barkingchimp Reviews

Schlock (1973)

The Funniest Movie I Ever Saw

[10/10 · 31 May 2005]

*WARNING: MORE THAN ANY OTHER MOVIE THAT COMES TO MIND, THIS IS A TRUE CULT MOVIE! WATCHING IT COULD CAUSE DANGEROUS NEW THOUGHTS IN YOUR HEAD* DO you understand the above warning? If you don't get that statement, or don't like what it implies, you will HATE this movie. I sat alone in a theatre in a rotten, crummy little one-horse town in the Midwest and saw this movie in 1973. I laughed harder that night than I have since.

The film violates every possible rule of good taste, all conceivable social norms, and is terrifically long on puns and non-sequiturs. It is a positive wealth of sight gags. this is not highbrow movie by any stretch of the imagination, but low comedy was one thing in the 70's and something less now: it is probably "too hip for the room" at the dawn of the 21st century.

Think of this movie as a knowing "wink" at the audience. It says, "we're going to play a game here--I'm going to pretend to be a movie, and you're going to pretend to be an audience...all you have to do as the audience is to get the joke." "Schlock" is a satire of a lost genre of horror films: the "caveman" movie (specifically it is a first rate send up of one of the classic bad movies of all time: "Trog").

If you watch bad movies for their unintentional comedy, if you think Mel Brook's first six movies are funny, then you're going to love this. On the other hand, if you think that the three funniest movies ever made were "Scary Movie I," "Scary Movie II," and "Not Another Teen Movie," then avoid this at all costs.

Listening to You: The Who at the Isle of Wight 1970 (1998 TV Special)

This is amazing!

[10/10 · 27 May 2005]

What is contained on this disk is a first rate show by a first rate band. This disc is NOT for the faint of heart...the music is incredibly intense, and VERY cool. What you will learn when you watch this movie is just why the Who was so huge for so long. It is true that their records were great, but their shows were the top of the heap. In 1969 when this concert was shot, the screaming teenie boppers that threw jelly beans at the Beatles were gone and bands (and audiences) had settled down to long and often amazing displays of musical virtuosity--something that few audiences have the intellectual curiosity to pursue in the age of canned music by Britney and Christina. What you especially learn here are the amazing things that can happen when gifted musicians are encouraged to improvise. Try the concert out, it really is amazing.

Roadie (1980)

What You Really Want From A Cult Movie

[10/10 · 27 May 2005]

As an "old guy" with a nervous disposition who has enough trouble sitting through many movies once, the ultimate tribute I can give this great "on the road" rock'n'roll saga is that I watched it numerous times when it was on cable in 1981, I have watched it several dozens of times on VHS, and now that it's on DVD, I have watched it several times again. You can put a lot of mileage on this road movie. The film has a rock'n'roll backdrop—a backdrop we rarely see from the workingman's eye the way we do here. The movie gives us what amounts to real-world views of several 70's favorites (Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, Blondie, etc.). It has a great premise, the howling self-reliant "Everything Works If You Let It" theme. It also enjoys a background soundtrack that fires on all twelve cylinders. But what keeps me watching the film is that it is really funny in an honest, straight-forward way that we have enjoyed far too seldom since Hollywood started grinding out its cookie-cutter farces in the wake of "Airplane." The dual surprises of the film are the really solid performances put in by Alice Cooper and Meatloaf in their respective roles as rock star and roadie. I am unqualified in my admiration of this movie, but I will tightly qualify the people to whom I would suggest the film. This is a "cult" movie in the most real sense of the word and anyone who is made nervous by rock music, farce that is outside of the "Scary Movie" mainstream, or three-hundred pound leading men (Meatloaf) should avoid this movie at all costs. Also, there is a certain good IL' boy mentality at work here that will not play for some parts of the audience. But to the core audience of the film, these are not qualifications, they are recommendations. The thing I am saddest about is that the movie's soundtrack is no longer available. The soundtrack was worth having simply for the long and messy "Brainlock" which plays during one of the few really funny car chases in the history of film.