Not Quite Hollywood is an hilarious, entertaining and informative look at the history of Australian exploitation film making from the late sixties through the eighties. From the sex comedy knock off of Alfie, titled Alvin, to the Jaws knock off Razorback, director Mark Hartley examines the flip side of the industry that gave us Remains of the Day and Breaker Morant. The industry, best known for the Mad Max trilogy, put out an amazing amount of sex comedies, action and horror films that horrified and disgusted the critics while becoming extremely popular in Australia and eventually many countries overseas.
The film makers interview many of the directors and actors who worked regularly in the industry who have nothing but happy memories of those days, countered by Australian film critics who have nothing but complaints about how bad the films are. Mixed in are interviews with American actors like Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and Gregory Harrison who worked briefly in Australia to help give the films appeal over here in the States. The best of these stories is from former James Bond, Australian born George Lazenby, detailing how he was actually set on fire for a climactic fight in The Man From Hong Kong.
Overseeing it all is an exuberant Quentin Tarantino who pops up through out the film to gush affectionately about specific films and, canny film fan that he is, delve into some interesting subtexts inherent in the films, like the almost fetish filming of cars in many of the action films from the seventies, like Deathcheaters, or how many horror films are really about man’s destroying of the environment, like The Long Weekend.
If there is any disappointment with the film it is that Mel Gibson does not appear to talk about his time playing Mad Max. Whether he was not approached or wasn’t interested is not said. On the other hand we do have Steve Railsback cursing up a storm over his not so fond memories of making Turkey Shoot. All in all a highly recommended film to those who are interested in film history.
