Monday, June 25, 2012

Bikini Spring Break (2012) with Robert Carradine!


Robert Carradine is back in the NEW (2012) movie Bikini Spring Break from Asylum, the people who make those low budget rip offs of big budget films (ie. Transformers = Transmorphers, Thor = Almighty Thor, etc).  Just in time for, well, SUMMER break, Bikini Spring Break is, naturally, the low budget rip off of this movie, relying on what Fred Olen Ray would call the "cheapest special effect," bare-assed ladies.

The plot has a group of marching band musicians on the way to "nationals," but they break down in some town where they have Jello wrestling events in the middle of the day. With the advent of free hardcore internet pornography, the topless, plotless spring break film has become a rarity. This movie keeps the bottoms on and the expectations low. Robert Carradine, as it turns out, is pretty believable as a surly, old alcoholic, probably thanks to Sam Fuller (a surly, old alcoholic). The four leads are all charming and able to make the characters distinct from one another.

Let's not beat around the bush, though. Bikini Spring Break has no budget; stadium crowd scenes feature, like, 20 people, the town is supposed to be bustling with spring break craziness, but the girls run into the same three characters over and over again. Whatever, you know what you're getting into. They don't try to  have spaceships or battle scenes or anything too demanding.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Crown International Pictures Double Feature!


 Crown International Pictures started up in the early 60s (late 50s?) and were a lower rent AIP; they had no graduates like Scorcese, Coppola or Jack Nicholson, but they had Robert Carradine! Pom Pom Girls and Malibu Beach are two examples of rambling 70s T&A comedies that cram a bunch of gags into a scant 80 minutes. POM POM GIRLS PLOT: There's a couple of high school goofballs trying to make it with as many hot girls as possible while a prank war rages, a bully is jealous of Robert Carradine. MALIBU BEACH PLOT: There's a couple of high school goofballs trying to make it with as many hot girls as possible at Malibu Beach, a bully is jealous of an actor who is not Robert Carradine. There's quite a bit of overlap as you can well imagine, for instance, the casts feature a number of the same actors and both films feature a game of chicken and car wrecks. Malibu Beach features a fake shark with gas and a dog that snatches bikini tops, Pom Pom Girls features a 70s make-out van, a food fight and the girls locker room. We found these in a 10-pack of Crown International movies, highly recommended.