It Came from Hollywood

The film's genesis came from the Golden Turkey Awards books by the Medved Brothers, but got morphed into a sorta Cult Movie version of the THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! Series. It features clips from dozens of B movies separated into segments like: Aliens, Gorillas, Monsters, The Brain, Giants and Tiny People, Technical Triumphs, Troubled Teenagers, Prevues/Coming Attractions and A Salute to Edward D. Wood, Jr.. The chapters were hosted by Comedians Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Cheech and Chong and Gilda Radner.

IT moves pretty quickly and has some laughs along its 80 minute runtime. IT was where I first encounted the glories of THE GIANT CLAW on the big screen! Some of the dozens of movies excerpted include PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, ROBOT MONSTER, THE CRAWLING EYE, TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, REPTILICUS, THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN and ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES.

Unfortunately, Directors Malcolm & Andrew Solt included clips from some very good movies including THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN and THE DAY THE EARTH STILL (and over the objections of the oriiginal Director and the Medveds). It definitely takes away from the experience, and some of the comedy intros seem quickly tossed together.

Unfortunately, IT CAME FROM HOLLYWOOD hasn't been available legally since the days of VHS and Laserdisc because of rights issues over the myriad of clips. A DVD was announced 20 years ago, but never issued. You can easily find it on YouTube and through grey-marked DVD dealers. It's worth seeking out.

Several top comedians of the early 1980s (Gilda Radner, Cheech & Chong, John Candy, and Dan Aykrod) host a salmagundi of clips from low budget films, mostly from the 1950s, but some dating as far back as the early talkie era, and a few as recent as the mid-1970s. The clips are tidily compartmented into chapters(monsters, juvenile delinquents, gorillas, etc.), each bookended by a Saturday Night Live type of comedy sketch.

IT CAME FROM HOLLYWOOD is an early entry in the MST3K/RIFFTRAX ambit of pop culture satire, and as such, it has its moments. It doesn't present enough academic insight to qualify as a documentary, however, which may come as a disappointment to some cinephiles, but it did introduce the immortal Edward D. Wood, Jr. Into the mainstream conscience collective(in a manner less celebratory than sneering with schadenfreude). The films selected are all over the board...some are not particularly low quality, and a few are even widely regarded as classics. There was a good idea here, but it lacks the knowledgeable supervision it really needed to succeed. It's also rather dated, existing as a fossil from the time when a certain age bracket looked back with adult eyes at the quaintly naive and repressive America they grew up in with a nostalgic, irreverent snicker.

All things considered, an enjoyable enough misfire saved by the presence of its comedy icons. 5/10.

Good intentions aside, at times I had trouble really getting into this pleasantly interactive, short-lived little documentary/Mystery Science Theater 3000 style arrangement that presents a variety of random clips from supposedly old b-grade to z-grade Hollywood features (though its hard to grasp why "War of the Worlds", "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" made its way in) that are set-up through specific genders (monsters, gorillas, animals going berserk, brains, troubled teenagers, Ed Wood, Aliens, giants and musicals) with them being wittily dissected/or informatively discussed by comedians Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Gilda Radner, Cheech and Chong. The thing was I thought the best moments actually involved the crazy movie clips themselves, than that of it focusing on its mugging stars and the wraparound sequences. The problem was that I found most of the remarks (which at times were surprisingly sparse) not to be all that funny, well Cheech and Chong came across more so genuinely smooth in their humour within the cinema (especially Chong at the candy bar and sitting their watching the films) and it came across an inspired choice for them to rip on the eccentrically pitched cautionary drug movies. However some of those scenes with the other stars in between the collection of clips just didn't gel, as for one Aykroyd really did get on my nerves. Some skits were better implemented than roughly penned others, but the feature does feel like one big trailer (or movie preview) for bad schlock movies… some which are hard to believe you're actually seeing it on screen. Nothing is safe in the wryly tongue-in-cheek "It Came from Hollywood".

I've always enjoyed this hodge-podge of "bad" movie scenes and previews. But only for the previews themselves. Unfortunately, this movie takes a very smug and pompous attitude toward its subject matter, largely due to the fact that Golden Turkey Award creator Michael and Harry Medved were "advisors" on the project.

Anyone who is a real fan of these movies enjoys them for the silly schlock that they are. The Medveds revel in ridiculing and lampooning them with no appreciation for them at all. Surprisingly, this is the sense one gets from hosts Dan Aykroyd and John Candy, two performers one would think would have a special place in their hearts for these classics.

Only Cheech and Chong and Gilda Radner seem to get into the spirit of things. While Candy and Aykroyd poke fun and insult the movies, Cheech, Chong and Radner play along with them, and create some genuine laughs.

But the real stars are the clips themselves, which are great fun and great nostalgia. Oddly, amid these "bad" movies are such recognized classics as THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Scenes from outrageously over-the-top cautionary films about sex and marijuana are utterly hilarious.

Highlights are Chong ordering a truckload of candy at the concession stand and Radner doing her little girl schtick from Saturday night live.

When this film first came in 1982, it gave me chance to see many old clips and trailers from old horror and science fiction flicks with a few clips from unusual films other film genres thrown in. In 1982, unlike today, not many old horror/science fiction films were out on video and these films were getting harder to see on TV. So watching this was the closest for me to seeing many of these films again and parts of ones I missed. I really didn't pay much attention to the wrap around sequences provided by Gilda Radner and others, except for the parts with Cheech and Chong, whom I have always found stupid and annoying. I found their presence here repugnant then, and I still do. At the time I overlooked the films repulsively arrogant, condescending attitude it adopts towards these old films.

Now however, viewing this film, there is no longer a reason (for me at least) for this films existence because:

1)Almost all of the films excerpted in this film are obtainable on video, some even on DVD for you high tech yuppies, if you know right places to look.

2)The so called "funny" wrap around sequences featuring many comedians were not considered very good when this film first came out, and they look even worse today. These sequences have accomplished what seems to be the impossible - making clips from notoriously boring turkeys like ROCKET ATTACK USA somehow seem more interesting then they really are. But that is no credit to the comedians or the films makers. Its that these wrap around sequences are so dull, that the films they attempt to lampoon seem exciting in comparison.

3)The films overall smarmy, cynically condescending attitude towards these films becomes annoying. Granted, a good percentage of these films are turkeys like ROBOT MONSTER and PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. Some are only mediocre, but a few are generally and rightfully so, regarded as classic films like WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Others like are ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE, while rebuffed by "mainstream" movie watchers, is generally highly regarded by knowledgeable fans of horror and science fiction movies. Apparently, the writers of this sorry excuse for a film were suffering from the limited, narrow minded view that if its science fiction or horror, its automatically worthless.

4) This film features Cheech and Chong, a comedy team whose own career has been made on appealing to the lowest common denominator in public taste. Throughout their long and dubious one joke career, they have managed to make even the worst Jerry Lewis films seem brilliant. Its a tad bit hypocritical for two stars of some of the worst movies ever made to make fun of other peoples movies. The bad films excerpted here look like Oscar winners when compared to films like UP IN SMOKE.

5) The only wrap around sequence I found appealing was the clips of various female monsters while the fifties classic "Whats Your Name?" played on the sound track.

Thank you and have a nice day.