Hallucination Generation

Some guy named Bill decides to hang out in the Island of Ibiza. There, he meets all sorts of weirdos, including a German girl who, oddly, seems to be speaking with a French accent. And everybody seems to hang out at George Montgomery's house, smoking weed all day. Montgomery claims he is doing some kind of scientific research. What he should have been doing was firing his agent. Bill and the German girl get hitched, and at the wedding party, we are treated to Montgomery wearing some kind of plant in his hair, another guy dressed like Julius Caesar, and Steve Rowland singing a few songs. Trust me, the plant on Montgomery's hair is the most entertaining of the three items. Eventually Bill and his fraulein split up, and Bill ends up at Montgomery's pad with the other losers. Montgomery slips Bill some acid, and says, "This will smooth out all that fear in you ... all that hate ... turn it into something like purple, something like velvet. It'll be like walking down Fifth Avenue ... on your head." Then we get treated to about a 10-minute acid trip, complete with color shots and Montgomery wearing cannibal paint.

Bill and some other clown get suckered into robbing an old guy, who gets killed in the process. Bill's partner tries to pin the blame on Bill. Bill wanders around the streets and collapses. A guy in a suit gives Bill a cigarette and invites him to his house. The guy lets Bill freshen up in his bathroom. Then he offers to "help" Bill, but Bill takes off. Draw your own conclusions. Bill ends up at a church, the cops arrest every American in the film, and the credits roll.

This has to be one of the most boring movies of all time. Danny Stone, as Bill, narrates most of the film as if he were in a trance. The sound was out of sync, and the mix of Spanish and American accents made me think I was watching one of those Mexican wrestling films, like "Samson vs the Vampire Women" (which was a whole lot better than this piece of crap). I have no idea why Montgomery did this film, unless he was vacationing in Spain at the time and needed to kill a few hours. Most of his dialogue is incoherent: "This universe is a jawbreaker ... a sourball ... lemon flavor, round and hard." Maybe after a few acid trips, I'll think the same way. To paraphrase Timothy Leary, "turn off, tune out, drop dead."

I was hoping that this might be a corny 'period piece' like so many from that era. Certainly most of those films are not much in the first place but this one was just really dull. It was like someone's personal story which only they seemed to think of as being interesting. It was not. Most of the story was talk talk talk though there were a couple of odd parts where it seemed someone was on drugs and seeing scary mask faces. Yawn. Someone posted a glowing review of this movie, and I can only say that one would have to have been fried out on drugs to find this movie even more than slightly interesting.

If it's not available on VHS, it should be. But ONLY on VHS. Not on any other media newer than the 1970's. Really just a very poor film.

Fairly interminable drugsploitation offering about a group of beatnik types in the Balearic Islands who increasingly experiment with LSD to disastrous effect. It leads them onto a life of crime! Watch out you impressionable fools - those bennies lead to murder! The film is shot in monochrome but kicks into colour when everybody is tripping (that old chestnut). Like a lot of drug films its not really very good unfortunately. I guess this one could be considered a Reefer Madness for the counter-culture generation but it lacks that earlier film's demented wrongheadedness. Just say no!

I mean my mom saw this movie the first time in Saratoga, California when the commune did a movie one summer night in 68. I visited her last month and we went to San Francisco (she lives in Sunnyvale, California now) and we saw the movie together at The Haight. I wish I was alive in the 60s it's so tight and she said that the movie was just like when she was going to San Jose State and joined a commune near Ben Lomand near Santa Cruz, California and did them for one summer. They used to go to this place called The Cow Palace in south San Francisco for weekend concerts that summer and also went to this place called Winterland and hang for a week or so. I mean like they have the Hallucination Generation at The Haight as a film, so why can't I buy it in at least VHS if not a movie of this quality and historical value should be available in DVD. It is really a shame and if anyone knows where I can buy this movie for my mother and me I would appreciate it if you could email me as soon as possible.

Billy Williams (Danny Stone, looking like a young and broody Bob Dylan) is an American drifter in Ibiza, one of the Spanish Balaeric Islands. His mother stops sending him money and he's forced to take up a life of crime and drug abuse. He's manipulated by Eric (George Montgomery), a sleazy importer and amateur chemist who likes to spike peoples drinks with his homemade drug cocktails. The film hints at all sorts of debauchery but can't bring itself to actually show any drug usage other than the occasional furtive pot puff. Shot in an horrifically ugly brown tint, the best parts of the film are the Brakhage-style psychedelic trip sequences. Not the worst of its kind, the film benefits from location photography, but overall looks like it was made five to ten years earlier.