Bummer (1973)
* (out of 4)
Three female friends (Diane Lee Hart, Carol Speed, Connie Strickland) decide to hook up with a local rock group and before long the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll turns to something much darker and deadlier.
BUMMER was produced by the notorious David F. Friedman and I'm going to guess it was meant as a way for him to do a more mainstream picture. If you're familiar with the various exploitation films that he was behind then you're really going to be disappointed by this movie on a number of levels. For starters, it's downright boring. Secondly, well, there's just nothing interesting that happens here.
I'm going to guess that the film was meant to be a view into the life of rock stars and their groupies but the film is a complete disaster if that was the case. It certainly doesn't help that all of the characters are rather boring and you just don't care what happens to any of them. The film never seems to know what it wants to do and it certainly doesn't know what story it wants to tell as the film is just constantly dragged out with scenes that add up to nothing. Just take a look at the scene with the pimp. What was the point of it?
There are a couple decent things here. If you want some nudity then there are some beautiful naked ladies for you to enjoy. Fans of William Girdler's ABBY will be happy to see Speed here and one wishes her character had a bit more to do. Dennis Burkley plays the psycho band member and he's the most interesting thing in the picture. Just take a look at the scene where he forces two of the groupies to shower together!
When it's all said and done, BUMMER really lives up to its title and it a major disappointment.
