Hollywood Boulevard (1976; Joe Dante & Allan Arkush) is at best a curio\u2014conceived as a bet between New World honcho Roger Corman and producer Jon Davison (who later produced Airplane, Robocop and Starship Troopers), that Davison and then-New World trailer editors Dante and Arkush couldn\u2019t put together a flick in 10 days, using short ends and footage swiped from a dozen other New World action flicks.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the flick, there is some great location footage of downtown Hollywood at its seedy best (I wonder if Los Angeles Plays Itself used any of it?),
\nlots of boobs, and good swiped footage from various Filipino and Poor White Trash actioners previously released by Corman\u2019s New World, but otherwise,
\nHollywood Boulevard is a bad flick, honestly\u2014not funny and quite slapdash.<\/p>\n
The jokes here make Abbott & Costello seem like Noel Coward\u2014and they are so dated, as if these people were beamed in from the 1930s.
\nWackiness is okay, but when there wasn\u2019t stock footage going on, the flick was a snoozer. Even Dick Miller and Mary Woronov seemed a little lost.<\/p>\n
The movie is currently available via Netflix Streaming\u2014if you\u2019re curious about New World Pictures and the people who got their start there, Hollywood Boulevard is worth fast-forwarding through.
\nYou can\u2019t hate the flick, it\u2019s too good-natured for that, but you can mock it\u2014and then be grateful that the directors\u2019 next individual film projects turned out to be such winners: 1978\u2019s Piranha (Dante) and Rock & Roll High School (Arkush).