Available now from Severin
A small town is affected after the arrival of a well-endowed man and the murder of a Nazi.
Written by Russ Meyer, Anthony-James Ryan, and Roger Ebert with Meyer also directing, Up! Is publicly-packaged porn with very little story to speak of. Yeah, there’s a hitchhiker, there’s a murder, there are people who want to stop others, but generally, it’s all about the sex, consensual or not. Honestly, this film would have been turned off within 20 minutes had it not been a title received for review. The writing on this film is atrocious and the direction is, well, it’s there. The film is so bad (a girl being horny minutes after being raped, forced pegging of a man, etc) that even if the sex looked interesting, the story around it would make many turn it off. The fact that Roger Ebert of all people co-wrote this film makes one wonder about him and if it’s a good idea to have film reviewer write films (he’s not the only one to have done so and the results have varied from atrocious to decent at best).
The cast here is, well, it’s here. There are people, they have roles, and it’s kind of difficult to tell if they did well and it’s a script/direction issue or if they are just not good. Of course, here an important part of the process here is that they were willing to have sex on camera, some of it faked and some of it most likely not. It’s softcore porn and it knows it and so does the cast. Performance-wise, it’s hard to give a flying merkin if any of them were good actors here. Those who want to see this film will not care though.
The film, on the technical side of things, looks cheaply made and like they didn’t really care if they were producing a quality product. Yes, a product, as this barely feels like a film.
Overall, this is one of those films some will want to watch for curiosity, some adore it, and most will just not care for it. It’s a film with a limited audience and more of a historical interest than anything else. This new release looks and sounds decent, and the extras aren’t particularly numerous. Those extras should appeal to the fans of the film and those who perhaps want to learn about it on a historical level. Oh, and the film is listed as a parody on IMDB, so there is that for those that care.