Porklips Now

"Hardware Wars" has its moments, but *every* moment in "Porklips Now" works for me. From Billy Gray's uncanny Sheen-like look and sound, to the incredibly and purposefully stupid dialog, to the spot-on Brando take at the end, "Porklips" is a masterpiece. When I first saw this on the original VHS tape that included "Hardware Wars" and "Bambi Meets Godzilla", I was working in a small video store where we were allowed to watch just about anything we wanted. This became a prized screening choice among all of us who had seen "Apocalypse Now", to the extent that we had to restrain ourselves from showing it every day, lest we grow tired of it. That never happened, btw . . . We need a DVD!

"Never get out of the car. Mertz got out of the car. Then he got out of the car business..."

Did you like "Apocalypse Now" ? Then you should love "Porklips Now," probably the greatest no-budget amateur film (the indy hadn't yet been invented) of the '80s. Spot-on parody fantastically directed with truly bizarre performances. Skewers its target in less than 30 minutes with the best Brando impression of all time.

Why the heck isn't this available on DVD (along with director Ernie Fosselius' "Hardware Wars") ? And why didn't Fosselius end up directing feature comedies ?? Your mission is to find this film. And you're not borrowing my raggedy VHS copy.

The way Ernie catches the whole mood and style with what was probably a super 8 camera and a dull patch of suburbia is amazing. The writing was incredible in the way he turned his bad clichés into almost sensible strings of thought, not to mention the great camera work. We've all heard of stream of consciousness, I guess you'd call this stream of punconsciousness.

Every time I see this, I actually manage to see something new, be it one of the ads that flash by way to fast, or something so obvious you slap yourself for missing it before. The attention to detail is much better than several big budget movies manage, it's too bad that big budget directors aren't required to make at least ONE no-budget film.

One doesn't NEED to see Apocalypse Now to get this movie, (Yet another sign of it's quality) but it would definitely help. I saw this after seeing the original, but I would love to see someone see them in the opposite order and watch their reactions. Although Apocalypse Now has many 'black comedy' moments, seeing Porklips Now first will probably have a very interesting effect on what gets laughed at.

I give this a full 5 stars

The single best movie parody of all time. This short includes all of the major themes and "quotable quotes" of the movie applied to an absurd topic. It was timely (release within a year of the original movie), well produced and executed, included an actor who had been lost to popular attention (wasn't he dead?), and even included some of the hype surrounding the original. If you view any one movie parody, this is the one. The real question is -- where is it?

This movie is way way better then "Apocalypse Now".

It's not too funny. But You'll be able watch this without fast-forwarding through it.

Skip "Apocalypse Now" but pick this one up at your local video store.