|
|
Normally I'd avoid Rock Hudson-Doris Day fluff like a brain drain. But after suffering through this mess, I think a Hudson-Day brain drain is better. Apparently producer Corman was chasing after changing youth fashions of the 60's. He'd cornered the market on 50's drive-in fare, but rubber monsters were suddenly out of fashion. So who better to tap into than hipsters Hopper, Fonda, and Nicholson. Thanks to the latter turned screenwriter, we get 80-minutes of repetitive psychedelic effects, and little or no story. Well, maybe if you try piecing together some of the images-- hooded riders, blonde sweeties-- you might come up with something symbolic. But I leave that to a midnight study group. Unfortunately, I thought the promising opening presaged something incisive about commercial advertising. But no such luck. Okay, you can take The bad Trip as an artifact of its time, something about counter-cultural search for meaning through drugs. But even as a psychedelic experience, it's still a lousy movie. Happily, Fonda, Nicholson, and Hopper righted their ship two years later with the epochal Easy Rider, that contrasts this mess like a Rembrandt does with an ink blot.
score /10
dougdoepke 13 January 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3618897/ |
|
1-3-2021 00:05:09