Stunt Rock (1978)
December 18, 2024 7:02 AM - Subscribe

[TRAILER] A feature length ode to fearless Australian stuntman Grant Page (the Mad Max films, Road Games). Page travels to Los Angeles to work on a TV series, and in his spare time lends his expertise to rock band Sorcery -- helping them develop pyrotechnic magic tricks for their stage shows. Meanwhile, he finds himself in a budding romance with reporter Lois Wills (Margaret Gerard) and befriends Dutch star Monique Van De Ven (playing herself).

Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. Screenplay by Paul-Michel Mielche Jr., Brian Trenchard-Smith. Produced by Martin Fink for Intertamar/Trenchard Productions. Cinematography by Robert Primes (as Bob Carras). Edited by Earl Watson, Robert H. Money, Beth Bergeron. Music by Sorcery.

30% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Tubi, Hoopla, and Kanopy. JustWatch listing.
posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Less an actual narrative film than a quick yarn whipped up as a a combination of a starmaking vehicle for Pages and showcase for various things the filmmakers thought young moviegoers would think are cool: stunts, fast cars, rock music, stage magic, Monique Van De Ven.

It's silly, ad hoc, and propped up by clips from other movies. And Pages, while distinctly likable, has no particular movie star polish.

Plus, Sorcery's KISS + 70's stage magic show is goofy as shit.

It's not really "good" in any coherent way, but it's a fun little artefact. While it could have run a little shorter, but I mostly enjoyed myself.

Here are some clips of the band's performances from the film, although omitting, weirdly, "Stunt Rocker."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:04 AM on December 18, 2024 [1 favorite]


I LOVE THIS FILM.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:08 AM on December 18, 2024


I've seen it half dozen times - discovered it via a trailer collection in the late 90s. The trailer blew my mind and I was desperate to see it. Then a friend found it on VHS, unaware that I was looking for it, he called me explaining he had just seen what the inside of my brain looks like. He was not wrong.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:12 AM on December 18, 2024 [2 favorites]


Brian Trenchard-Smith loved Grant Page and tried to make him a star with this movie and Deathcheaters. Their first collaboration was the glorious and bugnuts The Man from Hong Kong.

The first-ever Australian-Hong Kong co-production, MHK stars the very first kung fu movie star, Jimmy Wang Yu, and the guy who threw away his career as James Bond, George Lazenby. It’s quality trash filmmaking. Kung fu, explosions, bad hair, and worse outfits! A comical amount of hang gliding! A super-cheesy Bond-esque theme song that was an inexplicable hit in Australia in 1975! George Lazenby, on fire, in slow motion! And the director later helmed both Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4: In Space!

The cast has some fun surprises, too. Hong Kong legend Sammo Hung has a small part in the opening sequence, and Hugh Keays-Byrne, Immortan Joe himself, plays a scruffy, goofy cop.

To put it over the top, I have to add two other reasons to recommend it. Both are crotch-related.

Reason 1: The UK cut of the movie is shorter than the others because British censors insisted all of the nut kicks and nut punches be cut out. Consider how many ball-bashings have to be in a film for that to have an effect on runtime. If you do watch the film, treasure each scrote-crushing impact and reflect upon how the Brits were deprived of all of them.

Reason 2: A long chase and fight scene between Jimmy Wang Yu and Grant Page, who looked like George Carlin's stunt double, gives viewers a subtle gift. Page is dressed in typical mid-Seventies tight jeans, but with a surprise. See, you can't kick high in normal pants, you'll rip the crotch. Extra cloth has to be added, a common practice in movies. (Black Belt Magazine used to carry ads for "Chuck Norris Action Jeans," dungarees that had a "kicking gusset" added in the crotch so you could roundhouse kick suckas and fools without tearing your pants. Check out the ads if you aren't familiar. It's a sight.) Anyway, Page's pants had a gusset added. And the gusset was canary yellow. Which means that throughout the fight, it looks like either Page's pants have split and we're seeing his yellow undies, or he has a banana glued to his taint.

Now that, my friends, is cinema.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 5:27 AM on December 19, 2024 [2 favorites]


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