Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Will Sloan

  Not sure what I expected from the great exploitation auteur Roberta Findlay’s long-unreleased swan song set in the New York punk-music world, but definitely not something this wacky. I can kinda see why this didn’t sell, sorry to say, but I’m glad it’s finally available on Blu-Ray (with a great interview with Findlay, who admits it’s pretty bad and adds “I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be funny”) for fans of this important filmmaker.

• 

  Review by 13beersl8r ★

  The G. Gordon Liddy reference might be the only thing that saves this film.

• 

  Review by Kaleb ★★★ 2

  It was sitting firmly at two and a half stars until the toilet bowl exorcism then it sky rocketed to three stars.

• 

  Review by Liz ★★

  I refuse to believe that this wasn't inspired by Roberta Findlay and Walter Sear's experience working on Sonic Youth's Sister a few years earlier. Bizarre!

• 

  Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★½

  The Decline of All Civilization

  hardly the lost masterpiece Roberta Findlay fans expected (or, well, hoped for) but I’m grateful that it’s finally accessible — if Suicide from Return of the Living Dead lived to see 1989, this would have been his favorite movie

• 

  Review by Dr. Dobermind ★★★ 1

  Roberta Findlay is not a fan of Roberta Findlay movies. In multiple interviews, she's made her opinion abundantly clear: the bulk of her filmography is "garbage" and "despicable trash."

  Roberta Findlay is not a fan of Roberta Findlay fans either. The good news is that there aren't a lot of them. The bad news is that I happen to be one. That makes it a little awkward when she refers to people like me as potential serial killers with "deep psychological problems."

  Mind you, none of this has stopped her from licensing her work for home video. To wit, the latest hunk of despicable trash to hit Blu-ray is something of a holy grail for serial-killers-to-be like yours truly: Findlay's…

• 

  Review by Jared ★★★

  Take Repo Man, and make it trashier. That's Banned. It's got a maniacal vibe, not quite as mean as Roberta's other works. I loved the punk jazz sound of the titular Banned, probably not as much as Mike Patton does though.
  The shoot out through the streets of New York was quite something, I'm sure they had absolutely no permits, which is pretty punk rock.

• 

  Review by kennelco ★★★ 2

  Tubi is great and Tubi is terrible. Tubi has so much content available, it's ridiculous and wonderful. Things like Banned, a only recently released last film of Roberta Findlay, which hadn't found distribution in its day.

  But Tubi is owned by Fox Corporation and the Murdoch empire, who have done plenty to bring down democracy and civilization for profit for decades. And though you don't spend any money on Tubi, the advertisers certainly are. And it always feels wrong. At least to me.

  The biggest problem with the movie Banned is that it's a comedy first and everything else second. And comedy is one of the harder things to succeed at.

  The production is actually pretty polished compared to other…

• 

  Review by Maxvayne ★★★

  #17 of 31(+) Unseen Horror Flicks of October (2🩸23) - Banned (1989)

  Banned is one of those movie's I've wanted to see for awhile now since I first read about it in the lovely & iconic book 'Destroy All Movies'; In addition to being directed by sleazy genre favorite Roberta Findlay. [semi-beginning spoiler] This starts off with Punk singer/guitarist Teddy Homicide in the recording studio who keeps flubbing his guitar section. The engineer has already had enough, however the punk asks for one more chance and that he'll finally do it this time... Well, as he's about to guitar solo a pizza guy walks in the studio blowing the take! Teddy proceeds to grab a machine gun out of his guitar…

• 

  Review by David Zuzelo ★★★★★

  So bizarre that it defies the term "comedic" but bursts of random violence over silly character chatter and the occasional outburst of screaming punklike behavoir can really be put together thusly.
  A major plot point is a talking punk toilet.

• 

  Review by Nick

  If “Jazz guitarist gets possessed by wild punk rock frontman trapped in a haunted toilet” doesn’t sell you on it, and you’re not further enticed by the fact that there is a character named Elvis Hitler, then yeah you’re not gonna like this. 

  This movie is dumb stupid goofy trash, and I absolutely fucking loved it. 

  Watch this now. It’s on Tubi.

• 

  Review by BootlegBronson ★★

  [sticks up two fingers and sez "anarchy in NYC" in a woeful Bwitish punk accent]

  Exploitation legend Roberta Findlay's last movie was, sadly, a total misfire. Comedy wasn't her forte. I mean, a movie about the ghost of a homicidal punk rocker possessing a smooth jazz guitarist should've been way funnier by default.

  To be fair, it is a wee bit better than the average Troma release. Low bar, granted. But I did get a few chuckles, especially from the running gag of the drummer being late because he's always shagging. I'm easy to please, what can I say. Two stars might be generous, but ah what the hell – two stars. I hate star ratings.

  The highlight was a glimpse of They Live on a cinema marquee.