PUSHING UP DAISIES

1973 {aka: FIVE MINUTES TO FREEDOM}
This is some piece of work. This rare slice of schlock cow-pie is best left for the heartiest of ROSS HAGEN fans... and most cult film fans barely know who he is anyway. The setting is modern times, but concerns a gang of washed-up crooks that get busted while attempting a bank robbery dressed as nuns. After getting locked-up and put on a chain-gang, they eventually plot an escape, get sprung by some of their other buddies, and prepare for their next big score. The hapless crew pulls off their next heist successfully, and they head out into the desert on dirt bikes... runnin' from the law. They wind up in Mexico at a whorehouse and play with the naughty wimmin (hmmm...sound familiar yet?), and then eventually are holed up and surrounded by the cops in a beat-up shack. Cue the slo-mo SAM PECKINPAH cinematography and audio... as all the miscreants bite the dust one at a time, all the while joking and singing a drunken bar tune.

Nonsensical from start to finish, this low-rent ripoff of THE WILD BUNCH on dirt bikes is pitiful at best. You might notice that CHRISTOPHER GEORGE is second billed in this wrong-headed exercise in plagiarism, but the prolific veteran actor only peeks his head into the action early on as a doofus gas station attendant... for just a brief moment.

A footnote to this Z-Grade hall of fame inductee is that the director (IVAN NAGY) later became notoriously famous for his involvement with HEIDI FLEISS and her former celebrity house of prostitution ring. If ya find this anywhere on DVD or VHS, you've found a true bottom-of-the-barrel treasure. Last time I saw this film was on a VHS tape I recorded from a vintage late-night broadcast. Long gone now.