Roadside Prophets (1992)

An Exercise In Nonsense

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Like another reviewer, I'm glad I saw this on IFC instead of paying for a ticket in a theater. Is the lead's name really John Doe? After seeing this mess I thought it was a fake name he used to hide behind. He's not a bad actor, it's the script that reeks -- if they had one. I suspect most of the movie was improvised. The cameos by Arlo Guthrie and Tim Leary are interesting, especially Arlo's rambling tale. He's a master of that genre.I sometimes enjoy a real "golden turkey," but Roadside Prophets wasn't quite bad enough for the achievement of "so bad it's good." It comes fairly close, but the cinematography and editing are competent enough to keep it out of the "Plan Nine from Outer Space" clan.The title is excellent -- if only the roadside characters they meet had lived up to it. A more honest title might have been "Roadside Pseudo-philosophical Ramblings." It could have been billed as America's brain-damaged response to the film "Mindwalk".I'm giving it four stars instead of the three I originally rated it because I was impressed with the huckster-style of the trailer. Together, the movie and the trailer prove anything can be made to sound good with the right sales pitch.If you want to see a really good, bad movie shot in Nevada, check out "Never Leave Nevada". I saw it many years ago at Sundance and it's a gem from Bizzaro Nevada school of minimal budget strangeness.

I rented this movie years ago and have been hoping for a DVD release for years so I can show everyone I know how funny it is. There are so many wonderful cameos in this, too many to list, but mostly you are left with the performances of john doe and adam horovitz. They lead you on a journey we all go on inside ourselves especially while we grow up. Who the hell are we and what do we want from life? How much do the people in our lives mean to us and what would we do for them push come to shove? I know many would think that is too deep for this romp but then I suppose many people consider deuce bigelow real cinema. Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone who for one thing is a nut about music and wants to see some of their favs in a new light and for anyone else with a mind that wanders, take a wander with these roadside prophets.

This film is about a long journey by Joe, played by John Doe, who really doesn't seem to get what life is about sometimes. Obviously the goal of the film is for Joe to wake up somewhere along the line.The premise is good but the kick-start is a rather amusing in a bizarre kind of way. Joe meets this guy after his first day working at the same plant he's been at for six years. The guy tells Joe about this little casino out in the middle of nowhere in Nevada which he says is the place to go, where "everyone hits the jackpot". In the process of this they decide to go off and get a drink together. They drive an extremely long time to get to a ridiculously pathetic strip joint, where this guy gets electrocuted from an old video game and dies. I think it is this particular sequence that probably condemns this film to grade "B" cult like status.The cinematic rendering of this film is very basic and feels kind of throw back for a film made in the 1990s. But I think that is part of what made this film watch-able and entertaining. Its delivery of the required philosophical anecdotes and montages at each stop along the way of Joe's journey, while somewhat campy, is sincere because there was no attempt to embellish the messages by pulling in "A" list actors to recite them as we have seen in other movies of this type. I think the messages are honest, blunt and still relevant today.I think the use of cursing, cigarettes, alcohol, and partial nudity was completely unnecessary. The film might have been given itself more credibility it the barely partial nudity was cut and the cursing removed. Cigarettes and alcohol are so passé in today's movies that I think to an extent we ignore them anyways.I do think the use of cursing was due to a lack of more intelligent dialog. A re-make of this film could yield interesting results, even using the same actors and scene sequences. I think the film. But hey, that's just my opinion, watch and judge for yourself.

Doe meets a man at work who comes off as very annoying and empty headed. The type of person most people would want to run from. Yet Doe befriends him immediately. Then, when this new friend dies suddenly, he decides to honor him by burying his ashes in a mythical city called El Dorado, Nevada. Thus begins a very feeble attempt at a road movie. It was made by those who never did it themselves, but still think it would be a cool idea. It's the same people who like the idea of 'rebelling' yet have no idea what to rebel against. It has all the bad road movie cliches with none of the substance. It's too contained with none of the ruggedness. The quirky story threads and 'hype' philosophy are simply attempts to cover up it's own hollowness. There is some introspection involving looking at the 60's through 80's eyes. It shows how Generation X loves the allure of the 60's and wants to emulate it, yet has no real understanding of what it was about. It also shows how the aging boomer still longs for the open road even though he has now become apart of that dreaded responsible class that still needs to hold down a job. Yet all this is only done in minute spurts with the rest of it drowned out by a trendy existentialism that just doesn't work. John Doe, the lead actor, aptly fits his name. He is very boring and transparent. The 'celebrity' appearances are nothing more than tired walk ons by fading 60's icons. Horowitz is the only one that manages to give a interesting performance. His youthful energy seems sincere and lively. It's all very flatly shot and cheap looking. It looks like it should have gone straight to video. It also has some real stilted moments and bad acting too. This thing has the audacity to bill itself as THE EASY RIDER of the 90's even though it doesn't come close. It is pure imitation. Watching the real thing would be better or even watching some of the lesser known road pictures of that era.