Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

This is a killer documentary that takes a look at the movies the Australian film industry would like to forget.  These of course would be the Ozploitation movies that many of us here in the US remember fondly from the early days of home video.  I actually remember many of the movies they discuss (especially the horror and car movies) from the shelves of my local video store.  The documentary takes a look at the whole phenomenon of low budget Australian exploitation movies from the sex romps, to the horror films, and finally the action movies that were the car films and kung fu movies.  Along the way it touches on how favorable tax laws encouraged investors to give young filmmakers the money to shoot their projects, and how later after the industry was finally built up changes in the laws and business killed independent filmmaking. 

The documentary does a great job of combining clips from the movies along with interviews from the filmmakers and cast that were making the movies.  The are quite a few great stories that come out and it is clear that there were quite a few interesting characters involved in making the movies.  Sandy Harbutt has some great stories about working on his movie Stone, and the discussion about Turkey Shoot was also pretty damn interesting.  I mean they went to the track to hopefully win enough money to finish the film!  Oh and Steve Railsback, who starred in Turkey Shoot, has some fairly interesting things to say about the making of the movie.  I also found it interesting that there was a backlash against directors and movies that cast American actors to help appeal to an audience in the states.  This is discussed during an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis when they discuss Road Games, a movie she starred in with another American actor Stacy Keach.  There is another interview with one time James Bond actor George Lazenby where they discuss a kung fu movie he made called The Man from Hong Kong.  Again great stories here about a costar everyone hated and about being set on fire! 

Documentaries can be really hard to review.  I mean there isn’t a plot to discuss or performances to critique.  I always struggle to make sure I’m not just rehashing the information from the documentary.  Bottom line is that if you enjoy exploitation movies, or are just a fan of Australian flicks like the Road Warrior, Stone, Razor Back, or Patrick, then you will definitely want to check this documentary out.  Big fans will get a kick out of seeing their favorite obscure Aussie film discussed, and newer fans might find a couple of flicks they will want to track down.  I guess the only downside for me is that so many of the killer movies discussed in the documentary aren’t available on DVD here in America.  Ironically that also includes Note Quite Hollywood.  But if you are near Philadelphia on or around the dates of March 26th thru April 6th then you can check it out at the  Danger After Dark @ Philadelphia Film Festival / Cinefest 09.  Head on over to the festival’s website at http://www.phillycinefest.com/ for more information.  I highly recommend Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation!

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer