On a par with Santa Claus Conquers The Martians; it's that bad, but in that so-bad-it's-good sense. But it's charming, unlike, well, pretty much everything else in it's genre (that would be porn). Oddly enough, I think most of the cult that has grown around it take it pretty much at face value, though my enjoyment of the film was strictly that of witnessing a really mind-bending train wreck.
Like most screen adaptations of Alice In Wonderland, this is actually an adaptation of "Through The Looking Glass", Lewis Carroll's second book, only, in this case, punctuated with (a) crappy tunes and (b) pretty hot sex scenes with (c) crudely inserted hardcore clips. Whether these clips are welcome or unwelcome is entirely up to the viewer, though, strangely enough, and this really is damned odd, considering the usual demands of fans of the genre, many of the fans of this movie prefer it without the hardcore clips (This is because AIW is a "couples" porn film, and has found a unique cult audience, who like their porn on the softcore side).
Alice, in this version of the story, is a grown woman (she'd better be!), who, after spurning her grease-monkey boyfriend's advances, is confronted by The Rabbit (of "down the rabbit hole" fame), a chubby dude in one of the worst make-up jobs in the history of cinema, something that probably wouldn't cut it in a small-town little theater group. It consists of a bizarre rig on his head, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be his ears, but it looks like some kind of medical neck brace or something. The actor's portrayal of the rabbit is bizarre, to say the least: he represents his character by making the "thumbs up" gesture for the entire duration of the film. How this says "rabbit" is beyond me. Which is to say, I've yet to be strolling around in a field or a wooded area somewhere and see a rabbit doing a Roger Ebert impersonation. At any rate, in a goofy confusion of both of Lewis Carroll's books, the March Hare leads Alice through the looking glass (!) into Wonderland, and lo-budget weirdness ensues, much of it so surreal to be almost beyond description.
I'll admit I'm no fan of show tunes, but even by my standards, these songs are painful, particularly the one sung during the Humpty Dumpty sequence. Yecch! I'm still trying to get that one out of my head! Other than the actual songs, we have a recurring musical motif which sounds suspiciously like the theme of The Gong Show, which was a top-rated cult phenomenon at the time of Alice's release. That one's pretty catchy.
On the plus side, Alice is adorable and utterly appealing, and pretty much makes you want to like the movie in spite of all this. It is to her that this crazy film owes its entire reputation. Also, the Mad Hatter is pretty amusing, in a goofy sort of way, and the whole thing certainly has a "Hey, kid, let's put on a show" quality that one can't help but be charmed by. It's that Ed Wood factor, again.
There are a couple of hot sex scenes, and the girls are gorgeous, especially for 70's porn, for which the standards were exceedingly low. And thank god that 70's-era ghoul John Holmes never rears his huge and hideous head. Then, charm would have gone right out the window.
Like most screen adaptations of Alice In Wonderland, this is actually an adaptation of "Through The Looking Glass", Lewis Carroll's second book, only, in this case, punctuated with (a) crappy tunes and (b) pretty hot sex scenes with (c) crudely inserted hardcore clips. Whether these clips are welcome or unwelcome is entirely up to the viewer, though, strangely enough, and this really is damned odd, considering the usual demands of fans of the genre, many of the fans of this movie prefer it without the hardcore clips (This is because AIW is a "couples" porn film, and has found a unique cult audience, who like their porn on the softcore side).
Alice, in this version of the story, is a grown woman (she'd better be!), who, after spurning her grease-monkey boyfriend's advances, is confronted by The Rabbit (of "down the rabbit hole" fame), a chubby dude in one of the worst make-up jobs in the history of cinema, something that probably wouldn't cut it in a small-town little theater group. It consists of a bizarre rig on his head, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be his ears, but it looks like some kind of medical neck brace or something. The actor's portrayal of the rabbit is bizarre, to say the least: he represents his character by making the "thumbs up" gesture for the entire duration of the film. How this says "rabbit" is beyond me. Which is to say, I've yet to be strolling around in a field or a wooded area somewhere and see a rabbit doing a Roger Ebert impersonation. At any rate, in a goofy confusion of both of Lewis Carroll's books, the March Hare leads Alice through the looking glass (!) into Wonderland, and lo-budget weirdness ensues, much of it so surreal to be almost beyond description.
I'll admit I'm no fan of show tunes, but even by my standards, these songs are painful, particularly the one sung during the Humpty Dumpty sequence. Yecch! I'm still trying to get that one out of my head! Other than the actual songs, we have a recurring musical motif which sounds suspiciously like the theme of The Gong Show, which was a top-rated cult phenomenon at the time of Alice's release. That one's pretty catchy.
On the plus side, Alice is adorable and utterly appealing, and pretty much makes you want to like the movie in spite of all this. It is to her that this crazy film owes its entire reputation. Also, the Mad Hatter is pretty amusing, in a goofy sort of way, and the whole thing certainly has a "Hey, kid, let's put on a show" quality that one can't help but be charmed by. It's that Ed Wood factor, again.
There are a couple of hot sex scenes, and the girls are gorgeous, especially for 70's porn, for which the standards were exceedingly low. And thank god that 70's-era ghoul John Holmes never rears his huge and hideous head. Then, charm would have gone right out the window.