Train Ride to Hollywood

Oddly enough, I remember seeing this movie back when it first came out. Maybe the fact I was young in age made it more memorable for me *shrug*. I liked it...to this day I find myself humming "get your ticket, get your ticket, ya gotta have your ticket for the train ride". Perhaps it's also in part that I grew up listening to the Sinceres aka Bloodstone on the Radio and Records at home. Granted it isn't on par with any Cinematic greats...but for a cheesy 70s film it isn't that bad..especially for a vehicle for a 70s Band. This movie is a tad better than Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (imho). If you want a thinking movie, yeah get something else..but for a fun look at a "classic" 70s cheesy movie there is far worse. Heck, I have to admit I've seen worse movies in the 2000s that were MEANT to be "serious"...at least this one was meant to be "fun".

I saw 'Train Ride To Hollywood' on cable TV as a kid a couple of years or so after it was in the theaters, and it is the weirdest musical I have ever seen. Some scenes in this movie made me cringe, and other scenes were flat-out painful to watch. What redeems 'Train Ride To Hollywood' is the music.

Bloodstone were a great band, and their interpretations of old songs and their own material blended seamlessly here. The "Rock and Roll Choo-Choo" and "Money (That's What I Want)" scenes stand out for Bloodstone's ability to assert themselves as ROCK AND ROLL musicians, reclaiming rock and roll as black music and delivering memorable performances (the "Money" scene gives us Willis Draffen doing a Chuck Berry duck walk to put the exclamation point on rock and roll as black music while Harry Williams delivers an astonishing vocal).

I would have changed the storyline considerably by getting rid of one character (the snooty director who keeps getting pied) and possibly coming up with a different one instead, and also rewriting the murder "mystery" subplot, but hey, too late. The two non-Bloodstone performances that stand out are Guy Marks as Humphrey Bogart and Roberta Collins as Jean Harlow, whose take on the 1930s blonde legend is haunting. Collins could have had a great career if her hard partying hadn't ruined her.

We saw this movie when it was released in 1978. It was one of the silliest movies that I had ever seen, but I go to the movies to escape from real life, to be entertained. This movie had great musical numbers (I've had the soundtrack for 15 years) and quite a few entertaining moments. If you're a 30s or 40s movie buff and a fan of the old Fred Astaire musicals, you'll like the dance numbers alone. If you can sit back and see the humor in life, just let yourself go, then you'll enjoy "TRAINRIDE TO HOLLYWOOD".

This is a fun, silly movie which takes very bizarre and unexpected turns. But I've watched the "Train Ride" musical number over and over again. It's worth the rental. As they say, "Get your ticket get your ticket you gotta have a ticket for this train ride..."

This really is pathetic. Nothing to recommend it other than 2 good oldies. Bad acting, bad direction, bad script, bad music. How did this movie ever get made...and released by a major studio! You can buy the movie Letter-boxed, but why anyone would want to is beyond me (unless of course they're in it, but I'd be too embarrassed to admit to that).