"Biscut, you're washing dishes in a shithole, brother. Personally, I think you could risk the career change."- Milo
"Real life is not California. Real life is a shit sandwich and every day you gotta take another bite. "- Grant
"That buddy of yours; that was the first white man we ever killed, honest!"- Thug
"Yeah, man, but my real bread and butter's the Bullfightin' scene. You really oughta' catch my act sometime - it's going nowhere but up!"- Daredelvis
Alahoyus! I found this little nugget of joy in Asheville last week on VHS. Another flick that may never see DVD release and prolly never even come close to Blu-ray. Directed by Penelope (All's Quiet On The Western Front) Speeris, we have a sort of punk rock Easy Rider story about 3 "dudes" who decide that they're going nowhere in New York, so why not split to California. The story is about what happens along the way. With a KILLER soundtrack and starring Jon (2.5 dorks) Cryer, Daniel (the killer from "River's Edge") Roebuck, Lee Ving from the band Fear (in his 2nd flixxx review! see "The Wild Life"), the Vandals, and Flea(!), BAFR presents DUDES!!!!
Milo, Grant, & Biscuit are three NYC punkrockers who are sick of eating in diners and getting the shit kicked out of themselves. They'd much rather eat in diners in California apparently, so Milo (Flea) puts up 1000 bucks he has saved up for gas so they can split. The other 2 are against the idea in the beginning, but after a near accidental fall, they give in. Hopping in Grant's old VW bug, they head across the American plains, taking pics, and listening to tunes, and being excited the way you tend to be if you've never driven across before or seen any wildlife outside of NYC.
They make it as far as Utah, and then they decide to camp overnight in this spot. All of a sudden these rednecks pull up in trucks and rob them at gunpoint. The main badguy's name is Missoula (probably because he has a tattoo of Montana on his arm). What made me go wow, I wish it was still the 80s or even the early 90s was the fact that they made it from NYC to Utah, and still had 800 bucks! That would have cost them a hell of a lot more in gas these days. Anyway, the dudes try to escape, running thru the desert but Milo has a cast on his leg, and somehow rolls down the hill, and the redneck shoots him in the face while the other two hide. The rednecks split, and leave Grant & Biscuit bewildered in the dust.
At first they are about to try and drive to Cali anyway, but they realize its futile because they are broke. They try and go into town and get the Easy Rider redneck treatment from the locals, getting their asses kicked in a diner, but having sympathy taken on them by a hot tow truck driver girl. They split, find the sympathetic redneck guy killed, steal his guns and go after Missoula. They find him but wreck trying to kill him. The tow truck chick rescues them and takes Grant riding in the woods on a horse. Biscuit dreams he's a Native American. She gives them a convertible! Then they go to kill the rednecks. They go to a rodeo and meet up with this dude Daredelvis who owed them a favor from the beginning of their journey. Then they drink some Snake Juice and trip in the desert.
Then they find the rednecks, ambush them in a theater, get arrested. The tow truck chick comes to help, the rednecks kill the cops, they get busted out of jail, then chase down and kill the rednecks. The fucked up thing is, its hard to tell whether this is supposed to be a comedy, or an action film, or what? Its another one of those late 80s dark comedies, coming of age, style flixxx with a feel very much like 'River's Edge'. You can't really believe it when their friend gets killed, you can't really believe that these kids are actually hunting down and killing these rednecks! Also somewhere in there along the way, both dudes see visions, one of a cowboy watching over them named Witherspoon, and 3 Indians. Its a weird ass flick. But in the end, Milo rides off into the sunset with Witherspoon & the Indians, and the final shot is a VERY AWKWARD scene freeze of Biscuit, Grant, and the chick. Very strange. But if you can find it, I'd say watch it. Its broken up into like 10 parts on google video if you wanna check it out there. Word.
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