Review of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) by Mike H — 06 Jun 2011

You cannot fully appreciate Austin Powers until you have seen the Connery Bond films and a movie like this, cranked out of a 1970s assembly line, that perfectly exemplifies how dull and manufactured hippie cinema inevitably became: This Russ Meyer/Roger Ebert collaboration is a visually weak, shallow, and uninteresting.

It is in thoroughly familiar territory, its junk soundtrack is unfortunately repetitive, and the editing is below average. If you are interested in hippie cinema, there are a slew of other movies you should see instead -- even if for their cultural relevance only -- including but not limited to those that appear in the BBS Lost and Found box set; likewise, if you are interested in Russ Meyer, a far far better starting point would be Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!