The Hooked Generation (1968)

"The Hooked Generation" derives most of its entertainment value mainly from being a hilarious, off the wall relic of its era. It's not exactly quality filmmaking; Hell, it's far from it, but it's a hoot just the same. It's definitely way overlong, and could have used better pacing and more action. But the antics of our terminally stupid antiheroes are endlessly amusing, and the performances from this bunch take on the tones of a cartoon. Yeah, subtlety is also in short supply here. The absolute highlight has to be the "psychedelic orgy" sequence with the character Acid: this is a sequence that truly deserves the description "trippy".Produced, directed, and co-written by Florida-based drive-in legend William Grefe, it stars the memorable trio of Jeremy Slate as Daisey, Willie Pastrano as Dumb Dumb, and John Davis Chandler as the aforementioned Acid. These guys are wannabe big time drug dealers who think they're getting screwed by their Cuban supplier and slaughter the man and his crew. Soon, the Coast Guard is on the scene, and *they* all get killed too. A boy and girlfriend do- gooder couple, Mark (Steve Alaimo) and Kelly (Cece Stone) who witness the massacre subsequently get taken hostage. Eventually, our merry band of morons try to unload the drugs but can't since the drugs are hot. The FBI pick up their trail and close in, and Daisey and Dumb Dumb head for the Everglades with their captives.You gotta love any movie with the heroic lead detective trying to egg the bad guy on by repeatedly calling him "loser". Slate, Pastrano, and especially Chandler are a bunch of glorious goof balls, while Alaimo manages to keep a straight face. The rock score is groovy and even though the movie itself is quite crude, the actors keep things watchable. Stone supplies all-important eye candy, particularly in a nude scene.Keep an eye out for exploitation movie legend William Kerwin ("Blood Feast", "Two Thousand Maniacs!") as one of the FBI men.Seven out of 10.

William Grefe made quite a few films in the 60s and 70s that had practically no budget and were not exactly intended as high art! Instead, they were obviously meant as cheap drive-in fare but very undemanding audiences.Considering that the film seems to have cost $89 to make and starred unknown yahoos, the film actually isn't that horrible. Well, it IS bad, but it is not nearly as bad as many higher budget films. On a "bang for the buck scale", THE HOOKED GENERATION actually is reasonably respectable.The film begins with four dirt-bags on a boat in the Caribbean trying to make a drug deal with a group of men from the Cuban military. But, when the Cubans try to change the terms of the deal, the dirt-bags kill them. Soon, the US Coast Guard responds due to the smoke and they, too, are killed and the dirt-bags lose one of their men in the process. And, somehow, they also manage to kidnap two young people--a guy who really is pretty pathetic through much of the film and a sexy girlfriend who you know is there simply to be raped (which naturally occurs later in the film).The movie is quite tense but also fails because there is little in the way of plot development or acting. It's just a bunch of junkies who kill people eventually being confronted by the world's dumbest agents! I especially couldn't believe the ending--no cops or FBI agents could be THAT stupid! Overall, a poor time-passer but at least you can respect the schlock-meister, Grefe, in his ability to do the most with incompetent actors, bad film work and not much of a script!

I've been searching a long time for this one. And i must say it was disappointing. I thought this was going to be a psychedelic movie, but it has more in common with Italian terror movies from the 70's. The guy who does smack all the time is believable but for the rest....pew....The problem with these films seems to be that they are made by people who never met any hippies and don't know anything about drugs. Just wearing beads and saying things like far-out and groovy just doesn't cut it. I know this one most certainly had a low budget, but how about some research before you start the camera. I'm not American so i don't know if there it was a law against showing people exhale smoke when they smoked a joint. O.k. that's not a biggie, but showing people turning into stupid maniacs maybe worked in movies like Reefer madness when people didn't know anything. But in 1968. I got the same feeling watching this one as one of those stupid education films. Nice to see them being released though. If you like good Vs evil this one might be a good low budget flick. But if you're looking for psychedelia be careful.

The Hooked Generation turns out to be a surprisingly well-done "B" movie. Steve Alaimo gives a solid performance and it's really amazing that this vastly talented actor never achieved mainstream popularity in motion pictures.Alaimo is supported by his two real-life friends former world light-heavyweight boxing champion Willie Pastrano and the legendary radio D.J. Milton "Butterball" Smith. Pastrano goes slightly over-the-top in his role here, and it doesn't rate with his solid performance as Banjo in The Wild Rebels, but he is enjoyable to watch. The scene stealer is the always pleasant Milton "Butterball" Smith. Unless you're a native of South Florida and over 40, Alaimo, Pastrano, and Smith has no meaning. However, during the 60s, the trio were among the most-famous personality on the South Florida acting, music, and boxing scenes.The Hooked Generation is far from a masterpiece or even a good-film. However, it is entertaining enough to hold your interest. If you're from South Florida it's even more so.