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REVIEWS
An all-out comedy science fiction flick that comes close to
drowning in its own gore, Bad Taste marks the feature debut of Antipodean Peter
Jackson. Down in the Southern Hemisphere, a frantic phone call from Kaihoro (a small town
on the New Zealand coast) reaches a semi-robotic civil servant. Recognising the warning
relayed by the near-incoherent messenger, he sends in the boys from the Astro Invasion
Defence Service (A.I.D.S.). The forward unit, consisting of Derek (Peter Jackson) and
Barry (Pete O'Herne), makes its way to Kaihoro. Finding the place utterly devoid of
humanity, instead they stumble upon an alien known as Robert (Peter Jackson again) and
capture him. Unfortunately, Robert has friends, one of whom chases Barry to a messy end on
the beach.
Meanwhile the remainder of the government team, Frank (Mike
Minett) and Ozzie (Terry Potter), are in transit with a cargo of weaponry. They're
routinely sceptical of Derek's alien identifications, but when Barry mentions Robert they
show a little more interest. Unfortunately, they're way behind schedule, so Barry and
Derek are left to deal with the hostile reinforcements as best they can. The resulting
carnage isn't particularly pretty, but it's a good thing that these 3rd Class soldiers
aren't much brighter than your average zombie. This is, however, scant consolation to
Giles (Craig Smith), a fairly innocent bystander who picked the wrong day to go debt
collecting. Pretty soon it all goes pear-shaped, with the alien leader Lord Crumb (Doug
Wren) congratulating himself on an unexpected delicacy that has fallen into his troop's
hands. Now it's all up to the A.I.D.S. team!
The product from four years of weekend shooting, Bad
Taste is one of those films where the director has to show his virtuosity by doing
everything bar make the tea. In this instance, Peter Jackson produces, directs, acts (in
multiple roles), oversees the cinematography, creates the special effects, applies the
make-up and only consents to collaborate on editing and script writing. It is thus quite
remarkable that Bad Taste didn't end up as a vanity product, but instead evolved
into a fairly consistent and internationally marketable product. The latter is not too
surprising though, since there's a steady world-wide demand for outrageous gore. The
unusual aspect is that Jackson undermines the standard constructs of the hack'n'slash
genre with a mixture of humour and message. Throughout Bad Taste the over-the-top
violence is played strictly for laughs, while constantly hinting at the rapacious tactics
of megalomaniac corporations.
A side-effect of the amateur cast and crew is that Bad
Taste remains weak in several key areas. The most significant is that this is
fundamentally a one-joke movie; ugly extra-terrestrials scout out Earth for new product
lines and a minor hit-squad is mobilised to wipe them out. The problem is that when the
fighting and revolting visuals fade away, the storyline slows to a crawl and stagnates.
The lack of filler isn't helped much by the dire performances, most of which barely inch
past the first base of characterisation. With acting as incompetent as the roles
themselves, it's something of a blessing that the cast members stick rigidly to the few
defining parameters of their persona. The exception here is Lord Crumb, dryly amusing at
all times (particularly as he starts to get ticked off by the pesky humans). The calibre
of the players probably explains the lack of dialogue, although at least the lines are
pretty funny where they exist.
Overall, Bad Taste succeeds by not pretending to be
something it isn't. At heart it's a staggeringly gory film (a bit like alien liposuction
with fluids and internal organs spraying everywhere) which shows off Jackson's nascent
talents for humour, effects and horror (of sorts). It has several truly inspired and
disgusting scenes (more in evidence in later films), which partially weigh against the way
in which Bad Taste staggers all over the place. For example, one of these moments
arrives when Lord Crumb, who has maintained human form all along (a typical low-budget
compromise), reverts to his true shape. So, even though Bad Taste is far more than
an exercise in repulsion, it is most sympathetically thought of as a showcase for Jackson
and a precursor of the joy to come.
A review by Damian Cannon |