Cheap Hardcore Plus, Vol. 1 (Video) (Richard Kern) Price

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Customer Reviews of Hardcore Plus, Vol. 1

Dull.
I can't really get a handle on what Richard Kern was trying to accomplish with these short films. I had heard that they were very shocking and disturbing (which I would only consider a very marginal accomplishment in and of itself.) But they aren't -- not really. Nor are they thought-provoking. Nor are they erotic. Nor are they aesthetically impacting. What they are is tedious, dull, obtuse, zero-budget, silly, and pretentious (when not entirely incoherent.) Maybe *this* is the point -- a kind of "anti-everything" outpouring of filth (whoopie.) But I don't think so. I rather suspect that it's just a particularly unimaginative byproduct of the "no wave" scene (Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin, Henry Rollins, Sonic Youth and others have a part in this.) The sort of thing that was (maybe) fun for the people who put it together, and their juvenile, pseudo-intellectual "hipper-than-thou" circle -- and no one else. I mean, not to dismiss these artists entirely, and I do apologize for the cynicism; but, watch these films and you might better appreciate my current mood.

"The Right Side of My Brain" is the strongest piece here. Keep in mind, that this is saying very, very little. Most of the other pieces are just ... dumb. And boring. A couple were even aggravating in their childishness. One of the pieces involves an angry, obnoxious, "rebel" daughter murdering her archetypal parody of a middle-class family and enunciating: "You killed me first," (with their religion, expectations, etc.) Wow. Deep. In another piece, a homely-looking "freak" in a trenchcoat uses a picture of Jesus Christ as a piece of toilet paper before sexually molesting a young woman's corpse. Well, yee-haw. They ain't takin' no prisoners, these hardcore folk ain't. It might sound provocatively irreverent, but it's so poorly done that it really isn't. It's just gay -- the kind of thing a rebellious, frustrated 9th-grader deeply into Black Flag might find cool. But not much of anyone else.

Anyhow, you get the idea. Soulless, bleak, dull, posturing work, that looks straight out of film school. Underground? It belongs there.

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Transgression at its Best (and Worst)
This video's main feature is the 30-minute long video: The Right Side of My Brain starring 80's punk/performance artist Lydia Lunch. While ambitious in its attempt at "alternative" cinema, the video's novice production values (in black and white) and droning narration by Lydia Lunch come off more as an eager art school project than a masterpiece of underground movie-making. For hardcore fans of Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern, though, this new issue of short films will be a welcome addition (if you don't already own the original Film Threat Videdo releases).