This unscripted bit of banal surrealism about the Fabs sharing a bus with a pack of loons is mercifully short, though it includes a colorful Busby Berkeley homage set to “Your Mother Should Know.” A rarely humbled Paul McCartney— whose turn as a fey wizard ranks among the lowlights—admitted afterward, “We don’t say it was a good film.”
Armed with thick outer-borough accents, Gene Simmons and Co. battle a mad scientist who has taken over an amusement park. The ghastly acting and Scooby Doo–level script transformed this modest made-for-TV movie—finally issued on DVD this year—into a Rosetta stone of ’70s camp.
Disappointed that Purple Rain wasn’t preachy enough and didn’t have any keytar? This is your movie! Morris Day remains a hoot as Prince’s bumptious nemesis. But this feature, written and directed by the Napoleonic Minnesotan, is so lacking in narrative and characterization that it makes Under the Cherry Moon look Oscar-worthy.
Hey, remember the ’90s? Turns out they were just as indulgent as the ’80s, as evidenced in this slice of cringe-inducing nostalgia, directed by Farrell at the peak of Jane’s Addiction’s power. Combining live footage with nightmarish visuals of fatal drug overdoses and necrophilia, it also sports full-frontal shots of Farrell’s li’l lollapalooza.
By 1975, Daryl Dragon was the nautical-hat-wearing half of chart-topping syrupy soft-pop duo Captain & Tennille, famous for such yacht-rock gems as “Muskrat Love” and “Love Will Keep Us Together.” But in 1964, Dragon and his two brothers (Dennis, later of SoCal jokesters the Surf Punks, and Doug) were a promising new act on Capitol Records with a sound that presaged the moon-eyed mysticism of the Doors and the jaunty pop of the Turtles. “Our following got bigger and bigger, and the [shows] got more and more crazy,” says Doug, 67. “Then, lo and behold, right around the corner were the Beatles. I went, ‘Uh-oh.’” The trio were no match for the Fab Four, and Capitol dropped the band and shelved their debut album, BFI.
It remained there, unheard and unreleased, until this year. DJ Strictly Kev of London beat-freak label Ninja Tune found a Dragons cut on the soundtrack to the 1973 surf movie A Sea for Yourself and, when he contacted Dennis about licensing it, learned there was a whole album. Remastered and available for the first time, BFI is rife with organ-filled romps, blue-eyed psych soul, and plenty of trippy pre–Pro Tools trickery. Ninja Tune is so pleased with the record that it hopes to exhume even more Dragons material, which makes a certain salty old Captain very proud. “Since music went digital, the production techniques have not been as advanced,” says Daryl, 65. “But I think quality is being rediscovered.” JOSH WIMMER
COURTES Y DAF T AR TS (DAF T PUNK); KE YS TONE PIC TURES AGENC Y/ZUMA (BEATLES); EVERE T T COLLEC TION (KISS); WARNER BROS/ THE KOBAL
COLLEC TION (SIMON); WARNER BROS/EVERE T T COLLEC TION (PRINCE); BBC/DES TIN Y PRODS/ THE KOBAL COLLEC TION/SEBAS TIAN, LORE Y (D YLAN); DONN LANDEE (DRAGON); MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GE T T Y IMAGES (CAP TAIN)
Simon wrote and starred in this sleepy dramedy, stretching as a nebbishy Jewish rock star, soon after appearing in Annie Hall, and the whole enterprise reeks of second-rate Woody. Despite its sanctimonious tone, the film features appealing turns from the B- 52’s (as themselves) and Lou Reed (as an unctuous record producer).
Considering that Dylan’s director and cowriter, Larry Charles, worked on a string of comic successes (Borat, Seinfeld), it’s strange that this inscrutable, celebrity-flooded movie is stuffed with cutesy references to old Zimmy songs and ’60s paranoia and...nothing else. Why couldn’t Bob have settled for a Curb Your Enthusiasm cameo?
Using the nom de cinema Bernard Shakey, Young cowrote and codirected this with future Quantum Leap star Dean Stockwell. But with clunky dialogue and haven’t-finished-reading-the-manual-yet cinematography, the sci-fi tale about a diner near a nuclear power plant would barely rate as a student film. It’s salvaged only by Devo’s cameo as singing blue-collar drones.
Written and directed by the electronic duo, this trifle is uniquely French in its pretentiousness. The two Daft robots drive a Ferrari, take long walks through the desert, and desperately, violently wish they were human. Camus, it’s not. Those who came of age after 1916 may be disappointed that this movie is not a “talkie.” JAY RUT TENBERG
References:
http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Meets-Phantom-Peter-Criss/dp/B00000F4IS
http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Meets-Phantom-Peter-Criss/dp/B00000F4IS
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/video/janes_addiction/gift/137:137
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