RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP

Longhairs have invaded Sunset Strip!

It's 1967 Los Angeles... what do you want to do?

"We'll make the Strip scene again! It's what's happening!"
"Oh, crazy!"
"Groovy, huh, doll?"

You can tell nice girl Andy (a cute little fox) is on a slippery slope of corruption because she comes from a BROKEN HOME. See, Andy's estranged dad is a cop, responsible for law enforcement on the Strip while her her no-good mom is a juicer at home. She is one teen pack away from drug overdoses, gang rape, and a riot!

Andy is of course in trouble when her new hipster friends ask her:

"Have you ever freaked out?"
"It's a ball! Come on, Alice in Wonderland, let's trip!"

The kids crash a mansion, and one acid-dosed sugarcube in a Diet Coke later, Andy is doing a wild interpretive dance to groovy music as she freaks out. The second half of her super extended freak out is even in slow motion! You know it is a CRAZY party because one chick just laughs manically in the corner (Wooo!) while the music gets louder and louder. Boy, is it awkward when the cops (including Andy's dad) show up after neighbor complaints and find the party carnage, including Andy trippin' naked in a bed with a bunch of boys running out of the room.

It is unclear at first whether Riot on Sunset Strip is being sarcastically judgmental or is actually sympathetic with the kids that smoke grass and take "acids" on the Sunset Strip. Surely, the film is desperately trying to be hip and edgy, and it often succeeds. For instance, the house bands in the teen's favorite club Pandora's Box (which looks ridiculously like a stage set that was perhaps used as the Brady's basement on TV) are particularly awesome (in the credits, they are listed as Enemies, the Standells, and Chocolate Watchband). And who doesn't love a drug-induced overly-long interpretive dance to groovy 60's psychedelic rock?

The problem is that about halfway through the movie (which peaks with Andy's dance), the film tries to become a message movie. Always in the backdrop of the Strip are a bunch of Longhairs with protest signs, protesting... something. Except it is hard to take them seriously when their painted signs look like they were hand-drawn by 5-year-olds, replete with bad spelling and backwards letters. Despite the fact that an outreach attempt is made between a college-educated Longhair representative and the sympathetic police chief, it is quickly evident that the political message of the movie is really.... boring. Plus, the "riot" ends up being more like some half-assed shuffling around, where the protestors look like they are hoping someone will break out a plate of brownies so they can call it a night.

That said, the first half of the movie *is* kind of brilliantly awesome, and is totally worth watching. This is the kind of film where the cops at the precinct will have a profound discussion about the problem with the kids, then one cop will suddenly brighten and say, "Have some coffee!" and pour some for the chief. "Don't mind if I do!" the chief answers, genuinely pleased.

So, if you want to see a hilarious time capsule of 60s psychedelic hysteria, check out the first hour or so of Riot on Sunset Strip. "Don't mind if I do!" (you say, handing friend an acid-laced sugarcube) "Come on, let's groove!"