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Not Quite Hollywood
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Release : | 2008 |
Rating : | 7.6 |
Studio : | Magnolia Pictures, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Phillip Adams Glory Annen Christine Amor Briony Behets Steve Bisley |
Genre : | Comedy Documentary |
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
You can watch NOT QUITE Hollywood as an eye-opening history of a somewhat under-appreciated subgenre or as simply a "greatest hits" of mind-blowing genre film moments. You will quite literally lose track of all the boobs, explosions, car crashes, mutilations, exploding heads and insane stunts offered up here. (I wanted to immediately watch it again to see all the stuff I missed!) A fantastically entertaining documentary, highly recommended to fans of action, horror, or any kind of exploitation film.The film serves as a great starting point to research some fun flicks (I immediately sought out TURKEY SHOOT). But if you just want to watch a string of crazy, outrageous movie moments regardless of appreciating their context, go for it. You win either way.
Not Quite Hollywood isn't a great documentary - in some ways the quality of its editing and how the interviews and clips are put together resembles a longer DVD special feature 'making-of' history than a documentary. But it is really fantastic for someone like myself, who is always on the look-see for new and exciting (or just trashy) movies. I was aware of some of the Ozploitation films of the 70's and 80's, mostly through coming across some films of Philippe Mora (The Howling III, Mad Dog Morgan, Return of Captain Invincible, two of those three very good, one not so much), and of course Mad Max, which is like the creme-de-la-creme of the output. But there was more, much more, and if you're into crazy B-movie or just genre entertainment, it gives invaluable lots of new finds - it's like, to quote Superbad, a Ghostbusters Treasure-Trove of Aussie-movies! Not all of the movies look as appealing as they should. The one group that looked underwhelming just from the clips were the sex comedies, which, God bless em, looked like low-rent rip-offs of John Waters movies (i.e. Pink Flamingos), which is saying a lot. It's when the doc gets into the bloody, trashy and actually well-crafted stuff that it gets interesting. Better than that, filmmakers will come up on your radar you may have only heard in passing before. The big one here is Brian Trenchard Smith, who made a career out of just going to town with crazy car crashes, anything-goes horror, and intense action, and as his first film, kung-fu (The Man from Hong Kong, which provides one of the most entertaining sections of the film as *everyone* hates on the lead Asian star). By the time the doc ends, not only will you know Smith's name and how his films look so ballsy, but want to check out most of them as genuine articles of exploitation-fare.Other names are good to know too, like the man who makes Long Weekend, an animal-attack movie that has high production quality, or the movie Patrick by Richard Franklin (an intense admirer of Hitchcock), and written by multiple Ozsploitation writer Everett De Roche. Of course we get Quentin Tarantino expounding his love for so many of these films- and sometimes not so much (the "What is this s***" moment about one film in particular is very funny). But it's the actors and filmmakers and the critics, both the praising and the damning, that give the film a good boost as far as nuggets of the making-of the movies. As a documentary the best it does is to do what many good documentaries do: inform about a subject one doesn't know so much about, with a little history (like Decade Under the Influence early on it talks about the changing times in Australia), and as a guide for movie-geeks it's like Christmas has arrived.
Documentary of Australian exploitation films from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. They're presented in three section--the sex movies, the horror movies and the action movies. There's generous clips from various movies with LARGE doses of nudity (male and female), sex, blood and gore (I'm really surprised this got by with an R rating). There's also some very interesting interviews with the directors, producers, film critics and actors from the various films. Quentin Tarantino introduces each film.I was looking forward to this a lot. I love exploitation films and thought this might be fun. It was--but I felt it was lacking somewhat. For one thing Tarantino gets annoying. It seems he loves each and every film which I question ("Road Games" is one of the most boring "thrillers" I've seen). Also with the exception of a few I haven't seen any of these films. They do explain them and why they're here--but I didn't know what EXACTLY they were talking about. The best parts were the interviews with the actors and actresses who talk about why they did the films and how they feel about them. It was especially surprising to see Jamie Lee Curtis discussing "Road Games"! This is (obviously) for a very limited audience but it is fun and interesting. Just quite lacking something to put it over. I wanted to like it so much more but, as it stands, I can only give it a 7.
I saw this film at the Amsterdam Film festival last week, what a blast from the past! This Doco was well executed and totally engrossing, accurate and entertaining. As an Aussie your not aware of the type of films we were offered at that time, its other nationalities which identify our styles years later, we just grew up with it and accepted it as the norm. Its great to see Tarrantino so enthusiastic about the Aussie film industry, the genre which was identified was the B films which at the time of release were considered OK, but these films have stood the test of time, what once was ridiculed as being rubbish is now being seen in a completely new light. I was surprised that Tarrantino talked at length about the film, "Long Weekend" which he considers on of his 5 favorite Aussie Horror films, at the time of watching it in the cinema i remember thinking this was one of the best made Aussie films i had ever seen... so... great minds think alike!!Watch this doco if you have any interest in the Aussie film industry, its a real eye opener and very well made. thumbs up and a big 10!