Hollywood Boulevard II

HOLLYWOOD BLVD. II is not all that special. There is the plot of the Hollywood starlet trying to make it in low-budget filmmaking. There is the psycho on the loose. There is Eddie Deezen, and Ginger Lynn Allen is a semi-legit roll. There's action scenes lifted from Filipino action flicks.

This is slow-moving time-filler, and I felt hungry afterwards. Not a fulfilling event, by any means.

My review was written in February 1991 after watching the movie on MGM/UA video cassette.

Topnotch technical mix of stock footage with new in-jokes makes "Hollywood Boulevard II" a potential cult favorite for video fans of modern B movies.

As with its 1976 forerunner by Joe Dante and Allan Arkush, film is designed to recycle plenty of producer Roger Corman's explosions and set pieces from 20 years of oddball filmmaking in the Philippines, Argentina, etc.

With cute dubbing over these shots and excellent matching to new scenes starring Ginger Lynn Allen, helmer Steve Barnett succeeds n the spoof department without giving the view3er thatold ripped-off feeling.

Allen toplines as an innocent girl (quite an acting stretch after starring in over 100 porn videos) breaking into Hollywood. She's immediately mistaken as an extra and pressed into service in "Space Goddesses of the Universe", directed by pompous helmer Kelly Monteith for cheapjack producer Steve Vinovich at Miracle Pictures.

Some of the gags are old hat (the line "if it's a good picture it's a Miracle" is an old wheeze resuscitated on screen a decade ago by porn distributor Miracle Films), but there's plenty of knowing winks at shoestring filmmaking.

One cute new wrinkle is introduced when a heavy metal band starts playing in the middle of a women's prison escape epic shot in the Philippines. It turns out the group's record label is footing the feature's production costs in return for lensing a music video, so the band is wardrobed to fit the jungle terrain.

The cast isn't as thrilling as last time around, when everyone form Dick Miller and Paul Bartel to Robby the Robot showed up, but Corman puclicity man-turned -director Jim Wynorski has a cute bit as "The Man Who Does Lunch". Joe Bob Briggs, played by his alter ego, former "Variety" newspaper Texas stringer John Bloom, pops up as an advertisement for himself. A roster of directors, ranging from Joe Dante to Katt Shea Ruben, appear briefly at a wrap party.

Allen, who is improving her acting skills, makes a fun heroine, while Magda Harout is amusing as a wardrobe lady constantly boring people with Gloria Swanson-esque tirades about the old Hollywood. Sharp-eyed viewers will want to pay close attention to catch a fleeting jabat Allen's former co-star Traci Lords.

Hello, this movie was nothing like the first two versions. The sauce was not as red, the kilts were not as low-cut (they were at knee-level!), and most I am certain that the props were all fake. One of the most confusing dance numbers I have ever had the honour to see, a virtual explosion of sight and sound in an other-wise flat movie. Five fingers up, mate!