Mondo Trasho

It started out as a kind of interesting movie. But then a few minutes later it really started to get boring. About 40 minutes into the movie i started yawning and i had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I really think this movie would have been better if it were just 10 minutes long.

This movie was not anything like SERIAL MOM or CECIL B. DEMENTED or PECKER. It was just boring and unfunny. So if you wanna see a really good funny john waters movie then watch something like those three movies mentioned above. The picture quality is what you would expect from a movie made on the budget of two thousand dollars back in 1969. So even if you are a fan of john waters this is not the kind of movie you would wanna watch.

This is a very early film effort by the REAL gross-out king John Waters who would go on to make one of the most famous and sickest films of all time, Pink Flamingos. The plot follows a day in the life of a hit an run driver after she is distracted by a nude hitchiker and runs over a woman. It has some true 'John Waters' style moments.

All of John Water's films have their quirks and their staying power and each one is truly a beautiful piece of art but nothing comes close to "Mondo Trasho", John's earlier trash epic. Not only does it have a faster pace than some of his other films but the "story" keeps on coming with more and mnore drug induced imagery. Divine, John Water's regular performer, delivers an hilarious over the top performance as a gum chewing trashy splendor, driving about looking for men until she is distracted by a nude hitcher and runs over an un-named fashion fanatic played by Mary Vivian Pearce. In the course of the next 24 hours, they go through a variety of different adventues, each one unique. This film boasts some great performances by the likes of Mink Stole, David Lochary, Divine and Mary Vivian Pearce. The film also features a great soundtrack, comprised of hundreds of John Water's favorite tunes. No good tune is left untouched in this trash epic. The film is definitely a more mild one than, say, "Pink Flamingos", meaning that this film doesn't have a lot of gross acts although it does have chickens being killed for real and toe sucking. This John Waters film is definitely one of his most unkown and one of his best.

"Mondo Trasho" stars a lot of the original Dreamlander crew; Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, Mink Stole -- you name it. This is about the only thing that kept me watching Mondo Trasho was seeing our beloved cult actors prance across the screen and of course Divine shop lifting (who would have thought?). It's interesting to see the Dreamlander crew get up to their old guerrilla tricks, but tedious to sit through its long, silent and uneventful duration.

You can see John Waters used this a reference when he made Cecil B. Demented as the cast and crew were arrested during the making of this film for public obscenities (I won't spoil it). The biggest problem with this film John Waters said himself; this was made a ninety minute film when it should have been twenty minutes. With scenes dragging on and on making you skip about you wish it was a short film. Due to bad pacing a lot of scenes drag on after the humour has gone, the music becomes repetitive and there is no dialogue which is a huge letdown because it's a hoot to listen to Dreamlander's have conversations – whether it be arguing or bonding John Waters always writes hilarious dialogue – but as I said, there is none so it's a letdown. There are of course some redeeming aspects (David Lochay's character) and other scenes with public nudity which provide some insight to the early Dreamlander years.

Mondo Trasho isn't the most perfect movie Waters made, it's littered in amateurish film making but this is a perfect look into what Waters and the Dreamlanders were up to before feature film making. If you aren't a die-hard fan of Waters' films or the Dreamlander's then this will be a waste of time because this is definitely something to be seen by the fans of Waters. This will never see the light of day for a DVD release as copyright laws will forever forbid it (the soundtrack) but you can download it thanks to the internet; it's rare but nowhere near as rare as the early 60's short films. So if you're enough of a fan-boy and you've seen all of John Waters' movies and wanted more like I did then see Mondo Trasho because you're never going to see Divine or David Lochary act ever again.

Seeing any film by John Waters is an "at-your-own-risk" movie experience -- the story of CINDERELLA is one of several fantasy sequences within the film with "foot" or "shoe" themes. The WILD SOUND takes some adjustment for persons used to lip-synched dialogues. The movie could have been edited down to 77 enjoyable minutes, but I think Mr. Waters was preoccupied with including as much shock/schlock into his footage that he possiby could. IT'S WORTH SEEING AT LEAST ONCE. It is curious that Mr. Waters never made a twisted 'JEAN HARLOW' bio story, considering that Mary Vivian Pearce was a startling look-a-like during her teen years. The film is in black & white, and the opening scenes are astonishing!