Rude, crude and totally attractive

Happened to see a nifty documentary called Not Quite Hollywood yesterday. Now I don't care if documentaries float your boat as much as a carton of lead but if you're a movie lover or Australian then you should see this movie. The film looks at a once flourishing era in Australian cinema, fondly known as Ozploitation, which spawned creations such as Mad Max and BMX Bandits while inspired everyone from Quentin Tarantino to Jamie-Lee Curtis. Although most modern Australian film critics shudder at the very thought of this period in Aussie cinema and happily push the produce in to a dusty draw, Not Quite Hollywood makes for fascinating viewing. If there's one Australian film you have to see this year then this is it.

Director Mark Hartley and co. cover a plethora of Aussie exploitation films produced in the 70s and 80s with interviews from the directors, actors, producers, stunt men and never-ending parade of buxom actresses who appeared naked in the movies to `liberate' themselves (baha whatever makes you sleep at night). Thanks to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino I've long been a massive fan of exploitation cinema which is defined as movies containing content with gratuitous amounts of sex, violence, gore, action and horror often filmed with a fetishistic lens. But Not Quite Hollywood opened my eyes to a whole world of Australian cinema I never knew existed that is a rich part of our cultural heritage, stuffy art house types be damned. These films are celebrated pretty much every where else in the world except in Australia so it's nice to finally have a homegrown tribute which will hopefully give them the exposure they deserve. There are some little gems mentioned in this documentary which I can't wait to get my hands on and see. In particular Patrick, Razorback, Turkey Shoot, Long Weekend, Man from Hong Kong, Mad Dog Morgan and Road Games.

Above: Kirsty Alley makes her cinematic come back. Just joking, this is actually the star monster of Razorback.