experience. Let’s get this movie started! Oh wait… What’s this? Ads reminding me that there are snacks available in the lobby? Yea, I know! Let’s get moving! Ok, here we go… Wait, now I have to sit through prevues of coming attractions. Yes, they look awesome, but you know they won’t be… Oh, wait! The lights are getting dimmer! Now we’re talkin’! Wait… Crap… Nope, now it’s another bumper reminding me not to talk during the movie and all that jazz. Yea, yea… We get it… Ah, and now our feature presentation! Kick back, relax and let time tick by 24 frames per second…

In the ’90s, Mike Vraney, founder of Something Weird Video, unleashed a series of six volumes of Hey Folks! It’s Intermission Time!, each a nearly 2-hour compilation of the kinds of pre-show and intermission bumpers alluded to above, reminding folks about the snack bar, giving messages about not talking or bothering other people, showing previews of coming attractions, advertising local businesses and other miscellaneous clips that one often comes across while watching a movie at the local cineplex or drive-in. These bumpers spanned over 40 years, from the 1940s through the 1980s and ran the gamut from stilted voiceover combined with grainy out of focus photos to elaborately animated concoctions of joy and horror. What AGFA has done for the populace at large is to take the best of these bumpers and ads from across the six volumes and edit them into a deliriously fun cacophony of weirdness, hearkening back to a lost long ago where teens necked in the back of their Chevy Bel-Airs while Steve McQueen ran from the blob on a 60-foot screen in front of them. At times the clips stand on their own as bizarre and/or delightful experiences like the Terry Gilliam-esque theater etiquette clip that opens the mixtape. Other times, it’s the clever editing of audio from one clip over visuals from others that creates an Adult Swim-worthy slab of weird hilarity. Personally I got a lot of enjoyment out of all the extremely unappetizing food being paraded around as if they were fine delicacies (black hot dogs! delicious!), and the wide varieties of animation on display were fun to experience. You could really trace the evolution of animation styles through these bumpers. Another thing I appreciated about the Mixtape is that at 70 minutes it never really became repetitive. For the AGFA/Something Weird crowd, you will find this absolutely delightful.

So I’m not sure it’s even worth discussing the transfer here. What we have are clips taken from a very wide variety of celluloid collected from close to 50 years in various states of damage and decay that have then been transferred to video and released on VHS. As a result, what AGFA had to work with is about as bad as source materials can get without being actively deteriorated due to vinegar syndrome. But with this release, the fading, distortion and scratches actually add to the experience, making the food even more unappetizing, the local commercials even more janky and sad. As you would expect, the audio is also a mixed bag, full of pops, hisses, warping and all other manner of auditory flaws. But again, pristine audio is not the point of this release. The extras are where we really see the meat of the disc. First up, the Mixtape includes an audio commentary with Bret Berg and Joseph A. Ziembo, both AGFA knuckleheads who worked on editing the mixtape. It’s a fun track with both guys talking about how they mixed things together, their inspirations and other assorted comments on the madness as it unfolds. The chunkiest extra by far is that this two-disc set includes all six of the original Hey Folks! It’s Intermission Time! volumes produced by Something Weird back in the ’90s. And yes, I watched ALL OF THEM. Watching close to twelve hours of these pre-show and intermission bumpers in roughly two days can start to melt your brain. I personally don’t recommend it. Spread these viewings out over several months perhaps… It also will give you a true appreciation of what the AGFA guys have done by distilling the constant repetitive barrage of nonsense down to 70 minutes. Additionally, the disc includes an insert with an essay by Lisa Petrucci of Something Weird giving some more background on the original of the Intermission Time tapes and Vraney’s passion for collecting them. It’s a nice and appreciated supplement that gives some useful context for the release.

Folks, what AGFA + Something Weird have given us here with the Hey Folks! It’s the Intermission Time Mixtape is an absolute banger of a party movie. Put this sucker on when you have a group of friends over, and a good time is practically guaranteed.