A low-budget indie flick set decades after a Russian nuclear attack, when the death of Elvis—the reigning King of “Lost Vegas,” the lone holdout in post-apocalyptic America—opens the door for all surviving guitarists to make a claim to the throne. One of these men, a scrawny unkempt swordsman with coke-bottle glasses named Buddy, wields a guitar sought after from coast to coast; even Death himself, dressed in a ragged overcoat and top-hat and brandishing an electric guitar, is out for the crown.
A perfectly constructed allegory of the clashing schools of rock-and-roll: the old-school rockabilly, with artists like Sam Perkins and Buddy Holly, and the 1980s hard rock of groups like Guns N’ Roses and Damn Yankees. Buddy is, of course, a thin incarnation of Holly, while Death is Slash of Guns N’ Roses. A novel idea, especially when framed around the themes of the Cold War, but the final showdown, in which Buddy faces off against Death in a no-holds-barred rock-off outside the gates of Vegas, is too anticlimactic. Had the filmmakers decided against rushing the story, much of which revolves around Buddy’s relationship with an annoying youngster, they would have allowed us to savor the originality of seeing Buddy Holly face down a large Communist battalion and Death sidetracked by leopard-spotted shoes.
by Adam Balz | Source: Palm Pictures DVD
21 Jun 2007 9:13 PM | Submit Comment