Reviews (14)

Two groovy movies - - - one groovy disk
Psych-Out, weird from the start, but a true classic in every sence of the word. The film has some really good performers in it; the greatly missed Susan Strasberg, who stars as a young deaf lady looking for her brother in San Fransico, Dean Stockwell and Jack Nicholson and others. It has a soundtrack that is outstanding, featuring The Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Seeds and a very important anti drugs message. A film NOT to be missed!

I had never seen The Trip before, Susan Strasberg also appears, though not as prominent as she was in Psych-Out, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper (always welcome) and Bruce Dern (who has a minor, but pivotal role in Psych-Out). IMHO it's not as well acted as Psych-Out, but it's enjoyable. Another important message about the dangers of drugs. An extremely weird movie!

Both movies come complete with some interesting features. Interesting to see how American International (maker of these movies) changed with the times, from early 60s Beach Party, to late 60s happenings with these movies.

I cannot recommend this movie enough, especially for Psych-Out, which is a true classic!

Wait until the FULL versions come out - stick it to the man!
Sadly, The Trip and Psych-Out have apparently been cut up and censored beyond belief. And why?

Of course it was all done by the establishment, man. That's right - the powers that be don't want we the people to see and hear the real truth. They had already proved that by banning these flicks from VHS as well. This is just so totally bogus!

So I say we boycott these films until the Republican jack-boot army, that hates all expressions of peace and love, finally stops hiding all that beautiful footage from us!

Yes, I said boycott! Boycott! BOYCOTT!

What a bummer!
The Trip and psych-Out, two great movies in same package, on DVD...sounds too good to be true, and is too good to be true, I'm afraid, since BOTH of the movies are shorter versions from the originals. So be aware, if you are about to buy this DVD, you won't get the whole movie. The movies have really been mutilated, I was really angry to notice how ridiculously they have been cut. Especially Psych-Out suffers from this mutilation. Since I'm writing my thesis about the 60's films, I really feel these movies earn a better treatment. I feel cheated, but I quess there is no way getting your money back if you live in Finland like I do. So, be aware, it's a rip-off. I'm afraid that we serious movie collector's still have stick to our precious VHS!

Half-baked brownies?
Was there nothing that modern technology could do to make the soundtrack to "The Trip" listenable? It sounds muffled and dialogue is sometimes hard to follow - I don't recall having this problem when I saw the film theatrically. Maybe they were trying to re-create the drive-in speaker experience. And why on earth edit "Psych-Out," truthfully the better of the two films? Extras are okay, and thanks for the letterboxing, but this should have been a four-star reissue, at least.

GOD IS ALIVE AND WELL IN A SUGAR CUBE
..is one of the famous lines you will hear and see in this great Psychedelic Trip of 1968. Directed by Richard Rush, and with a fabulous cast. I had not really heard of many of the actors, then did some investigating on my own. Of course we know what happened to Jack Nicholson; Adam Roarke (plays Ben) died in 1996. What a handsome and good actor he was!!! Also Susan Strasberg (also passed on in 1999) adorable and wonderful! She was the hottest thing going at this time in 1968, and Richard Rush was happy to have her play Jenny Davis, the young deaf runaway looking for her brother (played by Bruce Dern). I had not heard of Max Julien before, he's great, and actually the "baby of the group" (born in 1945 while the others born around 1937, 1938.) So he was 23 when he made the film. Dean Stockwell is terrific as "DAVE", the guy who believes that "all the games gotta go, or else it's just a plastic hassle"!!! I just love his manner of speaking ("Games again, Stoney?") and his great hairstyle with the headband. He's very 1968~~ and such beautiful eyes/lashes on him!!! Also Henry Jaglom, who plays the artist Warren, and goes on a bad trip and his buddies go and rescue him. Look for a group called "THE SEEDS", & of course, the beloved STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK. One of the best scenes in this film is called THE BEADS OF INNOCENCE, the music and the "critical focus" of the camera, as Richard Rush puts it in his commentary. Very nice film! sorry they edited it! I noticed some stuff cut short, but thought oh well. Would like to see the longer version of this movie. Either that, or Please Richard Rush, put this out on it's own!!! And add the cut scenes and stuff you may have in the film can at home! Five Star Movie! I watch it over and over. So, Tune In, And Trip Out, to Psych Out! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

This is a film for theatre people!!!
In the same way that Waiting for Guffman is truly appreciated by theatre people by the simple fact that we've known and worked with people in our lives like the characters in the movie.

This film also exemplifies how the love that is spurned from creating art with people is strong enough to withstand life's trials. A truly inspiring film. This film is also very similar to "Peter's Friends" starring a cast of amazing British acotrs including Kenneth Branaugh (sp?) and Emma Thompson.

This is a movie for theatre people!!!
I understand that most people wouldn't understand or like this movie becuase you have to be a true theatre person to be able to relate to this dysfuntional family dynamic. The love that is spurned from creating art together is something that can cause a lot of the dysfuntion explored in this film, but that love is also strong enough to withstand the hardships. I think theatre people relate to this movie the same way they relate and understand Waiting for Guffman.

but it is a great movie!
I rarely take the time to sit and write movie or book reviews, but having seen all these negative reviews for "Last Summer in the Hamptons" I feel compelled to speak my piece.

What is so powerful here is not the dysfunctionality of the family portrayed within, but what is at the core of this dysfunctionality: it is the inability of its members to walk away from its greatness, its fame within the highest circles of the artistic world. This movie is, in a way, a modern "Buddenbrooks", but it delves much more deeply into the reasons for the family's implosion. From the teenager who is pathologically rebellious because, as she explains to her cousins, it is the only way she can find to establish her independence from this great theatrical institution which is her family; to the brilliant director who, in order to create, has renounced, monk-like fashion, all sexual contact; to the most deeply studied pair of characters: the brother and sister pair who are so caught up in the web of their family, that their own sexual passions are trapped within the family, self-directed in an incestuous relationship.

This is the saga of a family which is admired, coveted, and idolized from outside, yet whose members are suffocating under the weight and tremendous magnet of its fame. It is a family which is the embodiment of Blake's sick rose.

This is a great movie, or a great play; it is a very powerful piece which will stay with you for a long time.

This movie is just plain bad.
Thinking it was an updated Big Chill-type flick with a spectacular cast, I looked hi and low for this movie so my wife & I could enjoy it. All I can say is what a complete waste of time and money - and nothing like the Big Chill! If this movie was one of the year's 10 best (LA Times), a recipient of 4 stars (NY Post, LA Times), brilliant, enchanting & exquisite (60 Second Preview), & finally Two Thumbs Up, than I must have no idea what a good movie is. This was one of most ridiculous films we've ever seen.

I don't live in a big market city and I do realize that some think I lead a sheltered life, but give me a break! What kind of characters are in this flop? Well, there was a gay guy that somehow was able to seduce a guy who wasn't gay. If fact, this confused guy had just slept with the gay guy's sister and she revealed how jealous she was of him because he always winds up taking her boyfriends. HUH? Then come to find out the sister of the gay guy had sexual feelings for him and even acted on those feelings.

There was an actress that had to 'act' as a baby seal at one point and a perform as a leopard to 'deal' with issues in her life.

The only thing the reviewers and I could agree upon is this sentence: 'Perhaps the world's most dysfunctional family.' And how.

If Henry Jaglom is 'the definitive Hollywood filmmaker,' and this film was 'his best yet,' I think we'll heed that advice and never watch another of his films. I'd rather be locked in a room and be subjected to 'Dumb & Dumber' for 108 straight hours than watch this 108 minutes again.

Blah!
I like to read movie reviews in the newspaper, in magazines, and on the internet to find out about movies that I otherwise might never find out about. Over the years, this has led to many wonderful films that I otherwise never would have known about. So, when this movie was releaed, I read several reviews from critics, and I noticed that this movie had gotten quite a few very positive reviews. So I went to the theater and I saw it. Boy was I ever disappointed! This movie is nothing more than a bunch of people siting around talking. Now, if the characters and their conversations are interesting, then that can make for a fine movie. For example, I loved the movie "Smoke" with Harvey Keitel. That movie had lots of interesting characters with plenty of interesting things to say. But "Last Summer in the Hamptons" lacks those good things. The characters in this movie are boring, their conversations are boring, and their lives are boring. And what makes it even worse is that the characters are not aware of the fact that they are boring. Instead, they all think that they are just oh so important. Simply put, this movie is the very definiton of the phrase "artsy fartsy." I think that there must be some kind of a clause in movie critics' employment contracts that requires them to give this movie a positive review and a high rating. Or, perhaps the critics are just trying to pretend that they can see something that the ordinary "common man" cannot see. Well, whatever the reason, the critics are wrong about this one. This movie is boring and dull and the characters are pretentious and boring and dull. And the movie is bad and I didn't like it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Unruly but comically enterprising, Henry Jaglom's comedy Sitting Ducks is spirited, smart nonsense about a crime syndicate's bookkeeper, Simon (Michael Emil), who runs off with a pile of mob money. An essential Jaglom character, Simon is a born naif with no shortage of skewed observations about the world, crime, sex, and survival. Exhilarated, he takes off with cohort Sidney (Zack Norman) on an escape plan leading, eventually, to Latin America. Inevitably these losers complicate their lives by hooking up with a pair of sexy-neurotic exiles (Patrice Townsend, Irene Forest) who bring added dimension to thejourney. The result is a funny, twitchy, but expansive milestone in the early independent film movement, and timely proof in 1980 that the then-controversial Jaglom really was a talent worth watching. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Amazon.com

For over three decades, Henry Jaglom has been traveling a cinematic path unlike any other director's:his noodling, searching, utterly un-commercial pictures (with dialogue largely improvised) are as personal as novels. Venice/Venice is vintage Jaglom, which will spell pleasure for his many fans and exasperation for nonbelievers. Jaglom plays a movie director visiting the Venice Film Festival--with footage captured during one of his visits there--whose romantic fling contrasts with his home life back in Venice, California. Jaglom's needy persona, and his unseemly tendency to linger over close-ups of his own teddy bear face, become tiresome here (he's wisely put others center-stage in subsequent films). But for all the dorm-room philosophizing, there is something dreamlike that emerges from this film as it nears its end. All the self-indulgent nattering does lead to something personal, and though the journey is something annoying, at least it's an authentic journey. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (4)

"Happily Ever After" in a nutshell
Wow - this is the first Henry Jaglom movie that I have seen, but you can bet I'll be seeing more. His interviews with the women and how the movies influenced their perceptions of how relationships "should be" was incredible. In almost every single interview segment, I had a little, "yup, that sounds right" experience. Yes, the romance was wonderful, as was the duality of the Venice, Italy life with the Venice, California life. And I had my own "wouldn't it be wonderful to be floating around on a canal in Venice" point of view. So I was doing exactly what he shows us the movies do! ;) Anyway, a wonderful film, I plan to buy it, and replay it whenever I feel the urge to run after that "perfect man who will sweep me away and solve all my problems."

sometimes even self-absorbed dilletantes hit home runs : )
the only other jagfilms i've seen are hamptons & babyfever,neither of which are NEARLY so good. dualities (man/woman,movies/life, italy/l.a. etc.) resonated through this one poetically,accompanied as they were by that exQUISite music which i pray is released someday (both the score and the marshall barer/david colin ross song halfway thru)! a woman i showed this to remarked, "henry's a jerk, but he's a cool jerk." to which i'd add, "his flick may be bull#$@$, but it's marvelous, transporting bull@#$$." btw, v/v's washed-out light & color palette makes it ideal viewing on a sunny winter afternoon :) vt

Jaglom 101
This film allows the first time Jaglom viewer access to some of the director's best work, w/o the guessing usually involved in exporing an artist for the firsts time. A must for anyone serious about film.

the man has the consistency and essence of vomit
I just saw this movie and would only buy the book if 80 million dollars was at stake. I am a woman, an attractive and intelligent woman and I am completely alienated from his "vision". He portrays only the Cathy Guisewite view of womankind and all woman should chase him down and put wasabi on his oily, phony, grotesquely malformed testicles. I have never been so repulsed by another human.I imagine htis review is not suitable in that I did not suffer it in book form but I feel the need to warn the inoccent. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The many mysteries of marriage are explored in Always, a movie from love-him-or-hate-him writer-director Henry Jaglom. Jaglom himself plays David, who's about to get divorced from his wife, Judy (Patrice Townsend). But when a notary comes to sign the papers, David and Judy are so affectionate that the notary insists they reconsider over the Fourth of July weekend--a weekend that turns out to be filled with botulism, visiting friends, infidelity, barbecue, and lots and lots of talk about happiness and love. Jaglom's films are notorious for their psychobabble, but generally, just when you think you can't take another moment of narcissistic self-indulgence, something happens--sometimes something surprisingly moving, sometimes something joltingly funny. Jaglom has an ear and an eye for genuine human behavior; his characters can be annoying, but they rarely seem false. By the end, Always may prove to be unexpectedly involving. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (4)

So glad to have finally found it on video!
I saw this film back in 1986 (during a Fourth of July weekend no less) and it instantly hit an emotional cord that has rarely been touched since. The home movie-like setting makes this life "tale" so much more realistic! To rate the acting is almost unfair as the turmoil of a couple coming of age is so brilliantly portrayed by REAL life ex-spouses Townsend and Jaglon; one word however comes to mind: Poignant. EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE BEFORE GETTING MARRIED...OR DIVORCED.

Always (not forever)
"Always" is Henry Jaglom's insightful retrospective take on his divorce. Combining poignancy with hilarity, the movie is more in the spirit of Woody Allen than Ingmar Bergman. It begins after a two year separation, with David, (played by Henry Jaglom) and Judy, (played by Jaglom's real life ex-wife Patrice Townsend), sharing their last dinner together as a married couple. The notary (delightfully portrayed by Amnon Meskin), arrives with the necessary divorce documents. He is moved by the obvious affection the couple share for each other. His professional objectivity slips and he refuses to notarize the documents, asking them, "why get divorced?" He insists they think it over, and then leaves David and Judy to spend the July 4th weekend to examine what went wrong in their marriage. They are joined by friends and family, whose relationships are also in various stages of turmoil. The DVD includes an introduction by the director. In every respect, this movie is a joy to watch!

Sadly beautiful!
Since watching this film, I have recommended it to everyone I know. It involves one of the most honest discussions about love I have ever witnessed anywhere. It also does not lack a comical element. Watching Henry Jaglom films makes one want to be a better person, to create better relationships with people. See them all!

Jaglom at his best--DON'T MISS THIS
Henry Jaglom was an independent filmmaker long before it became trendy. His films, which are conversational, have their own rhythm and style. "Always" is one of the best.

Basically, it's about relationships and is centered on his own relationship with Patrice Townsend which went sour BEFORE the movie was made. It's a token to their relationship that she agreed to make this film AFTER their divorce.

Some of what we see during a strange Fourth of July weekend is uncomfortable to watch because the feelings are very real. In two hours, we get to understand what made their very close relationship tick, and why love wasn't enough to keep them together forever.

Add in a wonderful soundtrack of oldies and you have a film about people who could be your close friends. As an another bonus, you get to see a VERY young Melissa Leo (of Homicide fame) making her debut.

Jaglom's films haven't been cheap on videotape so you'd better grab this while you can! ... Read more