Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Scott LeBrun Goofy, satirical, gleefully anarchic Roger Corman film has some good ideas in its "Logan's Run" type tale of a deadly biological weapon eliminating everybody on Earth - or at least in the United States - over the age of 25. The admittedly very thin story sees irreverent character Coel (Bob Corff) make the acquaintance of young scientist Cilla (Elaine Giftos), and the way they meet assorted other characters while on a journey to find some kind of hippie Utopia that they've heard about. Some of the other people they run into are music-obsessed Marissa (Cindy Williams), her boyfriend Carlos (Ben Vereen), Hooper (Bud Cort), and Coralee (Talia Shire).The review in the annual Leonard Maltin paperback guide to movies indicates that this film was "re-edited against Cormans' wishes", which makes one think that a more coherent and well thought out narrative might have been the original plan. The finished film is a wild and crazy smörgåsbord of chaotic scenes, and not enough story to really tie it all together. The actors DO get a chance to create some memorable characters. Corff is very engaging and funny in the lead, and gets strong support from his sexy leading lady Giftos. References are made to other Corman films; for one thing, Edgar Allan Poe (Bruce Karcher), Lenore, and a raven pop up on occasion to pass commentary on the action. Screenwriter George Armitage (who appears on screen as Billy the Kid) takes the opportunity to make some clever and funny jokes and make political statements, but for a while the movie is just a little too loud and loose. It actually gets better as it progresses.Both in terms of the movies that he directed and the SCORES of movies that he's produced, Corman certainly has achieved an amazing cinematic legacy, but even so there are efforts like "Gas!" that may not be well remembered today. It's very much of its time, but it's still entertaining and worth a look for Corman devotees.Six out of 10.

moonspinner55 A gas-leak at a chemical warfare plant in Alaska increases the rate of neuron depletion in humans over 25, killing off all the adults in the world; a band of happy young people drive across the Southwest in search of a new existence, encountering jock fascists who want to run things like a football game and rival gangs at a country club who have turned the golf course into a mutinous dictatorship. Political allegory with rock music and psychedelic flourishes should have contained funnier satire. From what we can see, the point being made is that--left to their own devices--kids will screw up the planet just as badly as their elders have done. Producer-director Roger Corman, coasting on the exhaust of "Easy Rider", had some quirky ideas, but nothing is developed far enough to sustain interest. Even the bits of outré comedy stop short of becoming revue material (à la TV's "Laugh-In"), though perhaps a more exaggerated format would have been successful here. The handling isn't far-out enough. Some of the low-budget style looks good, and many of the cast members went on to bigger and better things. *1/2 from ****

MisterWhiplash Roger Corman's Gas-s-s-s, his final film as director for AIP, is dated (and probably even was for the period it got released), but somehow it's almost part of its charm. It's an irreverent comedy about a noxious gas that wipes out everybody- at least in the US much as we can figure- who's over the age of 25. Party-time! In what appears to be, in the premise, as a slight twist on Corman's own Last Woman on Earth, it's an epic of low-budget proportions, a rampant fiasco of kids in hippie-wear (or not as case turns out) and the Darwinian struggles that take place as the roughnecks, jocks and bikers-on-country-clubs face off against those darn 'commie-anarchists'. Certainly a good premise indeed, at least for those who love the exploitation fare of the period (myself counted, even as I'm from after that era).While it might be one of Corman's (intentionally) funnier pictures, there's a nagging feeling that something's not totally there. It is cheap, it is slapdash, it's episodic. The problem, as with some of Corman's other movies, is that a little more effort would make something even more interesting. If there was, for example, another snappy and sharp writer alongside George Armitage, who could whip the script into a tight and awesome shape, it could even be one of the great exploitation films. As it stands, it's merely OK overall. Luckily the good tries to outweigh the bad, which is that there are some really, actually clever one-liners ("Hey, we all have our own inconsistencies, that doesn't stop the revolution," to "Drop that chloride, you commie anarchist!") and seeing the biker country-clubbers and the God lightning bolt climax.Best of all is to see a running-gag in-joke for Corman- probably more than one, actually. The first is more obvious, and laugh-out-loud, which is a biker Edgar Allen Poe, who just shows up here and there like some sage wise-man (who is, of course, not over 25) with his wife and occasional raven on his shoulder spouting garbled quotes. The second is a little more subtle, which seems to be a play on his film the Trip, as in the psychedelic-type scenes (i.e. dancing to Country Joe and the Fish) with the camera zooming in and out fast, lots of hand-held, etc). Corman's gone through this all before, so it has to be questioned: how much of this is tongue in cheek, and how much is just almost shoddy film-making? Can't be sure. At least there was consistent chuckling to be had, especially at seeing a young Bud Cort in a cowboy hat, and, of all people, Talia Shire!

Woodyanders This gloriously gaga dippy hippie early 70's end-of-the-world counterculture cinematic artifact deals with a man-made airborne germ warfare virus which accelerates the aging process, thus killing off everybody who's twenty-five and older. Only young kids are left to inherit the world and maintain some semblance of civilization. Naturally, in the hands of these crazy, carefree, amoral, unsupervised, and totally uninhibited youths all-out anything-goes anarchy, hedonism, and pandemonium soon become widespread: California degenerates into a fascist Nixonian police state, football-inspired brutality reigns supreme in Texas, greasy bikers enforce conservative moral rectitude on the golf links (!), and horse-riding, pistol-packing psycho cowboy bandit car thieves terrorize the dusty back-roads of America.Directed with customary gusto by legendary exploitation movie maestro Roger Corman, adopted from a bold, biting script written by the great, ever-underrated George Armitage (who later wrote and directed the terrific "Miami Blues"), further enhanced by Ron Dexter's garishly excessive, heavy on the bright lurid colors and flashy psychedelic visuals cinematography and a groovy, fuzz-tone and saxophone blastin' lowdown blue-eyed soul rock'n'roll score by Country Joe and the Fish, this breezy, irreverent, playfully mordant black comedy riot satirizes both the establishment and the counterculture alike, biker pictures, brooding Gothic horror films (Edgar Allen Poe appears as a grimly philosophical Greek chorus astride a black chopper with Eleanor as his motorcycle mama!), and apocalyptic sci-fi cinema in general. Robert Corff and Elaine Giftos are quite affable as the increasingly confused leads, while Ben Vereen as an angry black militant, Cindy Williams as a chirpy, pregnant ditz, Talia Shire as a daffy, rock music-loving flower child, Bud Cort as a smarmy longhair, and Armitage as the deranged Billy the Kid contribute deliciously grotesque supporting performances. A wonderfully kooky and cockeyed one-of-a-kind delight.