Rockin’ Road Trip
A Troma Film
Margaret Currie, Steve Boles, Katherine Harrison
Directed by William Olsen
Originally released 1985
VCI Entertainment 2007
101 minutes
Rockin’ Road Trip (aka Summer Time Blues) is a Troma film DVD which means it is really bad but entertainingly so if you like the style. You have to have a certain appetite for this type of offering but if you enjoyed The Toxic Avenger and other classic Troma dreadfuls such as Surf Nazis Must Die, the Rockin’ Road Trip DVD is something you will enjoy.
Rockin Road Trip is your basic boy, played by some unknown actor, meets girl, (Unknown Actress), stuff happens, weird characters -or is it weird never to be heard from again actors trying to play a character-show up, there’s a road trip, lots of music by a bunch of unknown bands -I’ve only heard of Guadalcanal Diary– and a whole bunch of other weird stuff happens.
Here, boy is Martin and girl is Samantha, the much more together sister of Nicole, the lead singer of a band called Cherry Suicide. Because Nicole’s boyfriend is a nut job, recuperates very quickly each and every time he is knocked out, and is after her, Martin, Samantha, Nicole, the band, and Wally, a blind street philosopher, take a taxi from New York or Jersey to Florida. They are chased for a while by a bunch of inept bad guys because they gave Wally a diamond ring they stole and Wally gave the ring to Martin to give to Samantha. Their road trip allows everybody to meet a cross section of America, play a musical number or two, and have strange things happen to them.
If this sounds complicated, it is, sort of, especially since continuity takes a holiday a couple of times –Sam find Nicky in Martin’s bed two days after she got there kind of thing– but any Troma related DVD asks that you leave your brain and any critical bone in you body behind and just sit back and enjoy. The movie certainly concentrates on weirdness more than writing, plot, logic, and belongs to the “let’s try this scene and see what happens” school of film making. Rockin’ Road Trip (aka Summer Time Blues) does have a certain sincere eagerness to be a boy meets girl summer movie that does make it stand out from similar offerings from these people.
Rockin’ Road Trip is its own little creature and if you like that kind of weird, low budget comedy DVD, go for it.