It should be clear by now that the films collected by SOMETHING WEIRD are hardly lost gems. But how do you really judge them? Do you really want that much plot (the tradeoff being nudity?) or if you really want grindhouse with a plot and hardly any nudity - go see the Tarantino-Rodriguez big budgeted flop. The beauty of REAL Grindhouse is how kooky is it, how much nudity there is and whether its quality nudity? The SOMETHING WEIRD collection is for film fans who not only enjoy natural nudity but appreciate its setting in kooky surroundings and while this is not the best disc or even a 4-star effort by Something Weird, it's a solid offering.
Tarz & Jane, Cheeta & Boy was filmed for about $[...] and probably in Griffith Park when the park patrol left the area. It does seem like an edited X-rated movie from the early 1970's and one of the few Something Weird collections with full frontal male nudity. It also features female nudity of the close up nature you normally can only find in Sharon Stone movies where she's in an interrogation room ... Does the movie make any sense? No, of course not but all the right female actresses are nude for much screen time. Presumably because it's cut down, it runs just over an hour.
Tarzun and the Valley of Lust has a slightly higher budget and runs slightly longer than an hour. This one has higher ambitions of story telling - mainly because it pretty borrows all the Tarzan stories plus a bit of nudity in the end. The print isn't great but the actresses are attractive.
The bonuses are a little weak - nudity wise. There is a South American film that takes place in the jungle about girls stranged by a shipwreck - all attractive but no real nudity. There are several b&w documentary travelogues (from the 1950's?) of true native women nude doing the normal things they do in the course of the day living in the jungle. All newsreel style so not exactly titillating. There is also video of a dance and singing troupe with nude native women performing - again, more documentary than sexual. There are a bunch of jungle-theme trailers of 1940's/1950's/1960's low budget movies - unlike most trailers on other SW discs, these are "legitimate" A or B movies with no nudity in the trailers. There are a couple trailers of the two main films on this disc with nudity.
And yes, the print quality on all the titles are not exactly pristine ... but it feels like a grindhouse print spooling in a theater (hotugh in the comfort of your house). So, if you like jungle-themed nudity and understand these are not Oscar calibur films and these are not showcases for your $[...]k HD screen ... this is a solid collection of kooky jungle themed nudity - could be better but it's not bad.
