Not Quite Hollywood

Released by: Magnet Releasing
Released on: 10/6/2009
Director: Mark Hartley
Cast: Brian Trenchard Smith, Grant Page, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Lee Curtis, Everett De Roche, Richard Franklin, Antony I. Ginnane, George Lazenby, James Wan
Year: 2008
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The Movie:

The Australian film industry had a bit of a boom in the seventies and eighties, where director's were churning out all manner of trashy sex, action and horror pictures generally made with low budgets and aimed at the drive-in crowd. A lot of these films were and still are a whole lot of fun, many possessed of a culturally unique 'everything but the kitchen sink' mentality, though a large majority remain fairly unknown on western shores. Writer/director Mark Hartley's documentary, Not Quite Hollywood, sets out to shed some light on these films and on the people who made them.

Beginning his piece by explaining how censorship issues start to ease up, Hartley first exposes us to the sex comedies that were popular for a while like Alvin Purple and Stork. Goofy, screwy saucy pictures that evidently did just fine at the box office, the flood gates were set to open with plenty of horror and action pictures soon to come. Director's like Brian Trenchard-Smith and producers like Antony I. Ginanne start churning out films like Escape 2000, Stunt Rock, The Man From Hong Kong, Patrick, Fantasm, Fantasm Comes Again, and plenty more and the once rather humble Australian film industry was now moving in full swing.

Much like the boom days of the Italian and American exploitation scenes, these films are products of their time. There's plenty of rampant sex and gore, boobs and blood, explosions and stunts and as such, many of the folks involved in this stuff have some cool stories to tell. Not Quite Hollywood lets them tell those stories. Yes, it's a clip heavy picture that you could say plays as a greatest hits reel of Aussie trash movies but in between those clips we get to hear from the likes of Brian Trenchard Smith, Grant Page, Jamie Lee Curtis, Everett De Roche, Richard Franklin, Bill Margold, Antony I. Ginnane, George Lazenby, and plenty of others and we also get to hear how these films impacted modern filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and James Wan.

The film makes a case for their inspiration by noting that recent successful Australian genre pictures such as Wolf Creek and Black Water are in essence throw backs to some of the films covered in this picture. There'd be no Black Water were it not for Dark Age and it's nice to see a picture pay tribute to the old guard as it were, particularly as quite a few are no longer around to enjoy the mini-resurgence some of their work now appears to be going through.

The film proves to be a pretty entertaining jaunt. It's never taking itself all too seriously, which is a good thing when you realize how ridiculous a lot of the movies that its discussing were, and most of the interviewees seem to be having a really good time reminiscing here. There's a palpable spirit of fun that runs rampant throughout the picture, and it's as generally interesting as it is humorous. It's by no means a definitive picture as there's still a fair bit of ground left uncovered here and the interviews could have been more in-depth but if nothing else, Not Quite Hollywood will likely inspire you to search out a couple of the films it pulls from and hopefully inspire a few adventurous moviegoers to look down under the next time they're searching for cinematic kicks.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The quality of the image varies from scene to scene, which is completely understandable when you consider that this documentary is a mix of recently shot interview clips and old, archival chunks culled from various sources of varying quality, though generally the clips are in good shape here. The progressive scan 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks quite sharp. Colors and detail levels, for the newly shot footage, look nice and accurate while black levels stay pretty deep. There aren't any problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement to note and the disc is nicely authored. The older footage looks a bit rough in some spots as you'd expect it to, but overall the image quality here is pretty strong.

While the film is pretty much all dialogue, the English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track does do a nice job of spreading out the various songs and bombastic moments from the clips used throughout the documentary to all of the channels in your setup. Bass response is bouncy enough to be noticed while the high end is free of any shrillness. The levels are well balanced and, aside from some archival clips, there are no problems with hiss or distortion. An optional English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is included as are optional subtitles in Spanish only.

Supplements start off nicely with a pretty kickin' commentary track that comes courtesy of writer/director Mark Hartley and the 'Ozploitation Auteurs' - they being Brian Trenchard-Smith, Antony I. Ginanne, John D. Lamond, David Hannay, Richard Brennan, Alan Finnay, Vincent Monton, Grant Page and Roger Ward. With as many participants as this track has, it can be a little tricky keeping everyone separate so it's important that there be a structure to it. Thankfully, Hartley keeps things on track, basically interviewing these guys one at a time or in small groups, allowing them to tell more anecdotes and 'fill in a few gaps' surrounding the stories of these films. The track is pretty much packed with information and it covers a lot of ground that isn't covered in the documentary itself, - it's also interesting to get to hear what some of the participants think of the documentary seeing it now in retrospect.

From there check out the twenty-one deleted scenes that are available on their own or through a 'play all' button. Here you'll find more info on film's like Inn Of The Damned, Alison's Birthday, Nightmares, Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris, Sky Pirates and the like as well as some extra bits with Grant Page, and Eliza Fraser. There's roughly an hour of excised and extended content in here, so set aside some time and dig in!

Next up are three interviews, the first of which is a piece where Quentin Tarantino Interviews Brian Trenchard-Smith (12:59) which turns out to be a surprisingly cool piece. Tarantino has his input but actually lets Trenchard-Smith get plenty of speaking time and the two have a nice, natural chemistry together. There's also an Audio Interview With Richard Franklin (22:46) included here where the director discusses his life and career which is fairly interesting even if the audio quality is a bit low.

Rounding out the extras are a still gallery, some funding pitches from Quentin Tarantino and John D. Lamond (1:23), film's theatrical trailer, trailers for a few other Magnet releases, animated menus and chapter stops.

The Final Word:

While at times it plays out like a greatest hits reel, who cares! Not Quite Hollywood is as entertaining as it is interesting and it does a great job of prying the lid off of the Australian exploitation scene from the late sixties through to the eighties. Magnet's disc looks and sounds just fine and is loaded with some pretty sweet extras too. A fine release through and through!