poj-man I stumbled upon this film on MGM HD. I turned to the channel and here was some flick with a young Jack Nicholson and Dean Stockwell with some young lady with a postcard that reads "Jess Saes: God is in a sugar cube"...or something like that.I figured it was a Roger Corman schlock job I had never heard of. Instead it turns out to be Dick Clark!The film is a hoot when seen through 2017 eyes of someone who grew up in Michigan during the 60's and 70's. I may not have been in San Fran but I certainly knew some of the characters in the movie. Most of them wanted to spend their lives tripping and going to Grateful Dead shows. As may be expected they are also the people who now have a need for serious dental work later in life...but can't afford to pay for it.The dialog is so accurate it is amazing. There is also decades later irony in such statements as Jack Nicholson uttering about San Fran something like "You don't need any bread around here...almost everything is free." My Goodness...Can you imagine what would happen if you transported such a hippie to modern San Fran where it costs a fortune just pay the monthly rent???? This movie documents that San Francisco has now become everything that the hippies in 1969 abhorred!! The house they live in is like straight out of Frank Zappa's Uncle Meat. "We all lived together and balled together and everyone got the crabs." Well...they don't get the crabs in Psych Out...but they should have! :)Then...later in the film...Bruce Dern appears as The Seeker! OMG...he is magnificent as the character! Another psycho played wonderfully by Mr. Dern!Lastly...look up the movie poster art. The art is incredible period piece material. The art is truly Movie Poster material when movie posters were "7-UP Uncola Hippie R Rated Style" productions. Psych Out is a hoot. I am stunned...as a movie buff...that I had never heard of it. It isn't earth shattering material. While hokey in many parts it still presents a pretty accurate view of what acid heads really were like.

tfrizzell A sickening style and a bland story with poorly executed elements make "Psych-Out" spin out of control very fast. A young deaf woman (Susan Strasberg) who can read lips goes to San Francisco looking for her brother (Bruce Dern) who has disappeared and seemingly left society all together. She falls in with a bunch of hippies (led by Jack Nicholson and Dean Stockwell, both way too old even in 1968 to be believable as flower children) and they all decide to look for Dern. Of course Nicholson falls in love with Strasberg and vice versa, but naturally Nicholson believes in free love man and sleeping with many beautiful women that might catch his fancy (real eye rolling material). Stockwell makes himself out to be a medicine man while Nicholson is a would-be rock'n'roll superstar who refuses to conform or follow. Director Richard Rush (a film-maker whose work has always been over-rated in my mind) tries to make a movie to reflect its time period, but really the whole thing is a dud. Nicholson is wasted with the sorry material (as he was throughout the 1960s until his career break with "Easy Rider") and the other people (Dern and Stockwell in particular) are not even around enough to become noteworthy. A forgettable piece from the 1960s. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

Scott_Mercer As I was about two years old when this movie was shot, I missed the whole psychedelic/hippie/Sixties era/attitude/thing, except maybe the very tail end of it. So I was always curious about it. While I realize this is just a movie, even a distorted glimpse of that truly odd and wonderful time and place in America makes watching this more than worthwhile. Nicholson is great as usual. Susan Strasberg is fascinating to watch. Dean Stockwell in a toga and head band is a riot with the line of the film: "It's all one big plastic hassle."The music is awesome, BUT! I must make a note that this is not genuine San Francisco hippie music. The two groups that are heard and seen in the film, the Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Seeds, were both L.A. groups! While both had a distinct sound of their own, neither of them sounded exactly like the classic San Francisco groups such as Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or The Charlatans. (Many L.A. bands would play in San Francisco, and still do, but groups like the SAC would probably be derided by Bay area hippies as too-slick, plastic L.A. bubblegum) A C.D. reissue of the soundtrack would be quite welcome though...Although obviously there was some on-location shooting in San Francisco, many of the scenes were lensed in L.A., including the interiors at Jack's house (shot in a Victorian house in L.A.) and the coffee house/art gallery scenes (shot on a soundstage). Also look out for writer/producer/director Gary Marshall in the coffee house scene at the start of the film, as "The Man"! A lovable time capsule of an era that couldn't last and had to slip away too quickly.

fun_guy20 This movie rocks for 2 reasons: The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock This is pretty much the only time we ever get to see these two 60's bands in action. The plot is good too although the end is pretty far out. I definitly recommend this to anyone who likes to stimulate their mind and watch a good movie. Jack Nicolson is even in it, I mean how cool is that? And this takes place in Haight Ashbury back in the day! Most privately owned video stores still rent this. I have gotten really inspired by this movie because I'm in a psychedelic band.