Wow! Such a good movie.

Just perfect...

Best movie of this year hands down!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

HALLUCINATION STRIP is a very weird addition to the Italian cycle of police films, as the title might suggest. It's a film which attempts to depict the counter-culture movement of the 1970s with a cast of hippies, druggies, and some hilariously dated hallucination sequences which provide the film with its more outre moments.This film does have some things going for it, namely the fine shooting style which gives the movie a gritty street vibe in line with the rest of the polizia genre. In addition, Marcel Bozzuffi (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) gives another fine performance as the cop on the trail of a stolen snuff box, one of those dedicated crusading characters this genre of film-making always contains.The story is about a rich aristocrat's son going off the rails and turning to drugs to hang out with his hippy buddies. American actor Bud Cort plays a young pusher who gets chased around a lot and involved in the shenanigans. I found the drug material terribly dated, with all of the gratuitous nudity the genre is known for, although the crime aspects are more fun and I wish they had been better utilised.

A somewhat offbeat, not uninteresting portrait of Italian youth culture of the 1970s, "Hallucination Strip" stars then-popular young American actor Bud Cort. Bud plays Massimo Monaldi, a hippie type who's just as much into juvenile delinquency as he is into political protest. He buys trouble for himself when he steals a valuable "snuff box", or tobacco box, and gets caught between the investigating detectives - led by Inspector De Stefani (Marcel Bozzuffi) - and the local Mafia. He is also approached by his friend Rudy (Settimio Segnatelli) to procure drugs for a party that Rudy hopes will be a life changing event for him.The advertising makes this seem as if it will be bizarre and trippy throughout. Such is not the case, as most of the time, "Hallucination Strip" tells a fairly conventional story. It isn't until the film is more than half over that we get a true set piece of psychedelia. The "dream" sequence goes on for a few minutes, and is very striking with its use of colour, makeup, and choreography. Overall, this is a very well made film that looks glorious on Blu-ray. It also serves as a 93 minute snapshot of a particular place at a particular time. Buffs should appreciate this for being a reasonably provocative combination of art and exploitation; there's sufficient female (and male) nudity to hold a viewers' attention.Bud makes the most of the material, and his role, which was definitely different from others he'd played during this time. The rest of the cast is equally fine, with an especially effective turn by Bozzuffi as the detective on a mission.This is entertaining enough to make one glad that there are home video companies that see fit to resurrect obscure items like "Hallucination Strip".Six out of 10.

Saw this at HMV and thought "I like Italian movies and love 70's psychedelia" but this movie was terrible. It was made in 1975 and the drugs were pot and the "other stuff" which comes in pill form and makes you trip. Oh and it makes some drug-less dealer woman in a castle want to die if she doesn't have any. It also makes you foam at the mouth and sense bugs all over you. Basically those pills caused every negative thing every to come out of the mouth of your local police scare mongers about every drug that ever existed. The USA was producing realistic depictions of heroin five years before this like Panic in Needle Park and The Trip was showing realistic LSD use in 1967. In 1975 this film shows the mafia supplying LSD to student radicals, a drug they have have always considered below them. There is no money in it and its not addictive. This movie is so detached from reality it is a joke considering the mafia were pumping heroin into Italy by this time. It could have been relevant, instead it was silly. Some of the city backgrounds are nice but the "trippy party" was not trippy and they stole Peter Fonda's Pirate shirt and some music from the Trip but that was apparently all they got from that flick. It may be hard to simulate the experience, and probably even harder since no one involved had clearly ever done any drugs ever in their lives. This was an anti hippie flick but it seems like it may have been marketed to that crowd, although also trying to appeal to middle class Italians who are far enough removed from drugs that someone dying with foam in their mouth a day after an LSD party seemed legit. Terrible movie 3/10. Anyone want to buy a Blu Ray?

L.A.'s New Beverly Cinema recently held an ultra-rare screening of the Italian obscurity, HALLUCINATION STRIP (on screen title, HALLUCINATING STRIP). This is a very odd, but, interesting half-breed between a police procedural (it's original Italian title is: ROMA DROGATA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO INTERVENIRE) and post 60's youth drug film. It's an odd hybrid and you can see why it's drifted into obscurity despite having had a full English track translation, a cult actor (Bud Cort) and a decent 70s Italian Rock score ( Alberto Verrecchia) with accompanying RCA soundtrack release (ironically, that well-done score actually works against the film ever getting a proper USA DVD release with all the song rights issues).Influenced by films like BLOW UP and EASY RIDER on one side, and THE FRENCH CONNECTION and HIGH CRIME (aka LA POLIZIA INCRIMINA LA LEGGE ASSOLVE) on the other, HALLUCINATION stars off slowly. We are introduced to Massimo (Cort) and his rich girlfriend Cinzia (Annarita Grapputo). Massimo steals an antique box from the house, which brings in the police to the situation, including rogue but honorable cop De Stafani (Marcel Bozzuffi).Massimo and his youthful friends (supposedly high school students) are involved in drugs (and revolutionary politics). One of his friends is spoiled pampered rich kid named Rudy. In one perverse scene, he is bathed by his mother and a maid. Rudy is planning a "happening" and needs drugs for his party so he gives money to Massimo to buy them. But, Massimo uses the cash to hide away a pair of his co-revolutionary comrades. So, his only collateral is the antique box he stole and he fences it to a drug dealer, code-named "The Sicilian" At the "Happening" drugs (including acid) are freely taken and Rudy has a long trip which gives the film it's American title. Being a policier (or the Italian equivalent, a Poliziotteschi) you can probably guess the morally "justified" ending.But, it isn't plot that makes HALLUCINATION interesting. It's the vibe. Cort was probably lured to Italy not just because he could have a paid vacation in Rome, but, because of the political and social milieu the film takes place in. The 1968 student protests are explicitly referenced as is the beginnings of the pro-worker and communist movements in Italy. What hurts here is the script's insistence that they are High School students. Cort was 27 when this came out. There's a scene where he tells Cinzia about an experience with a hooker when he was 15 - he's supposed to be around 17, but, he talks about this experience like it happened closer to ten years earlier, not TWO. Perhaps, the Italian version has them as University students?The acid trip sequence is both visually interesting to look at (and Verrecchia's music is solid) as well as amusing. Let's face it, it's pretty difficult to accurately depict what is in one's mind on screen. The writhing naked body-painted bodies reminds me of those 70s Playboy pictorials where they would hire someone like Salvador Dali to "imagine" his sexual fantasies into an "artistic" porn spread.HALLUCINATING STRIP is an interesting relic of the 70s, but, you can see why it is so little seen. As a cop film, it's just OK. And, young people attracted to the nudity, drugs and music are, in the end, beaten over the head with a downbeat finale a la EASY RIDER, JOE or PSYCH-OUT. Even, the rare Pro-Drug experience film like Corman's THE TRIP had a shock ending imposed upon it. Can't a hippie just have a Hallucination in peace?