videorama-759-859391 Leave no 70, 80's film unturned. This excellent, absorbing docu, dredges all those films up, whether by Brian Trenchard Smith, John Lamond, you name it. For me, it's 90 minutes of memories. This doco also has another attribute: Tarantino, who almost becomes part of the Aussie landscape, passing commentary. Bad movies, and bad actors get their justice, and we learn quite a bit about what went on behind the camera with some of these Ozploitation classics. Even Eliza Fraser's mentioned. The majority of them might be bad movies, but they're movies I love and revel in. This Ocker doco really comes off, and is done great justice by all those involved, as we hear directors scold certain actors, and movies that deserve to be scolded. It was fun watching Tarantino and Trenchard Smith converse with the two have a real mutual respect for one another. The doco wouldn't be the same without Quentin, as it wouldn't have that added spark. We catch up with actors, much older now, like the Felicity chick, who hardly had a career. Oz has got it right with this doco. It may not be quite Hollywood, but from all those mostly flashy Oz pics of yesterday, Australia has a modest Hollywood of it's own. Compelling viewing, even on a rewatch.

Michael_Elliott Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Excellent documentary from Mark Hartley takes a look at the Australian film industry with 99% of the detail devoted to the exploitation films that made enough money to where more "serious" filmmakers could have a career. The horrible thing about being a film buff is that you're constantly looking for new subjects to explore and if you're a fan of film like I am then it's highly recommended that you keep a pen and paper handy because this documentary is going to offer up dozens of recommendations. Of course, this is one of those documentaries that are so fun that it makes the films it's discussing seem more interesting but that's really not the point. The point of this documentary was to shine a spotlight on the cinema and I think it was a real home run. We start off taking a look at the early days of censorship and how the walls were broke down, which allowed all sorts of sleaze to enter the pictures. We start off taking a look at how nudity and sex because a booming business and then we see the slasher and horror pictures. From here we see the kung-fu and action pictures. Fans like Quentin Taratino are interviewed about their favorite scenes in various films and we also see the inspiration PATRICK had on his KILL BILL VOL. 1. We also hear from Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and countless other people including many directly involved with a number of the productions that we see clips from.

tomgillespie2002 Five years in the making, director Mark Hartley's documentary is his love-letter to the films he grew up with as a child. Like the majority of us film-lovers, we would occasionally stay up late and watch whatever crap late night television would show, whether it involved giant monsters, lesbian vampires, or gruesome horror. Hartley grew up in Australia, and he witnessed first hand the boom in Australia that saw their most prolific time in movie production, producing some of the most full-on B-movies of the time. Disappointed that writings on Australia cinema always failed to recognise this sub-genre, Hartley sent his synopsis to Quentin Tarantino, a long-time fan of 'ozploitation', who helped Hartley fund the project, and himself sitting in as the key interviewee.As much I love his work, minus the pretty shoddy Death Proof (2007), Tarantino is possibly the most annoying person on Earth. I appreciate his enthusiasm, but he's such a shameless dork that I just want to punch him. And seeing him for long periods of this pretty good documentary just brings the film down. More interesting, however, are the interviews with the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Dennis Hopper, George Lazemby, and probably the most famous and prolific director of the period, Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film certainly opened my eyes to a sub-genre that I have until now neglected (apart from the globally popular Mad Max (1979)) and introduced me some films that actually look pretty good (namely psychokinetic thriller Patrick (1978), which I hope to watch very soon).The documentary itself is obviously designed to be as entertaining as possible. Images, interviews, effects and film-clips fly at you at a relentless speed. Trying to keep in tone with the fast paced enjoyment of the B-movies it is showing, it does this at the cost of allowing the audience to absorb all the information. I don't mean it's hard to keep up with, I would just have liked the pace to slow down a touch so I can differentiate between the films it shows, and the various anecdotes given about their production. At the end of the film I could barely remember any specific films, just a blur of scenes. But like I said, it's certainly fun, and some of the visuals are wonderfully designed, especially the title sequence. Overall, a must-see for exploitation fans - the film is very well researched and Hartley clearly knows his s**t - but nothing exactly ground-breaking for documentary fans.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

ladymidath Having grown up watching these films, it was a pleasure to watch Not Quite Hollywood. It was fast paced and fascinating, the stories were funny and interesting, not at all like the dry boring documentaries that are being put out lately. I would have liked to have seen certain movies mentioned like, Last Of The Knucklemen, The Night The Hunter, The Plumber and Mama's Gone A Hunting, but it covered many long lost gems. Many of these films are among Australia's Lost Films, lost because a certain Premier leased them all to a Panama based company. It is good to see that they are gradually trickling back, but in the meantime, we have this excellent documentary to remind of that we once had a thriving and vibrant film industry.