all_movies_suck

That about sums it up. Bathers is interesting for the first 10 minutes or so... but it's soon apparent this is a very static, repetitive story. The girls dance, the girls talk, the girls dance, the girls talk. It's like the cinematic equivalent of a really bad, too-long disco song. For some, seeing nekkid women may be entertaining enough, but The Bathers just goes nowhere. Some of the acting and dialogue is fairly good, though.

Well... I like bad movies. So this isn't exactly the worst bad movie I've ever seen. It's sort of entertaining, at least, to laugh at a bit. But as for the "punk" part of "Punk Vacation"... uh, don't look here for punk rock stuff. This ain't no "Suburbia," not even "Class of 1984." At least those movies had actual punk bands perform in them, but "Punk Vacation" has a sort of mock-punk soundtrack and a bunch of pseudo-punkish people with bad makeup and studded wristbands. At least at one point the punks try to start a revolution by shooting all the cops in the small desert town they're "vacationing" in. Too bad they're stopped thanks to the "Predator"-style booby traps laid by the wily, sexy deputy. Good for a laugh as to what clueless Hollywood types think "punk" is all about.

..."Blank Generation" is at least worth a look if you enjoy Richard Hell's music. I love his stuff, personally, so the few live performances in the film are definite highlights. Other than that, it's a pretty boring love/hate story between Hell and French ex-Bond Girl Carole Bouquet (sp? oh well...).

Hell is no actor, and neither is anyone else in the movie. In fact, all the acting flat out sucks. One scene which actually shows a little promise is the one between Billy (Hell) and Nada (Bouquet) as they drive along in his car trying to decide what to do on a dreary New York Friday afternoon. After Billy changes his mind three or four times, Nada freaks out and throws him out of the car. That's about it. Even that scene is more comic than anything -- so if that was the intention, great, but if the director was trying to coax some drama out of the script there, well, he failed. Even Hell is almost cracking a smile during the scene.

Still... the live performances ("Liars Beware," "Blank Generation" and "Love Comes in Spurts") are hot stuff. Too bad there are only three live numbers in "Blank Generation", and a little snippet of Hell "recording" "New Pleasures" is sort of goofy, but cool. So unless you're a big Hell fan, or want to see the barely five minute long Andy Warhol interview sequence, skip it.