Pick-up

Wow! I'm just a sucker for stuff like this. A real trippy trip and a real surprise. I was expecting crap camera-work, crap acting and silly story comprising a decent little, grind house piece of sleaze. But no, someone had genuine aspirations here and if it doesn't completely come off, it is certainly a super, one off of a movie that manages to encapsulate a brief moment in western youth culture. But leaving aside any seriousness this is such a great movie to watch with such super widescreen cinematography. Two girls and a guy and a converted bus are cavorting their way to deliver the said auto when they end up lost in the Everglades and just decide to enjoy themselves. Bright, cheery, sexy, yes maybe a little pretentious but it has such a glow about it that it would be churlish to complain. Just when I was beginning to wonder if this was going anywhere at all there is a most impressive burst of violence and it's over. You won't have seen a film quite like this before.

When I selected this film out of a Drive-In Classics set, I was expecting a typical "don't hitchhike" exploitation / horror movie. What I actually got was something far more bizarre and interesting. Long story made short, two girls hitch a ride on a mobile home and end up stuck in the Everglades. Lots of sexual hijinks ensue.

What separates this film from any number of exploitation movies are the bizarre visions experienced by one mentally disturbed character. Although they border on the nonsensical, these sequences show a level of creativity not usually associated with this genre. Furthermore, whether by careful restoration, good quality film stock, or sheer luck, the film looks far better than many mainstream films from the 70s now on DVD.

That said, this film is not the work of art some fans make it out to be. The dialogue is often laughable, particularly in the case of the exasperated boss of the mobile home driver. Furthermore, the "Everglades" looks like it is actually an amusement park's safari ride- highly manicured and obviously not really wild. The sex scenes are basically soft core, and go on for so long that they become boring.

Overall, I cannot recommend this movie, but at the same time, it is just weird enough to be worth a rental.

Strangely this movie got released again recently as part of a "Grindhouse Double Feature" DVD. Aside from the abundant nudity and softcore groping, it is not really what I expected. Rather than being sleazy and gritty like most old grindhouse movies, it's kind of arty, a little pretentious, and mostly just plain weird. It doesn't really fit in with stuff like "Hitchhike to Hell" or "The Hitchhikers" or the more exploitative youth-oriented films of the era.

A guy driving a tricked-out camper van and making some kind of mysterious delivery picks up two hippie chicks. One of them is a nymphomaniac, so of course they immediately have sex. The other is revealed to be suffering from religious delusions as the result of having been molested by a priest (a straight priest?--now I've heard everything!). After the threesome break down in the Florida Everglades the secrets of the girls begin to be revealed a little with flashbacks (between the sex scenes), but the movie also gets exponentially weirder.

As others have said the two girls are VERY pretty and not like the sleazy skanks that were often in these kind of movies. The cinematography is also very impressive and professional, and for a "grindhouse" movie they sure used a good looking, wide-screen print. The low-budget IS evidenced by a lack of sync sound in a lot of places (which might be the reason for the kind of nebulous plot and character development). With its emphasis on the visuals at the expense of plot and acting, this almost seems like a foreign movie of that era--like maybe Jean Rollin was slumming in the Florida Everglades. All in all, I guess I'd recommend it, especially if you're looking for a weird, arty hippie movie, but it seems pretty mis-marketed as a "grindhouse" flick.

This is essentially a movie with no story. What starts out as a road trip movie turns into some bad dada-esque, head trip.

Carol and Maureen, two sexy and carefree girls, are hanging out in Florida out in a field near the highway. Along comes Chuck, a good-looking California surfer stud whose driving a RV (they were called mobile homes back then). He offers them a ride and they can't resist. Carol takes to Chuck immediately and flirts with him while they travel. Meanwhile, in the back of the trailer, the dark and mysterious Maureen is deep into her tarot cards and astrology. She's foreseeing danger ahead.

Instead of any real kind of story, what we get is Chuck and Carol running naked through a field and having lots of sex while Maureen looks on envious of the couple. But then eventually she gets her turn with the stud too. Interspersed in all this sex is lots of trippy, psychedelic imagery, groovy music, nude women, sinister clowns and other confusion. It's perfect for a drive-in where hardly anyone is paying attention anyway cuz most of the audience was making out or socializing or a lot of stoners will get a trip watching. Otherwise, this is a complete waste of time unless you want to catch some T&A.

I am beginning to think that I wasted my money on the Drive-In Cult Classics set!!!! This is the third movie that I watched from this 8-pack set and they are just getting worse and worse. I am not expecting academy award winners but I was expecting something at least watchable. The only good thing about this movie was the cool bus!!! I've seen hotter soft core porn on the late night Oxygen Channel show "Bliss". I do have to admit that the two lead women are 70's exploitation HOTTIES and that's why I'm giving this film 2 stars for obviously naked reasons. I sure do hope these movies in this set get better.