Truly Dreadful Film

An absolute waste of money

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

While this easy'n'breezy documentary may not be 100% factually accurate, it nonetheless provides a perfectly enjoyable portrait of what the whole 1960's California youth culture scene was like before the hippie flower power movement kicked in. Among the funky sights and activities to be relished herein are groovy bands performing live in clubs on the Sunset Strip (yep, we get footage of the legendary Whiskey a Go-Go), martial artists practicing karate, surfers braving the waves in Hawaii and California, a scruffy outlaw biker gang beating up the cameraman (one of them even spits on the lens!), sexy go-go dancing chicks, dirt bike and go-kart racing, a staged interview with a masked LSD user, and a group of hopheads letting it all hang out after they finish smoking pot and doing dope. Narrated with verve by smooth-voiced disc jockey Humble Harve, well shot by future big-time cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmund, and topped off by an infectiously catchy theme song, it's a total gas, baby!

While the Mod era got most of the hype and coverage, the Hippies had their own little spots here too.We cover the LA area here. We get a good look at the dirt bike races and surfing scenes. A tour of the local clothing shops as well. It's interesting to see the fashions displayed without even a hint of irony.A few rock bands are shown too. Local acts, many with the greaser look still. But a few are showing Beatles influence too. And in all honesty. the groups and songs were pretty good.The inevitable scenes of riots and protests are here too. Along with an acid fueled orgy at the end. Lots of close-ups of girls in go-go boots and minis dancing as well.Not a bad doc at all. The DVD has "Hippie Revolt" as an extra. That's for 60's completests especially.

MONDO MOD is aptly described by its trailer as "the film that took a trip and never came back!!!" It attempts to document the hip "mod" scene of the mid-60s and focuses solely on southern California. As a result, the film offers a very distorted look at the "youth culture" of that era. The most popular "mod" activities are, according to MONDO MOD: surfing, rioting, martial arts, Go-Karting, dancing, smoking pot and taking LSD, and riding motorcycles. The Vietnam War is never mentioned. A thirty-something acidhead and the young, very "mod"-stylish owner of a fashion boutique are interviewed. In my favorite scene the acidhead, wearing a mod-ified (no pun intended) executioner's mask to hide his identity, talks about his dozen LSD trips while he is purportedly tripping, and his interlocutor repeatedly turns to the camera to dispense a frightening anti-drug message that utterly contradicts the acidhead's statements. There are a few extended sequences with hot chicks dancing and systematically (not to say "semiprofessionally") disrobing. On the Something Weird Video DVD of MONDO MOD you can see two 7 minute reels of "alternate footage" from the film (with nudity excised from the theatrical release) and the ridiculously over-the-top trailer, plus a whole slew of other hippie-exploitation material.

A teen hippie and surfer explains the world of the sixties with surfing, hippies, LSD, bickers, juvenile delinquents. Man do I wish that I lived in that time, but unfortunately I was born in 1981. This is quite a great colorful film, with long scenes all about the many goings on in the sixties. The party scene at the end was the best scene. Recommended!