Supervan (1977)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

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

The movie Supervan was filmed in St Joseph, Missouri where I was living at the time. It started filming in October during the FREAK OUT truck In held at Old MacDonald's farm just North of St Joseph.Many of our Pony Express Van Club members were in the Freak Out scenes and later furnished vans owned by the members in many follow up scenes such as the Van and Car chase on the streets of St Joseph.My van was in several scenes and I also had several 'walk on' roles in the movie. It was great fun to be treated as a member of the cast and enjoying plenty of free beer and great food at the lunch breaks.The Premier of the movie was held at a theater in St Joseph with George Barris, designer of the Super Van present for the festivities.Later I made a web page of my photos and several clips from the movie.. You can check that out searching for the name Super Van the Movie online.

Way back we had a list of worst movies ever and Supervan was number one that list. It says lots about this movie. True classic and a must for everyone who likes bad movies. I mean what can you expect from a movie about a van. The best part of the movie was a scene where Supervan tried to get over a little hill and couldn't even accomplish that little task. Is there something else to say about this masterpiece? If you ever get a chance of watching it, do it. It's worst movie ever in the history of worst movies ever, which includes almost every movie ever made of course. On the other hand, the minimalism Supervan is offering is somewhat refreshing at the standards of modern flicks. It's like three chord rock n'roll song which includes everything vital and at the same it is plain nothingnes.

Well, maybe not. I don't know because I haven't seen "Smokey..." since I was, I think, ten..? Anyway, this film is a curious document of the '70s, a real time capsule. The best parts (to me) are the semi-verite portions when the camera wanders around the fairgrounds where they're holding the big van 'freak-out' and just records the goings-on of this peculiar gathering. These segments, for me, capture something very essential about the '70s, moreso than just about any other film I've seen in a long time.

Have you ever read a trade journal? One of those magazines meant expressly for plumbers or welders and never intended for the general public? Full of weird lingo and with content so intensely fixed that it becomes almost comedic? This movie is a little like that. Made in the 1970's with a modest budget, this stinker is entirely about CUSTOM VAN CULTURE. Airbrushed unicorns, feathered hair, racing stripes, CB radios. And don't think for a moment that this is some kind of quirky, ironic documentary. It's a really bad narrative piece of fiction. There's sort of a plot. I think somebody has to win a van contest or something similarly morbid. There's a wacky professor that designs a van that shoots lasers for some reason. The soundtrack is all 70's soft rock about Vans. The ridiculousness of the whole thing shoots through the roof when Charles Bukowski wanders drunkenly through a party scene wearing a shirt that says "Water boy for the wet T-shirt contest" (maybe they lured extras by advertising free beer). Whoah man, this movie is so bad it feels like getting clubbed repeatedly with a dead howler monkey just trying to watch it. Of course, if you can stand it, and if you are a connoisseur of bad films, this one is pretty funny in its patheticness.