Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
The Trip
Collapse
-
- Published: 03-24-2016, 08:36 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Trip, The
Released By: Olive Films
Released On: March 22, 2016
Director: Roger Corman
Cast: Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Susan Strasberg, Dennis Hopper
Year: 1967
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Thank you, Jack Nicholson. And I'm not talking about the many times that he's brought us joy through some crazed acting role, raised eyebrows or axe-waving; no, I'm talking about the gift that he gave us in writing 1967's AIP Roger Corman psychedelic monstrosity, the Lovely Sort of Death brought to us in "Psychedelic Color"....The Trip. Paul (Peter Fonda) is a successful west coast television commercial director, immersed in a reluctant divorce, and searching for something to make his life, largely perfect to most, complete. Fortunately for Paul, his career has given him access to all of the groovy people in town, and a visit to the very hip Max (Dennis Hopper) with his friend and LSD guru John (Bruce Dern) provides the tools required for such a search; 250 micrograms of pure Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.
Establishing a safe home base for such a vacation to the mind's eye is key, so Paul rounds up some poetry, music, and a Super-8 camera, and attempts to shake off his nervous feeling. John does his job as an experienced guru, advising Paul to turn off his mind, relax, and float downstream....no, really...inspiring faith and confidence. But just in case, he also informs Paul that he's got Thorazine on hand in case of the dreaded "Bad Trip". Things start out well enough, with Paul experiencing bursts of colour, tangerine dreams, marmalade skies, kaleidoscope eyes and visions of making love to beautiful women overlapped with psychedelic patterns. He even falls in love with an orange, man, which is like a sun, a sun, man, in his hand, and warmth and life are spilling out and it's groovy.
But, as all good things must come to an end, his visions of love and colour give way to haunted houses, foggy caves, cackling witches and a stew-serving dwarf, prompting Paul to dive naked into the swimming pool, after which he emerges for a full-frontal man-cuddle with John, begging for the Thorazine (wonderfully sampled at the beginning of Ministry's, "Just One Fix"). And when John disappears quickly into the kitchen to get his friend some calming apple juice, Paul cleverly hides briefly in the closet, battling coats in a strobing colour fight for freedom, after which he flees from the house into the darkness of night with a head full of chemicals and some whacky ideas about social etiquette. Lock your doors and warn the neighbours....The Trip has only just begun, and nobody, not even the occupants of late-night laundromats will be the same.
Few movies will make you feel slighted that you missed the privilege of seeing it in the theatre, and The Trip is definitely one of those films. Essentially 80 minutes of crazy acid visuals, this is the epitome of a "Head" movie (Nicholson would, in fact, make The Monkees' "Head" his next writing project), with very little in the way of storyline. Still, it's endlessly entertaining, with the jarring, stilted lingo of the times and Fonda's naivety providing constant mirth. And though the visuals are pretty dated almost 50 years after it ws made, Corman and Nicholson somehow manage to capture the essence of tripping your balls off in a roomful of straight people. Trust me on that one. And, of course, The Trip maintains the amazing aesthetic of Corman's AIP films more commonly associated with the Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe films that so many of us love.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Olive brings The Trip to Blu-ray in a 1.85:1 AVC-encoded transfer that looks great, considering the age and what appears to be minimal restoration done to the elements. As such, there's a healthy amount of grain present, and the occasional emergence of film damage or dirt, but the earlier-mentioned Corman/AIP aesthetic is preserved perfectly. Outdoor scenes are clear and brilliant, detail is crisp throughout, and the visual effects have to be seen to be believed...the colour palette here is stunning.
A surround track would've probably provided for a more immersive experience, but the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track does a great job as well, with dialogue carried clearly and consistently, balanced nicely with the psychedelic score. No distortion or any other issues were overly apparent, and a bag of mushrooms or high-powered blotter will probably make the audible experience that much better.
There are no subtitles available.
A Trailer, fun and funky as it is, is the only extra to be found on the disc, which is sad, considering the worthy supplements found on the DVD, and available in other regions. It should be noted that the menu choices are made by moving a blob around on the screen, but no text is available to indicate what you are actually picking...trippy, man.
The Final Word:
It's an outdated, wacky display of 60's psychedelia, but The Trip is a whole lot of fun. And if you were one of those people who were getting high in '67 and had the chance to experience this on the big screen, I tip my hat to you. For the rest of us, the Olive Blu-ray is the next best thing.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (270)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4138)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -