Brian T

PICKUP is one bizarre movie, even without taking drugs! Very very 70's New Age and it just rambles along like a comfortable hallucination that leaves the deciphering of it's point up to you, with just a hint of horror tacked on presumably to garner some kind of a theatrical release outside of, I don't know, post-hippie communes and Werner Erhard seminars. A guy delivering a motorhome to a dealership picks up a couple of dippy (but extremely attractive) chicks for company, gets detoured off the main road and stuck in the everglades, then goes 'back to nature' with one of 'em—running naked through the trees, screwing a lot—while the other one has all sorts of troubling flashbacks (the minister molested me!) and indecipherable visions of a clown dancing in fields, an obsequious zombie-like politician flip-flopping for votes, a black goddess materializing out of thin air, etc. Definitely unlike any B-picture I've ever seen, and probably not a proper "grindhouse" movie; more of an experience than a proper narrative, which means the frame-of-mind-of-the-moment of the viewer will decide whether it's a worthwile experiment or a pretentious load of Me-generation bunk. Down deep, I know it's the latter, but I still lean towards the former since it's quite unique.


Incidentally, several of the titles in the Welcome To The Grindhouse series have turned up in BCI's new 8-Movie-Collections/ Four available so far (links below). It's all Crown International stuff, so there's a pretty good mix in each set, and I stronglyl suspect anything from the "Welcome To The Grindhouse" series that isn't in the sets below will be in the next wave, now that it appears the "Grindhouse" collections are dead (thanks to the Weinsteins?).

And the prices (around $6.50 at DVDPlanet, $6 at Deep Discount) makes them an even better deal, although I'm not sure if they include the "Grindhouse Experience" trailers and snack bar ads since I've only received one of the sets so far and haven't had time to watch it. I've seen a couple of these mentioned at one other site, but it seems few are aware of all four:

AFTER DARK THRILLERS 8 MOVIE COLLECTION
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QQ81YA/
http://www.dvdplanet.com/details.cfm?info=BHV047724

SCHOOL DAZED 8 MOVIE COLLECTION
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QQA288/
http://www.dvdplanet.com/details.cfm?info=BHV047716

DRIVE-IN CULT CLASSICS 8 MOVIE COLLECTION
(includes Pickup, The Teacher, Trip With The Teacher and the classic Malibu High, plus four others new to DVD)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010T3ULQ/
http://www.dvdplanet.com/details.cfm?info=BHV010446

MAXIMUM ACTION 8 MOVIE COLLECTION
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QQBT7G/
http://www.dvdplanet.com/details.cfm?info=BHV047718

Brian T

Crown released a lot of good stuff over the years—good, not great—even if the budgets were lower than AIP and other indies of the era. And a lot of it's in these various BCI sets, and the prices make it easy to sample. Likewise, Crown released a lot of crap—moreso in the very late 80's, early 90's—but there were many distribs lower on the totem pole putting out a LOT worse stuff than this.

Some of these titles are essential drive-in fare: MALIBU HIGH (a definite classic), SUPER CHICK (check out the opening credits Tarantino ripped off for Jackie Brown), POLICE WOMEN, LAS VEGAS LADY, THE VAN (another classic), THE TEACHER, 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA, TOMBOY, MY TUTOR . . .

riotinmyskull

looks like they're now going under the title "exploitation cinema". glad to have the series back.

9/16:
Cemetery Girls/Vampire Hookers
Satan's Slave/Terror

10/14:
Galaxina/Star Crash
Mausoleum/Blood Song
Malibu High/Trip With A Teacher (re-release)