I don't consider this film anti-establishment since the establishment is 90% anti-war and has been since the seventies. In the sixties they were indeed the underdog but who would know that - since they're the only ones who make films and since we don't get any movies showing the other view, I can't see the logic of calling them underdogs or revolutionaries any longer. In my opinion, they are the establishment... but I digress. In the first scene as the main character is being driven by his mother (who looks the same age) down the street, he is looking at hippies as if he'd just woken up from a coma; as if the sixties "counter-culture" just happened to appear out of nowhere. The classic protest song "For What it's Worth" is playing, and at this point you know what you're in for... an agenda with party animals thrown in; or perhaps its a party animal movie with an agenda thrown in. Either way it's a horrid film but I enjoyed it profusely, because I adore bad films. The primary cast consists of Brian Kerwin, who was in one of my favorite sitcoms "Sheriff Lobo", Stephen Furst who was in one of my favorite comedies "Animal House" (which is also one of the best comedies ever), Ken Michaelson who was in my favorite hour long TV series, "The White Shadow", and Cooper Huckabee who co-starred in "Funhouse", a Tobe Hooper film which I considered much better than the one about the chainsaw. The plot is simple. A bunch of military academy teenagers (played by dudes in their late twenties) rebel against the teachers of the academy. That's it in a nutshell. Along the way you get to listen to great music from the likes of Buffalo Springfield, you get to watch a lady microwave a dog, guys smoking pot and banana peels, a hippie with a dead parrot on his shoulder, and a beautiful woman with a colorful painted van watching whales migrating and getting plenty hot. David Caruso, who is the main picture of the only available DVD, and who they try to trick us into thinking is the main character, has a two minute scene as a friend of Kerwin who helps him light tires and throw them onto the road. An exciting scene, especially since none of the tires rolled more than two feet after being pushed out of the moving truck. During the dog-microwave scene, when all hell breaks loose, there is a TV show playing the likes of Wally George, where a conservative villain chews out an enlightened hippie student, that seems more entertaining than the movie itself. If you like bad movies, this one is for you, but the DVD quality is poor, even worse than "Truck Stop Women", another favorite Z-film which I recently purchased. The most annoying thing though is the curse words are cut out. And I believe some other scenes from the original film were deleted as well. To me, this is more of a crime than bad quality. If it's cheap enough, buy it. It won't let you down unless you're expecting something worthwhile and meaningful: two ingredients I usually despise.
Review of Getting Wasted
