Alice in Acidland/Smoke & Fles

I own a VHS copy of ALICE IN ACIDLAND, purchased from Something Weird years ago. I am a big fan of 60's exploitation / drug trip flicks and ALICE IN ACIDLAND has always been one of my favorites.

I finally upgraded to DVD and I was completely disappointed.

This DVD of ALICE is a cut, censored version of the film. Ten to fifteen second chunks have been lifted here and there, leaving jarring jump cuts in their places. And near the end of the film, an entire scene has been eliminated. The cut footage is all shots containing full frontal nudity and/or the more brutal violence.

The cuts are obvious - no attempt was made to make them flow with the movie... the music and voice over narration cut awkwardly with each instance of trimmed footage.

The run time info on the box is even wrong... on the box, the original run time of ALICE is listed: 62 minutes. But the version on the DVD only runs 53 minutes with all the cuts.

I have been a Something Weird fan for years... But now I am disappointed in the company. They used to be a haven for unfiltered, non-PC, full-on-raunchy exploitation, horror, psycodelic, and just downright odd cinema... stuff the masses wouldn't care for. So why CUT a movie to (presumably) appeal to the masses???

I'll hesitate before I buy another Something Weird DVD.

I give this DVD 2 stars instead of one because the other material on this DVD is quite good. But I don't think this DVD is worth your money.

This DVD contains two films entitled Alice in Acidland and Smoke And Flesh. The movies both deal with the ramifications of using heavy duty mind altering drugs with some good but mostly bad consequences for the users in their real lives as well on their "trips." The cinematography is not anything special; and the choreography could have been written by a film school student.

Alice In Acidland explores the drastic downward spiral of Alice who is exposed to mind altering drugs by a teacher at her junior college. Alice, once the "All American Girl;" slowly but surely descends into an increasingly psychotic state as a result of her drug use and eventual drug addiction. The movie also makes the point that this drug use leads to promiscuity; and I suppose that was rather scandalous "front page news" at that time. The real tragedy, however, is drastically displayed as Alice loses control of herself and her mind whenever she takes the drugs. The scenes from Alice's most memorable drug trip are in color; but then you get the final shot in Alice In Acidland. This last scene is intended to be a shocker so I won't spoil anything for you here.

Smoke And Flesh explores the topic of how drugs can work for some good but mostly bad consequences. Yes, the drugs reduce inhibitions to romantic relationships; but the "bad trips" the people go on make you wonder if it was worth it. Smoke And Flesh has more of a plot than Alice In Acidland which simply shows young ladies using drugs and then getting themselves into situations that they otherwise wouldn't have experienced. Smoke And Flesh goes further; it starts out as a party with drug use and then adds in a biker group to crash the party and cause problems for the partygoers. The cinematography is much better with well thought out scenes and camera angles; and the characters are more developed and interesting. I agree with the reviewer who liked the scene where the couple takes off their clothes as the camera films only their ankles from underneath the bed.

I also agree with the reviewer who writes that this DVD gives you only a chopped up and edited version of Alice In Acidland. There are very noticeable gaps in the film made obvious by abrupt and instantaneous scene changes and breaks in the narration of the film. This may irk you so I thought it would be important to mention this.

Overall, these middling and melodramatic films try to make to point that drug use could lead you down the road to big, big trouble. Indeed, a friend of a friend of Alice's ends her life during a "bad trip." Alice herself must pay the price for taking drugs. In Smoke And Flesh the trouble takes the form of the biker group crashing the party and causing trouble.

These films are best perceived as sensationalistic films without much meat on them to make the point that drug use can be good but mostly bad; there's almost invariably a price to be paid when one uses mind altering drugs. Things in both movies get out of hand rather quickly and the problems don't always have a happy resolution. Smoke And Flesh, however, is decidedly more upbeat in its handling of drugs while Alice In Acidland appears to have been made to scare younger people into avoiding drugs. I liked the idea of human life as expressed through the lives of the fish in the aquarium near the end of Smoke And Flesh.

I recommend these films for people who enjoy films from the Something Weird series. People who want to watch movies about the dangers of drug abuse will also like these two movies.

Another interesting title in the Something Weird series, but interesting mostly only as a late-night curio of sleazy 60's weirdness.

"Alice," a low-budget skin flick, is about an ordinary L.A. teen and her swift descent to the looney-bin once she's lured by her seductive female teacher into the world of drink, drugs, sun and sex.

That description makes it sound much more engaging than it actually is: Alice is... to put it delicately... not overly attractive and not excessively talented as an actress. The film quality is sketchy (lots of jump-cuts and segments without audio) and the action is glacially paced. We're talking slow going and most of the sex involves Alice writhing and making spastic "oh!" faces in response to simply being held by her lovers (no touching, basically).

A sequence in which Alice drops acid is presented in color and it's so slow and dull it makes you wonder if the filmmakers mistook Ny-Quil Liqui-Gels for LSD.

If you're looking for funny sound-bites or want a wacky, unseen film to project on the wall of a loft-party, this is all you. It's not good for much else.

"Smoke and Flesh" is actually a lot more interesting. Editor, director, cinematographer Joseph Mangine had clearly seen, and been influenced by the French New Wave and also movies like "Touch of Evil." The story (one hipster's swingin' party is interrupted by volatile bikers on acid) ain't much but visually there's style to spare. The opening motorcycle ride through New York is so cool and atmospheric it could've been filmed by some video wunderkind circa 1998 and there are other highlights as well -- a "Pulp Fiction"-esque joint rolling, a spooky attack in an attic and a nicely-shot sequence in which whip cream is applied to the body of a young party girl. Scriptwise, they got nothing but compared to "Alice" it's practically Godard.

A hidden feature about the aphrodesiac effects of weed is a hoot, though it grows boring.

The best part is a collection of about 10 previews for similar movies ("The Pusher," "The Acid Eaters" and "Confessions of an Opium Eater"). That alone makes it worth netflixing or buying used at a low, low price.