Poster Artwork
Despite being nothing more than a po’ white trash petty thief from the trailer park, Alice and her accomplices plan to take the next step into the big times by pulling off a high stakes armored car heist. The plan is simple enough, Alice needs to get the driver to somehow unlock the back doors to the truck and drop his guard long enough for her to incapacitate him while the others clean it out.
Just when it begins looking as though they’ll get away with it, the guard starts a shoot-out, forcing Alice to flee with the remaining money but betrayal awaits her and a dirty cop is behind it all. One year from the night Alice is shot, she awakens from her coma and sets out on a trail of vengeance and bloodshed in a quest to retrieve her money and make those who have wronged her pay with their lives.
Alice in Wasteland is a low budget exploitation production overflowing with pimps, prostitutes, dirty cops, prison bulldaggers, strangle-happy Swiss maids, rednecks, drug dealers, crazed crackheads and girls-with-guns. It was an entertaining smorgasbord of sleaze, intentional and unintentional comedy and oodles of violence. The production values were solid considering the obvious budgetary constraints so you ought to enjoy the wardrobe (not too outrageous), shooting locations (a real jail & hospital) and the groovy, funkadelic music.
Directors Jarvi and Schuermann were able to throw in little bits and pieces from all kinds of exploitation subgenres, which was really cool, including Blaxploitation, W.I.P. cinema and even a little Kung Fu style action involving an iron. There was an instance or two in which I started wondering whether the film was going to end up being full-on comedy but, thankfully, they didn’t go that route and played it relatively straight with a little comedy sprinkled throughout. I must admit, without knowing where the homage ends and usual amateur acting begins, it’s really hard to judge the performances here but my overall impression was that everybody put in their fair share of effort.
One thing you’ll immediately notice when watching Alice in Wasteland is the incredibly good-looking women, I don’t think a sequence went by without one gorgeous gal. Which leads me to my first negative comment about the film, there was no nudity. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m not some prepubescent looking for spank material but exploitation is all about gratuity and…well…exploitation (‘natch!). Each and every time I thought I was going to get a little pervs-eye-view of skin, I was met with nothing but disappointment. The only thing being exploited in this film was my ability to be teased without losing interest. You can’t parade that much tail on screen for a hardened cult cinema junky like me without giving up some of the goods! It just ain’t right!
All bitching aside, I laughed out loud quite a few times, juked to the music and came away from this flick with a smile on my face. That’s all I ask for in most cases. Now I don’t think I’d purchase this for my own collection but in my opinion it’s worth renting out so be sure to head on over to Amazon or Netflix! Fun stuff! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…something something Alice in Wonderland blah blah blah…dur! Go check this out!
