Customer Reviews

A Regular Frankie Fan

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

as a RHPS veteran of 12+ years, I know what an undeserved bad rap RHPS has gotten. And hopefully this video will help explain the phenomenon. It's fabulously done, true to the attitudes of the participants, and true to the spirit of RHPS internationally. (In other words, it's not at ALL like "Trekkies".) Deffinately a wonderful addition to your RHPS collection! I recommend it highly!

A well crafted, highly watchable documentary, "A Regular Frankie Fan" is enjoyable for both fans and non-fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The audience for the screening I attended was made up mostly of hard-core RH fans and they loved it, turning the evening into an audience participation event - much like one would expect at a midnight show. My guess is that all the RH fans will appreciate the way director Scott Mabbutt has sympathetically presented them and their particular "obsession."

I thought that this is a perfect addition to any Rocky Horror Fan, or movie history buff. I had to buy two! It dives right into the fan fare of what is happening today with this cult classic. The director really captures the whole Fan movement in this totally entertaining DVD. I especially enjoyed all the new music on the DVD. One band, Redeye, I especially enjoyed their version of "Time Warp" in Japanese. How unique and awesome! and translation true to the theme and words! I think they ROCK! and everyone will enjoy...
Redeye you gotta play at my next party!
We'll be READY to do the Time Warp again and again!
Thanks!

. A Regular Frankie Fan is the creation of writer/director Scott Mabbutt whose most recent credit before this was a project with the rather promising title, Predators From Beyond Neptune. IMDB tells us that folks like Dean Devlin, Neve Campbell, and Jason Priestley cameo-ed in the picture, so that's coolsville, but Mabbutt has made a number of genre projects, fiction and in this case, documentary.
In A Regular Frankie Fan, the focus is really on individuals who dress up as Columbia, Magenta, Riff, and naturally, Dr. Frank-N-Furter and why they do this. It goes into the history of the phenomenon, not so much of the movie, but of the stage performances that have turned quite legendary over the years in major cities across the country.
No, it's not a Ken Burns-style piece that goes in depth into the origins of Rocky Horror midnight madness, but instead, analyzes people's motivations in wanting to be a part of the show today - either in the audience or on stage in full costume/make-up. They take a wide cross-section of audiences and cut together actors and actresses from a number of different troupes in oft-engaging interviews on topics ranging from their make-up preparation to what they think of the movie to one guy talking about getting stabbed by a pen in one showing and not realizing it until later (and yes, he shows the scar).
If you've ever been to a Rocky screening and wanted to find out what everybody else in line waiting for the art-house losers in their barn jackets and mufflers to leave the final showing of whatever weepy European epic was showing at 9:55 was thinking, here's your movie.

This film has no narrative, and just kind of rambles on. Points are made here and there, but few are made. The 'everyone is accepted here' is beat over your head for a majority the film, cheating time that could be spent on other aspects of Rocky. When the film is over they just kind of put a tag on it and call it quits.

Shots in the film can go on much longer than need be, adding to the rambling feel of the video.

Plus, they keep including interviews with two African-American guys who clearly know nothing about Rocky. Because the two people in questions have very stereotype voices, clothing and body language, it really comes off as racist. To focus that much screen time that adds no valuable information or content to the film, but simply seems to perpetuate stereotypes seems to really work against the 'open minded' theme of the piece.

Only fans of the Rocky Horror Picture show could sit through this one. It's worth watching once though if you are a RHPS regular or if you've ever been to a midnight screening of the show.

This is like a home video type deal but it's not bad. It's just interviews with a bunch of RHPS fans. They share some short stories about the experience and the RHPS culture. Some stories are funny. Like the guy that got stabbed with an ink pen.

In the first part of the movie a few people, very briefly, share stories of their Rocky Horror sexual experiences. In the last part of the movie a guy explains about how a parent once got on to him about her 17-year-old daughter being offended at the theater during the show.

The young man defends the theater experience and says everyone is safe there because they have security. He invites anyone with questions to come to the theater and watch the show. HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA! Maybe he missed the parts of this movie where people were telling wild sex stories or didn't see the folks getting humped and having "V" drawn on their faces with a marker to indicate they were (RHPS) virgins!

It's worth watching just to see the guy try to promote the show as regular family entertainment.

It's a little dated, maybe 2000 and the sound sucks in spots but it's a good documentary. Some nudity but it's quick. Best RHPS related vid I've found yet. The Richard O Brien "official" Tribute sucks compared to this.

I too, was disappointed in this DVD. RHPS, I think, deserves greater serious attention than it has to date received: where else, in the entire history of theater, has the audience actually taken over the show? Experimental theater has for decades been pushing or deconstructing the "fourth wall", but here is an (huge, messy, glorious) instance of the audience doing the demolishing. The only similar occurance I can think of is the "call-and-response" in American Southern Baptist churches, and that's religion, not theater!

The film also disappoints as film: case in point, Mark Tomaino's "bibles in the halls" story. Cute story, but where's the shot? Low angle, single-point perpective, SHOW US the little black squares marching away into the distance. It's a movie...show, don't tell!

Speaking of perpective... I gained much more from the recent documentary "The Cockettes" about a troupe of acid-addled, cross-dressing hippies in the late '60s who put on live shows at San Francisco's now-defunct Palace Theater. The words "Rocky Horror" are not mentioned in it, but as a RHPS fan I felt as if I were watching a piece of my own history. Especially when they took their DIY show to New York in 1973, only to fail disastrously (The audience of '70s who's who hipdom FLED at intermission). Did the drugs-and-drag debacle of the Cockettes' show predispose the NY critical community to despise Rocky when it arrived later that same year?

Perhaps, someday, RHPS will be given the respect it deserves. This DVD, alas, is not the place to look.

OK first off the animorphic 16:9 displayed in 4:3 was a pain in the neck, this dvd looks like someone did it on their home PC and then released it to the world, the menu is awful, words are cut off in text that appears on the screen, although i have been a major part of Rocky for over 15 years i would not recommend this to anyone!