Studying a thing and being able to do that thing aren’t the same. As much as the phrase “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” genuinely annoys me for how condescending it is, and admittedly some of that may be insecurity about my own lot in life commenting on the work of others for fun and profit, there is some degree of truth to it. And that seems to be the case for Aussie director Mark Hartley here. The man has put a lot of effort into documenting the history of exploitation cinema, both here and abroad, to the point where his film Not Quite Hollywood is what originally coined the term ‘Ozploitation’. Between that and his documentary on the history of Cannon Films, Electric Boogaloo, the man seems to know his stuff. But looking at his own attempt to add to the tradition of Ozploitation cinema, he doesn’t seem able to apply much of it.
