Just so...so bad

From my favorite movies..

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

College boy Elliott (Ross Stephanson) helps rob a bank to impress his cheating girlfriend Sherry (Maureen McGill). However he escapes without the money and she turns him over to the police. He's sentenced to two years in prison. There he encounters every cliché and stereotype in the book. The movie concentrates the most on homosexuality in prison with the expected rape scene (tastefully done).Supposedly this was the first Canadian film ever to deal with gay men and one of the first to deal with men in prison and sex. Maybe back in 1971 it was shocking but nowadays it comes across as kind of quaint and even laughable. Elliott is so naive he's hard to take seriously. It was shot in a real prison which helps and (supposedly) is based on real events. The acting is OK. Edward Blessington is very good as Yurik, Elliotts cell mate. Stephanson himself wavers. He's tall, young, looks good nude and has some moments but other times he's kind of stiff. He never did another film but deserves credit for doing this. The DVD transfer is great and it has an unmatted shower scene where it's made clear that Stephanson was totally nude. Not the best nor worst of its kind.

Fans of really obscure so-bad-it's-good stuff might enjoy this what-where-they-thinking?- affair; shot in Canada in 1971. A very stupid young man attempts to rob a bank to impress a very trashy girlfriend. Hey, these people smoke a lot of Pot. Thrown in the brig for two years, he get;s to experience variations on every prison movie standby in the book. He befriends his cellmate, who seems like a pretty nice guy, but is eventually tortured (legally? Oh Canada!) for punching out a homosexual. It's a very, very dumb film but it does have a few surprises and winks at the poor audience. One guard is a dead ringer for John Candy. Well, I don't know what else I can say about it. The actors are O.K. I think some of it was supposed to be funny.