For die hard Roger Corman, Paul Bartel, and Mary Woronov fans (and let us not forget Dick Miller too!), this movie may fill the bill. But it's really a send up of Peter Bogdanavich's 'Targets' made years earlier. For those unfamiliar with Pete's movie - he was given the task by Roger Corman to get owed work from Boris Karloff. Utilizing clips from 'The Terror', and having Karloff return as the actor from the movie appearing at a tribute screening. Bogdanovich weaves in this character of a young man who becomes a serial killer with his gun collection, and winds up at the drive in as well killing spectators from behind the screen. Great movie, and more and more relevant today. So, Joe Dante and Alan Arkush along with Jon Davison seemed to have struck up the same deal with Roger Corman to do Hollywood Boulevard. Use clips from previous New World pictures like Death Race 2000, and weave them into a new story somehow. So thus Candy arrives in Hollywood with a strong desire to act. She lands stunt work, fusing segments of Big Bad Mama cutting back to Candy rolling in a old car. Candy then is paired with two other gals, and sent to the Philippines to take out a rebel army. Again, cutting between footage of previous Corman films, and the gals maniacally shooting at them. During all these productions though, some actor always seems to get accidentally killed. Candy falls for the scriptwriter, who seems like a nice guy at first. But he starts acting strange when he wants to write a 50's movie, but the producer sets it in 2050 (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) Another actress dies, and Candy strongly believes her boyfriend has snapped. Or did he? So all in all, it's one corny and badly done movie to the passer by. But for fans of the Corman Crew, this is filled with lots of inside jokes, dark humor, and commentary on exploitation pictures, and the rigors of getting a leg up in Hollywood. A rejuvenated relevance today amid the multitude of internet porn, cel phone Scorcese's, and the #MeToo movement garbage looking for sympathy. This movie is pretty blatant and unapologetic for it's downright cheapness and sexual promiscuity. Then again, it's not to far from the truth that many expect and/or have endured from Hollywood over the years.
Review of Hollywood Boulevard
