NOWHERE BOY

Nowhere Boy takes a look a John Lennon's life from 1946-1960 and his relationship with his mother and his Aunt Mimi, who raised him. We also briefly see John's Uncle George, who had a huge influence on molding Lennon's sense of humor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson looked somewhat like John (or at least like he could be Julian's brother), and that resemblance and being able to copy Lennon's speech cadence helped make his role believable. 

Nowhere Boy doesn't travel into Beatles territory, although there are subtle references in the film to events/places that appear later in Beatles' songs. As far as the music part of the film, it shows Lennon forming The Quarrymen, how he met Paul McCartney and Paul's friend, George Harrison, and having them join his band. At the end of the movie, John leaves for Hamburg and this is as close to The Beatles as the film gets.

As with any biopic, I'm sure there are probably inaccuracies in Nowhere Boy, but I'll leave those to the Beatles' experts to point out. I will say, I thought Thomas Brodie-Sangster was miscast as Paul, he appeared too young and too short of stature to play Paul. I came away from the movie with a better understanding of what made John Lennon the person he became as an adult. Even if you're not interested in John Lennon, you might still like Nowhere Boy, since it is an excellent family drama, one that just happens to be about a famous person. 

ROCK, ROCK, ROCK

 

Rock, Rock, Rock is primarily a concert film molded around a very slight plot about Tuesday Weld (13 years old at the time) trying to get the right dress for the prom. Most of the songs in the movie are presented during two points in the movie: when Weld and her friend watch The Alan Freed Show on TV and when Alan Freed brings his show to the prom. There are a few other songs in the film that are incorporated as if the movie was a standard musical.

There's a pretty large line-up in Rock, Rock, Rock with notable music acts: Chuck Berry, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, Teddy Randazzo, Alan Freed & His Rock & Roll Band w/"Big" Al Sears, The Johnny Burnette Trio, Lavern Baker, and Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. There are a few other minor acts: Cirino and The Bowties, Jimmy Cavallo and The House Rockers, and child singer Ivy Schulman. Tuesday Weld "sings" two songs, with her vocals supplied by Connie Francis.

My favorite performances in the movie were by Chuck Berry, Johnny Burnette Trio, and Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. There's a little something in the film for everyone: Doo Wop Groups, Rock Groups, R&B singers, Pop singers, and as noted above, even a child novelty singer.  Rock, Rock, Rock moves at a pretty brisk pace, since in 85 minutes it manages to have all the music acts, the other musical performances and the storyline. Although the plot was silly (at least by today's standards), the movie is well worth watching for the great line-up of stars.

DYNAMITE CHICKEN

Dynamite Chicken is a potpourri of skits, old film footage, comedy sketches, spoken word segments, on the street interviews, music and comedy sketches, and lots and lots of naked dancing women. All of these diverse elements are held together with interspersed bits of comedy from Richard Pryor.

Even though the the announced cast listed at the first of the film leads you to believe the movie will have appearances by Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf, they are only seen briefly in archival footage. The only real performance is by Joan Baez who sings a short song. John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear in a clip from The Bed-In and Sha Na Na has a very very short bit in the movie.

Dynamite Chicken is a movie that belongs to its time period (late 60s, early 70s). Viewed in 2013, it now seems terribly dated. If you can view it with the mindset of that period, you might get some enjoyment out of this film. For myself, even being a child of the 60s, I found only Richard Pryor's comedy to be entertaining, the rest of the movie was a pain to get through.

BLAST-OFF GIRLS

Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs), the only horror in Blast-Off Girls is the one experienced by lots of musicians over the years. An unscrupulous manager (who you know is evil since he carries a cane during the whole film) manipulates a group to fame, but he's the only one who receives any monetary gain.

There are two groups featured in the movie, Charlie (a pretty rough but fun sounding group and my favorite of the two) and The Faded Blue (a fairly decent garage band from Chicago). There's lots of music throughout Blast-Off Girls, most of it pretty good, but one number (an instrumental) they play for Col. Sanders (yes, that Col. Sanders) irritated my ears to no end and I was glad when it was over. Some of the songs are lip synced, but a few appear to be recorded live. During the end credits, The Faded Blue/Blast Off have what amounts to a music video, so stay tuned for it.

Is Blast-Off Girls a good movie? Not a chance in hell, it's poorly filmed, poorly acted, poorly edited...well you get the idea...still it entertained me from start to finish. If you don't have the disposition for cheap-ass films (which sometimes I do and sometimes I don't) then you definitely want to pass this one up. But, if you like garage music and want to see what a movie would be like starring an obscure group from The Windy City, then you owe it to yourself to check out Blast-Off Girls. 

DISORDERLIES

 

Anthony Geary (General Hospital's Luke) is deep in gambling debt, but if his uncle (Ralph Bellamy) dies, he can collect his inheritance. To speed his uncle's demise along, he hires three bumbling orderlies (Markie, Buffy & Cool - The Fat Boys). Much to Geary's chagrin, The Fat Boys total ineptness actually works in reverse and they have his uncle feeling better than ever, so Geary has to go to plan B, murder his uncle and blame it on the Disorderlies.

The Fat Boys only perform one number in the movie, "Baby You're A Rich Man". The only other song performance in the film is by Laura Hunter who sings "Work Me Down Down" during a roller rink segment. There are several cameo appearances: Ray Parker, Jr. is a pizza delivery guy; Helen Reddy appears as a socialite; Broadway's Linda Hopkins plays Buffy's mother; Rick Nielsen (wearing a Cheap Trick t-shirt) has his car hijacked by two of The Fat Boys; and The Beach Boys (Brian and Carl Wilson and Mike Love) show up near the end of Disorderlies.

The Fat Boys in Disorderlies are akin to The Three Stooges, but without the sophistication. Maybe in 1987 this movie was funnier, but I doubt it. I don't blame The Fat Boys, they were just stuck in a bad movie and appeared to be giving it their all. The best part of the film was when they performed "Baby, You're A Rich Man".  At least Ralph Bellamy got some practice being in a wheelchair, which came in handy when he played Roosevelt a couple of years later in the TV mini-series War and Remembrance. If only Bellamy as Roosevelt  could have used one of his lines from this movie and told Hitler "Step Off, Homeboy", WWII might have ended sooner.

PURPLE PEOPLE EATER

 

Purple People Eater is based loosely (very loosely) on the song of the same name made popular by Sheb Wooley. In this movie version, Neil Patrick Harris finds some old records which once belonged to his father. When Neil plays Wooley's song, the purple people eater comes down from space. No reason given, it just happens. Purple people eater is one horned and one eyed, but only eats purple people. He's like a big goofy stuffed animal (or a ballpark mascot) and Neil names him Purple. Purple can play the horn out of the top of his head (and sometimes, actual notes are present on screen), so him and Neil form a band, which becomes famous locally and they even cut a record. They use their fame to do a benefit to save some old folks from getting kicked out of their homes by a greedy developer.

There are three musicians of note in Purple People Eater: Chubby Checker makes a guest appearance with the band and sings "Twist It Up ". Sheb Wooley has a part as an old friend of Neil's grandfather and Little Richard appears at the end of the film as the mayor of the town and helps get an ordinance passed saving the old folks from having their rental homes turned into expensive condos.

I'm not going to be too harsh on Purple People Eater because it's really a movie for kids....and I'm a long way from being a kid. For an adult, it's pretty dull with a weak plot and even the acting isn't very good; but I bet there are kids out there who have watched, or would watch this film over and over again.

GET CRAZY

The director, Alan Arkbush worked at the Fillmore East and Get Crazy is his tribute to that venue (and what a poor tribute it is). Get Crazy is set on December 31, 1982 and The Saturn (Fillmore) is in danger of being torn down to make room for a high rise office building. If the evil real estate baron gets his way, this will be the last New Year's Eve concert at the famous music hall.

 

There are a lot of musicians appearing in Get Crazy and they're the only reason I would recommend watching this disaster of a movie. Howard Kaylan of The Turtles plays Captain Cloud (think Jerry Garcia), who arrives with his band The Rainbow Telegraph in a bus that looks very similar to The Merry Pranksters Further bus. Lori Eastside from Kid Creole and The Coconuts is joined by Lee Ving (of the punk band Fear) who plays a character named Piggy (as in Iggy Pop) . Bill Henderson plays King Blues, a ripoff of any great blues artists you might think of and Malcolm McDowell does a great job as a composite of Mick Jagger/David Bowie and his drummer Toad is played by John Densmore of The Doors. Lou Reed plays a version of Bob Dylan and when we first see him in Get Crazy, he's in a set reminiscent of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album cover. Teen Idols Fabian and Bobby Sherman do not perform, but have roles as henchmen to the real estate developer.
 

It's beyond me how the director of Rock n Roll High School, one of the best and goofiest Rock movies ever made, could have made a movie as bad as Get Crazy. Filled with tons of sight gags that would only be humorous to 10-12 year old kids (and even they may be too old for this type of humor),this movie is terrible from start to finish. Even Arkbush, the directo,r has commented he wanted to make a realistic movie about a venue like The Fillmore, but the producer forced him into making an Airplane! type movie. I waited years to  see this out of print movie, since it was loaded with so many great musical stars...what a major disappointment. I have read that Get Crazy has a cult following, all I can say is what kind of kool-aid are they drinking.