video cover

Not Quite Hollywood
(aka Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!)
2008; directed by Mark Hartley

Not Quite Hollywood is a fast-moving, informative, and fun documentary about the "new wave" of the Australian film industry, a period of time similar to the "golden age" of Hong Kong movies in the 1980's, where a relaxing of local censorship laws and foreign distributors looking to snap up product created a cinematic cauldron filled to the brim with some of the most hard-hitting and exciting images ever put to celluoid. True, many of the releases during this period aren't considered "high art" by any stretch of the imagination, but they did give the Aussie movie industry an identity of its' own and provided inspiration for many modern film-makers from all over the world.

Not Quite Hollywood    Not Quite Hollywood

Due to almost all of the local theatres being owned by foreign-based companies, the Australian film industry had been dormant for several decades until the 1960's, when the societal changes that were sweeping the western world encouraged film-makers (and audiences) to eschew American and European releases, and start exploring what it meant to be Australian via their cinematic output. After the installation of a movie rating system in 1971, which effectively killed Australia's notoriously strict government-sponsored censorship, there was a boon of releases, with many of them swinging to the realm of exploitation, or, as it is referred to here, Ozploitation. Sex and violence-laden entries like Alvin Purple and Turkey Shoot began to dominate Australian cinemas, much to the chagrin of critics, who regarded the Ozploitation films as trash. As evidenced by some of the interviews featured in this documentary, even many of the people involved in the making of these pictures would agree as to that assessment regarding the quality of their product.

Not Quite Hollywood    Not Quite Hollywood

But no one can deny that these films did well at the box office, and the profits let more "serious" directors to produce artier fare like Picnic at Hanging Rock. Combined with cross-over releases like Mad Max (an action picture which revolutionized how car chases were filmed) that performed strongly all over the world, the Australian movie industry soon found itself one of the top centers of movie-making. Soon, international productions were making their way to Australia, including several from Hong Kong, such as The Man From Hong Kong, which is regarded as one of Jimmy Wang Yu's best releases -- though, as per quotes given by people like the film's director Brian Trenchard-Smith, it was a miracle the movie was even completed due to Wang Yu and the crew not getting along with each other, to the point that fists were almost thrown on the set.

Not Quite Hollywood    Not Quite Hollywood

Even if you're not a film history buff and/or normally find documentaries to be deadly boring, it is still well worth your time to seek out Not Quite Hollywood, if just to check out the myriad of clips presented. This film definitely earns its' R rating, whith no small amount of nudity and gore tossed out during the running time. Fans of extreme cinema are going to go boffo for the small gems presented here, and will clog up their Netflix queue in order to see the full movies. Not Quite Hollywood might not be a good documentary in the true sense of the genre, since director Mark Hartley clearly wears the love he has for these films on his sleeve. But that enthusiasm passes on to the audience, and that feeling makes Not Quite Hollywood one of the better ways you can spend 100 minutes of your time.

RATING: 7.5

DVD Information

Put out via Magnolia Entertainment's genre label, Magnet, the DVD is a solid release. The film is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen picture, with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks available. A wealth of special features are included on the disc, including about two dozen deleted/extended scenes, a commentary with the director and several of the key players in the Ozploitation movement, a conversation between Quentin Tarantino and Brian Trenchard-Smith, funding pitches from Tarantino and director John Lamond, an audio interview with actor Richard Franklin, trailers for the movie and other Magnolia releases, and a photo gallery. Unfortunately, no trailers for the films featured in this documentary are included, but overall, this is a very good DVD.

The DVD is available from Amazon.

Movie Reviews / Main Page