Down on Us

Horrible all the way around. Only if interest for fans of REALLY obscure cinema, I rate this for the bottom 200. In fact I would put this right at number 50, because like everything else in this piece of garbage it has Just Enough to save it from a 1 star rating.

First the Good. The Jimi Hendrix actor is passable. Jim looks like a Halloween costume, and Janis looks nothing at all like Janis Joplin.

All the songs are soundalikes, obviously as a movie of this budget could never get the rights to classic hits. BUT, the soundalikes honestly do sound like what the artist would be doing in 1982, had they lived. Too bad this movie takes place in 1968-1971. Get my drift? There is enough here to bear watching this train smash --- but only to have it fail 90% of the time.

The actual story was kinda decent, has it been directed by an Oliver Stone, we might have an actual movie here.

The budget SEVERELY limits this film... instead of Janis's signature 1/5th of SOCO she drinks from a pint of whatever, and even uses and 80's style juicer.

In the scene where the UK cover of Electric Ladyland is shot, instead of a mountain of nude women, we get 2 topless ones...

It goes on and on and on... deserves a Rifftrack... but this movie runs 2 HOURS... are you kidding? Only of interest to people who like to go to sleep or vomit. It's bad.

Larry Buchanan. Yep, same guy who did "Attack of the THE Eye Creatures" and two (count 'em: TWO) conspiracy movies about Marilyn Monroe. He's to blame, here.

Adding onto his ever-growing pile of folders left over from Oliver Stone's "eh-I-grew-out-of-it" conspiracy drawer, here's "Down On Us (i.e.- "Beyond the Doors") which is the working definition of historical inaccuracy.

Forget everything you THOUGHT you knew about Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, says Big Lar', cuz this is the real deal! Y'see, the three big names in rock of the '60s were KILLED BY THE GOVERNMENT because they were subversives or counter-productive to Truth, Justice and the American Way, or sumpthin' like that there. I knew it all along.

Anyway, three people (Chatman, Meryl, Wolf) who look eerily like their real life shadows (that is, if you completely close your eyes, turn your backs and walk five miles away from them) show that instead of their recorded deaths, the good old US of A put hits out on them! Yep, it's the truth!

Man, I cannot believed I watched this movie. It's facts, when not stretching credibility to the snapping point, are ludicrous; the acting makes TV commercials look like high drama and if you honestly watch it through to the end, you deserve the "twist" ending. You really, really do; I swear. Genius.

But like the man said: "Rock and roll is dead - long live rock and roll."

Not this flick, though.

No stars for "Down on Us". And that's the movie audience describing the film, by the way....

Schlock master Larry Buchanan combines his love of conspiracy theories with his amazing ability to present unrealistic history in this movie, perhaps the worst rock music related film ever made. The actors only vaguely resemble Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, and produce amusing sound alike fake music for the soundtrack. All musical performances take place on the same cheap set which is said to be in different places all over the world. Everything has an extreme bargain basement quality about it. A lot more fun to watch than Woodstock.

Many people think that drugs were the reason that three top rock stars in the early seventies all died of "Drug Overdoses" within a one year period. People are afraid to ask why. That is, everyone except Larry Buchanan. Larry is not afraid to put his ass on the line to tell the truth. As a famous rock journalist with over two decades in the trenches, I take my hat off to Larry for laying out a courageous and extremely plausible scenario! Watch this film and learn the truth. But remember, you might not like what you'll discover about your government!

I am usually very forgiving when it comes to low budget movies. I accept them for what they are and some have a quaint, perhaps overly ambitious but unpretentious charm about them. This is not one of those movies.

For one thing, this movie clocks in at almost two full hours. About half of the running time includes actors performing songs no one ever heard of as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Only song you will recognize is the Star Spangled Banner which was performed at Woodstock on a gray morning. In the movie, its a small stage indoors. Anyone expecting this movie to have an hour of real concert footage of the three stars mixed in are mistaken. Again, this movie is two hours long and that just summed up half of it.

It is very easy to look up the chain of events that led to Jimi, Janis and Jim's death now. Back in the mid 80s, it wasnt so easy. The basic premise of the story is the government targeted these three rock stars for assassination. The reasons are not really well explained. Paranoia that they had some political power? Paranoia over the influence they had on the baby boomer generation? At first it looked like paranoia over their views of the Vietnam war but that didnt last. The story is built around an unfinished autobiography of an agent who is killed presumably to cover up the events. How this agent learns about the things he isnt there in scenes is not explained.

The movie often looks like mid 80s instead of late 60s/early 70s where it was set. The New York club scene is very 80s to the point I thought the Tom Tom Club and Cindi Lauper would make a flamboyant appearance. If I walked in on that one scene, id think Jimi Janis and Jim lived into the 80s and that was the big surprise in the plot. I probably would respect this movie more if it did have a twist like that.

There is tons of small budget showing up in the movie. Again, i accept that if there is some entertainment value but it is hard to find entertainment in this movie because of these weird music performances. I can't really fault the acting considering the script they had to work with. Its a shame they couldnt buy the rights to perform the songs the artists are known for but honestly, i dont think it would be worth the money to do that.

There is a funny scene with veteran b movie actor, Richard Kennedy as J Edgar Hoover takes a phone call in a dress. Yes, we know the stories alleged about Hoover but it was still funny to see.

Overall, the story is nil and quite boring with alot of music that only vaguely resembles anything Hendrix, Joplin or the Doors did. 2 hours is a far too long for a movie of this quality. I admire the overly ambitious subject matter but this is definitely a pretentious offering from Larry Buchanan and I didn't see that quaint charm shining through on this effort.