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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Laura and John in front-- you and I in the backseat, May 1, 2008
This review is from: Little Laura and Big John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
LITTLE LAURA AND BIG JOHN was one of the many indie quickies that once appeared as the bottom half of a Drive-In movie double feature way back when summer and youth seemed inexhaustible. Movies like this weren't really meant to be watched closely-- they were designed as wallpaper to the private activities of backseated teens all across the U.S.
Make no mistake about it: this is clumsily put-together. LL&BJ has the feel of a crude student film, and yet, what was originally meant as a cinematic trifle best forgotten over a slice of late-nite pizza has with the passage of a third of a century somehow gained in value. The story is loosely based on a real outlaw gang-- one that operated in rural South Florida in the 1920s. A half-century later, much of their stomping grounds remained as they'd been decades earlier. To now see the natural beauty we've since traded for pavement, strip malls and multiplex theaters is poignantly melancholic.
The film's narrative songs, like "Goin' to Jacksonville" or "Everybody Likes it Up at Raiford," are positively laughable. For ex-teen idol Fabian Forte, "Big John" was hardly a bright spot on his acting resume, while Karen Black managed to survive her "Little Laura" misstep unscathed. Several others appearing here define the word "amateur," while many bit players were locals with zero acting experience.
So, who should see this film? South Floridians, certainly. Karen Black fans, maybe. Anyone nostalgic for a reminder of the drive-in theater's last glory days, most definitely.
Speaking of which, ELITE's DRIVE-IN DISCS COLLECTION is about as close as you can get to being at a drive-in movie. Not only are six great old fright films presented, but also included are cartoons, coming attractions, snack bar ads, and a subtle soundtrack of crickets, tires on gravel and occasional voices. It's quite an experience!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fabian And Karen Black Are The King And Queen Of The Everglades, November 23, 2011
This review is from: Little Laura and Big John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
"Little Laura and Big John" is a story based on the actual life of notorious Floridian prohibition gangster John Ashley. Starring Fabian Forte as Ashley and Karen Black as his partner in crime Laura, this film fails on every level. Mod hair Fabian in an eye patch rules the Everglades ruthlessly, engaging in rum running, illicit alcohol, and bank robberies, hiding out in the swamp with his gang and Black. On the other side of the law is character actor and future "Breakfast Club" star Paul Gleason, who always gets his man. You'd think with a setup like that that this would be an exciting movie. How wrong you would be. This film is one of the most gratuitously plodding pieces of cinema I have ever seen. Much of the film is extremely dark, and the acting varies from decent to wholly inadequate: Gleason is the best actor in the film by far, Fabian struggles valiantly, but can't possibly be taken seriously in the role, and Black is disastrous, affecting the worst southern accent I can ever recall in a mainstream studio release. Part of the film is told in painful sepia flashbacks, and much is awkwardly narrated by Laura's mother (!) played by Ivy Thayer. Much of this narration is on camera, and comes across as ludicrous and contrived when she faces the camera to discuss her daughter's latest travails. What a terrible narrative device. As if the acting wasn't bad enough, the film has many musical interludes, which range from the insipid ("If you ain't been to Jacksonville, you ain't been nowhere." I have been to Jacksonville, and I tend to disagree...,) to the offensive (Black drunkenly belting out "Sing Low, Sweet Chariot.") I won't bother with a detailed plot description because...well, because it doesn't matter. This film is so stultifying it makes no difference. Truly one of the most odious releases of the early 1970s, there is little offensive material here, but the viewing experience as a cohesive whole is one of sheer boredom punctuated with bad acting.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
All the Ham of 70's cinema, and none of the Cheese, September 24, 2010
This review is from: Little Laura and Big John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This forgettable entry in the gangster genre starred teen idol Fabian as John Ashley and Karen Black as his wife Laura - with an early appearance by character actor Paul Gleason (Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club) - and has all the cringe-inducing affectations of 70's cinema with none of the quirky plot or character elements to raise it at least to the level of fun cheese. As an industry term, "Cheese" is probably pushing the envelope, but it's that peculiar combination of script, bad acting, goofy effects, and ridiculous style that can sometimes come together and elevate a film from the past up beyond any of its intended, intrinsic worth and into the realm of unintentional entertainment. If you are old enough to have pictures of yourself from 30-40 years ago, and have ever pulled them down and laughed over them with others, then you'll have a pretty good understanding of what I'm talking about. If you enjoy that sort of thing, then many of the Crown International Picture presentations gathered together on Savage Cinema: 12 Movie Collection may appeal to that side of you. Unfortunately, 'Little Laura and Big John' isn't one of them.
I think the biggest problem here is that everyone was trying too hard to make a legitimate picture. Fabian and Ms. Black and Paul Gleason are actually serviceable in the film (though Ms. Black's Florida accent is terrible) but overall the film suffers from a lack of any excitement - it's boring. Based on the true story of John Ashley, the self-styled 'King of the Everglades', the film highlights the love story between John and Laura as they and their gang rob banks, run rum, and generally cause a ruckus down in south Florida during the teens and twenties. Ivy Thayer, as Laura's mother, semi-narrates the storyline - we see her puttering around her Everglades shack, speaking directly to the camera as she reminisces about her little girl. This is such a ham-fisted, treacly expository device that modern film watchers may not be able to stand it. Accompanying these breaks in the action are flashback scenes of Laura and John as children while they preview what their lives are going to be like in the future. These short episodes foreshadow events that will happen to the two of them years later, and is as subtle as a machine gun.
I would have thought that director Luke Moberly could easily liven up a picture about bank robbers and rum runners, even if he had only ripped off the style of the earlier Bonnie and Clyde, but the fact is he didn't or he couldn't. 'Little Laura and Big John' are obviously after the same effect as Beatty and Dunaway, to make anti-heroes out of some out and out villians, but Fabian is more cipher than sinister, and Ms. Black more sedentary than sexy. Since the characters are neutered, the love angle fizzles, and the film seems committed to avoiding the violence as sex theme that 'Bonnie and Clyde' exploited, which turns the volume down on the whole picture.
Although the vast majority of people will find little worthwhile in 'Little Laura and Big John', I do think there is a slim audience for a film like this - the movie isn't complicated, and except for two relatively innocent nude scenes, there is little by which to get offended. My grandmother, who found modern films too loud, too quick, and too foul probably would have appreciated the pace - and there are also some who, no doubt, would find Ivy Thayer's down-home mother's anguish sympathetic rather than suffocating, as in the nostril-clogging effect of a potpourri shop. Still, that doesn't make LLBJ a good film. In good consciousness and guilt-free, I can wholeheartedly advise anyone to skip it - better to watch 'The Breakfast Club' for the thirtieth time. It'll be livelier.
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