 "Wild World of LSD" isn't so much a movie in the classic sense as it is a conglomeration of late '60's and early '70's lysergically fueled images. But you get the idea that the filmmaker (or filmmakers) probably never dropped acid in their lives. They should have hired a better research team. But even if they did drop acid before shooting this mess, they couldn't convey the experience on the screen. All of the acid scenes were based on rumor and cliche. The opening sequence, which looks like it was shot in somebody's shithole apartment, has a guy lying on a beat up sofa after dosing himself with the dreaded 'LSD 25'. He starts to sweat, his eyes start rolling to the back of his head - then the full fledged freak-out begins with him rolling on the floor hallucinating a giant cardboard cut-out of a chicken. All of this while an ominous voiceover decries the dangers of the big L. What follows are series of acid incidents including a bunch of 'groovy' guys and gals riding motorcycles down some unknown California highway. It seems that they're heading off to the beach for a little acid fun in the sun - to trip on life, man. This riding sequence runs an incredible 30 minutes before they get down to the business of doing a little strawberry sunshine. After ingestion, these crazy kids roll around on the sand, laughing, crying, taking off their clothes and screwing. But the sex is so mucked up by bad camera work that the act is rendered is futile. And the endless motorcycle parade wasn't even close to any kind of cinematic foreplay. The soundtrack has the required canned screaming guitars and bongos and provides a segue into the next scene which looks like it was shot in the late '50's in black and white. We're brought to some dumpy shuck and jive roadhouse where a bunch of dimple assed go-go dancers bump and grind the ol' hoochie coo. The editing in this sequence is as jarring as any video on MTV and the camera never stays still. The chicks look like burned out heroin casualties, stuck doing the bump and grind for a little fix. "Wild World of LSD" is slapped together stock footage and has nothing to do with Timothy Leary style mind expansion. Its a farce cashing in on the dope craze of the '60's. At least Roger Corman made an attempt to show and understand the reality of subversive underground acid poppers in "The Trip". Corman, however, wasn't successful with his hack intellectualism and complete watering down of the drug's effects. But the idea bled through, no matter how insipid. For the most part, movies that go out and purposely try to show the effects of any hallucinogenic experience ultimately fail. "Wild World of LSD" totally bombed out, a real bummer, man, and couldn't be made any better through viewer ingestion of anything illicit. It was just a slapped together snoozefest. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
