Michael_Elliott The Hooked Generation (1968) ** (out of 4)Three crooks decide that being the in-between for drug dealers isn't good enough so they end up killing and stealing some drugs from a Cubian drug-lord. After a shoot out with the Coast Guard the three try to make it to the top but things don't go as planned.Here's another extremely low-budget movie from William Grefe that I really wanted to like more than I actually did. As I'm going through the work of Grefe it's easy to see that he had a strong talent even though the films themselves really weren't all that good. These movies have no known casts, no budget and very little else yet Grefe managed to make them somewhat entertaining and at least professional looking. Compare these films to various other exploitation titles from this era and you can see the talent.With that said, THE HOOKED GENERATION starts off pretty good as we get into the double crossing and the ruthlessness of the three goons. None of them are what you'd call likable and I thought this was a good and entertaining approach. The film has some memorable moments but it's bad pacing and extended running time means that we eventually get bored and the final third of the movie is hard to sit through.

Scott LeBrun "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.

MartinHafer 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!

Vornoff-3 With these words, the heroic cop confronts the villainous Daisy, a (male) drug- runner who has killed Cubans, Coast Guards and police officers in his efforts to transport "grass and junk" into Florida. Daisy works with Acid, a useless junkie that kills and rapes an Indian woman, accidentally brings the police down on the group multiple times and spends half the movie shooting up, and Dum Dum, a violent pot-smoking Hispanic whose name derives from the bullets in his gun.Much of this movie centers around images of people on drugs or doing drugs. with a wonderful "Psychedelic Orgy" in the middle of it all. The rest of the time, our villains are fleeing through the swamps, dragging a pair of uncooperative hostages along with them for no apparent reason. The DP seems to have had some problems shooting in daylight, much of the outdoor scenes are woefully overexposed, but his studio-work is competent. The acting and plot are simply outrageous, and may be more enjoyable to experience on drugs. Not really a classic drugsploitation film, but a good example of the genre.