Alex Cox's Pee-wee's Big Adventure. If you think that sounds cool, you should watch this. If you think that sounds like the worst thing ever, I still think you should watch this.
Lovely sun-soaked landscapes of the southwestern Americana backroads make up the majority of the scenery within this mordantly morbid black comedy about a ten year old named Gus escaping his abusive home — emptying his piggy bank and stealing a 1965 Ford Mustang while he's at it — and going on the road trip of a lifetime as he sets out to collect all the cards in the hit game "MOTORAMA" for the chance to win 500 million smackeroos. As he journeys through the surreal desert wasteland of this something-gone-awry America, he crosses paths with some real quirky individuals.
Talk about cameo galore! Flea as a busboy who wants more out of life, Meat Loaf as a biker skilled at arm-wrestling (and illegally tattooing Gus), Jack Nance as a motel owner with a penchant for squirrel hunting, Dick Miller as a father who's eager to abandon his kids (in one of the funniest sequences in the film) and my two personal favourites Sandy Baron and Mary Woronov as the couple who blind and kidnap our beloved Gus for stealing fuel (never in a million years would I expect Jack Klompus to do such a thing, after all he generously gave Jerry that astronaut pen). After the kidnapping, Gus becomes punished Snake and dons an eyepatch all while the world becomes increasingly more apocalyptic and strange.
MOTORAMA isn't just a pretty face, it's also got something to say! It satirises the very idea of the modern American Dream through the perspective of a ten year old boy being manipulated by corporate interests, then chewed up and spat out by the capitalist machine. After collecting all the necessary cards for the game, he heads to the Chimera Gas Company's HQ where he's alerted to the fact that he's only been made eligible to win — not ACTUALLY win — the prize money. Naturally, Gus is upset, and gets on the elevator all the way up the boss' office where, once he arrives, the staff and security pick him up by the legs and launch him out the window. I wonder what that could symbolise? It's a critique delivered with the force of a thousand suns, and it's hilarious as it is grim.
Despite some rough pacing and editing choices, this frazzled slapdash quirkorama is one helluva surreal experience that'll have you scratchin' ya noggin just for the mere fact that it exists at all. If this ever gets a HD transfer it'll be a day one purchase from me. Seek this out if you like weird shit.
Alex Cox's Pee-wee's Big Adventure. If you think that sounds cool, you should watch this. If you think that sounds like the worst thing ever, I still think you should watch this.
Lovely sun-soaked landscapes of the southwestern Americana backroads make up the majority of the scenery within this mordantly morbid black comedy about a ten year old named Gus escaping his abusive home — emptying his piggy bank and stealing a 1965 Ford Mustang while he's at it — and going on the road trip of a lifetime as he sets out to collect all the cards in the hit game "MOTORAMA" for the chance to win 500 million smackeroos. As he journeys through the surreal desert wasteland of this something-gone-awry America, he crosses paths with some real quirky individuals.
Talk about cameo galore! Flea as a busboy who wants more out of life, Meat Loaf as a biker skilled at arm-wrestling (and illegally tattooing Gus), Jack Nance as a motel owner with a penchant for squirrel hunting, Dick Miller as a father who's eager to abandon his kids (in one of the funniest sequences in the film) and my two personal favourites Sandy Baron and Mary Woronov as the couple who blind and kidnap our beloved Gus for stealing fuel (never in a million years would I expect Jack Klompus to do such a thing, after all he generously gave Jerry that astronaut pen). After the kidnapping, Gus becomes punished Snake and dons an eyepatch all while the world becomes increasingly more apocalyptic and strange.
MOTORAMA isn't just a pretty face, it's also got something to say! It satirises the very idea of the modern American Dream through the perspective of a ten year old boy being manipulated by corporate interests, then chewed up and spat out by the capitalist machine. After collecting all the necessary cards for the game, he heads to the Chimera Gas Company's HQ where he's alerted to the fact that he's only been made eligible to win — not ACTUALLY win — the prize money. Naturally, Gus is upset, and gets on the elevator all the way up the boss' office where, once he arrives, the staff and security pick him up by the legs and launch him out the window. I wonder what that could symbolise? It's a critique delivered with the force of a thousand suns, and it's hilarious as it is grim.
Despite some rough pacing and editing choices, this frazzled slapdash quirkorama is one helluva surreal experience that'll have you scratchin' ya noggin just for the mere fact that it exists at all. If this ever gets a HD transfer it'll be a day one purchase from me. Seek this out if you like weird shit.
