Customer Reviews

Drive-In Classics Collection

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just want to make something clear, this is not one of those cheap box sets full of non-copyrighted films with awful transfers.

This is one of the best box sets I've purchased this year. It's 7 films, all set in the south, three of which are directed by the "Godfather of Gore" HG Lewis.

The 7 films in question are all Something Weird titles. Each of the films has been gracefully remastered and each DVD is packed full of extras.

The stand out of the set is most definitely HG Lewis' 2,000 Maniacs. 2,000 Maniacs centers around a group of Yankee friends who find themselves in a small southern town who happen to be celebrating their Civil War Centennial. One by one northerns are killed off in a gruesome fashion ranging from quartering to dismemberment. One of the more memorable things about the film is the theme song, "yeehaw, the south's gonna rise again."

Next up we have a double feature dvd of two speedsploitation films.
Speed Lovers the story of a kid with zero experience who decides he wants to be a racing champ, and Thunder in Dixie: a revenge fueled classic about a man going head to head with the one who killed his family.

The third DVD in the set is a swamp romp double feature featuing Swamp Girl and Swamp Country. Two some-what unknown films centering around crime in the Bayou.

Finally rounding out the box set is two movies directed by HG Lewis. First up is the Moonshine fueled classic This Stuff'll Kill Ya, next is Year of the Yahoo, a film following a country-western singing who's running for office.

If you're a fan of cult, exploitation, or hicksploitation than this set is for you. 2,000 Maniacs is worth the price of the set alone. Don't be fooled by cheapo drive-in knockoff sets...This is a quality set with 7 great films and over 3 hours of extra features!

Although many movies were shown in drive-ins (back in their heyday), not all these films were drive-in movies. This term really applies only to those cheesy exploitation films that were low-budget, low talent works that typically used sex or blood to draw in the audiences. What type of movie am I referring to? The Drive-In Classics Collection provide a sampling.

One of the DVDs (of the four in the set) has two "swamp" movies. In Swamp Country, a man accused of murder runs into the Okefenokee swamp. While he evades the manhunt, a subplot has an aimless guitarist running afoul of the local mob. The big name in this movie would be Lyle Waggoner as one of the cops pursuing the fugitive. The second movie, Swamp Girl, involves a teenage girl who lives in the Okefenokee pretty much on her own, at least until the outside world intrudes and she is forced to lead a pair of crooks across the swamp.

Another DVD has a couple racing movies. Speed Lovers has the writer/director also starring as the son of a racing mechanic who thinks he can do as well as Fred Lorenzen, the real-life racer who plays himself. He gets mixed up with a mobster who wants to run Lorenzen's team. Thunder in Dixie is a story of two friends turned enemies after one gets in an accident that kills the other's fiance. Now it's time for the big race and a showdown between the pair.

The last three movies (on the last two discs) all are directed by H. Gordon Lewis, one of the kings of the exploitation movies. In This Stuff'll Kill Ya!, the story focuses on a rural church that also runs a moonshining outfit. Larry Drake of L.A. Law fame has a small role. Year of the Yahoo! is a satire on political campaigns, with a famous country guitarist being put up for a senate seat despite his lack of substance. Finally, Two Thousand Maniacs is Lewis's "classic" about some people lured into a small Southern town to be killed in creative manners for the crime of being Northerners.

None of these films are really good, but they are entertaining. In addition, they are all put out by Something Weird Video, the premier house for trash cinema. As a result, all the discs come with plenty of extras, including short subjects, movie trailers, commentaries and the wonderful Galleries of Exploitation Art, complete with old radio movie ads. All-in-all, this is a lot of fun for trash cinema fans.

I just wanted to say, These movies are all great, and others like them. I must own about 150 movies of this type. A Lot of people that leave reviews for these types of movies always seem to use the words "So bad They are Good". I have never felt that way. To me these movies are so good because they ARE good! "Something Weird Video Company" is probably THE BEST distributor of this stuff. And they make the movies even more enjoyable with all their extras they add to the discs, stuff you probably just wouldn't see anywhere else. When you think of all the work the filmmakers of these movies put into creating them, because they did most of the work themselves, you begin to appreciate their efforts. I like that these movies are what they are. An art form within themselves. Nowadays they are extra fun cause you get to see all those old classic cars when they were all new. And the shots of old grocery items, or the shots of the old style gas stations. Fun is the best way to describe these movies. Great Stuff.

I was really excited to get this set expecting lots of zany moonshine laiden countrified 70s sleeze and violence, but have got not, aside from 2000 maniacs <the only watchable film in this set> its all boring diolauge drival that goes nowhere for hours on end, with an ocational jonnie cash wanna be poping up in every movie singing theame songs. I knew I was in trouble when the general audiance rating poped up on the first movie I watched <swamp girl>, seems to be lots of edits in these flicks, and the only reason people would want this is for the sleeze factor, makes no sence. Sure there are extras but watching the cutouts for movies that are unwatchable isnt much, I would try to find 2000 maniacs on another set, theres nothing eles here.

please excuse my spelling errors...

i now have ordered and seen 8 mill creek type movie packs and have been fairly happy with them. we have a very high tolerance for the less-than-desirable movies....

but these were pure agony, fast forwarded thru much as it is sooo inane, the dialog is juvinile at best, the theme as well, the actors certainly never made it even in a high school drama production.

more often than not, when on some dialog jag, it goes on endlessly...you can fast forward and when back they are still yakking over the same issue...

the only good thing