5/5 totally delightful
  by Joseph L. Kolb (harris, mn USA)
this is a great compilation of movie clips (mostly from the 70s) from australia. besides the clips that range from sexploitation, horror, kung fu to biker movies, you get interviews from some of the actors, directors and people like quentin tarantino. it is very educational and entertaining. i highly recommend this dvd to any movie buff that enjoys compilations for either education or entertainment or both! enjoy it!

4/5 Great Ozploitation overview
  by K. Swanson (Austin, TX United States)
4.3 stars

I didn't know much about all the blokes who made the 70s Aussie grindhouse films, until I saw this flick. It's overloaded with info and clips and interviews with the principals and many fans. Tarantino and Curtis are quite entertaining, and the overall tone is appropriately loving but non-worshipful.

The extras feature a whole bunch of endings from some of these films, and they are often hilarious and just plain classic.

Any film fan will find this doc engrossing and entertaining; any b-movie fan will be in heaven.

5/5 42nd Street-Australian style
  by James H. Espey
I have all the 42ND STREET FOREVER series of DVDs. I go ape over trailer DVDs & documentaries of low budget films. This DVD fils the bill perfectly.

5/5 Think Of It As A Director's Commentary For An Era
  by Edward Lee
Having had the privilege of growing up in a small town that had an operating drive-in during my youth, I can say that I've seen more than my fair share of exploitation films. While not an expert on the subject, I think anyone who's seen a few gets the basic formula: the motion picture is made on the fly -- quickly and with easy money -- with the sole intent of putting as much schlock and shock fit to fill the screen that's possibly imaginable ... and NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD serves as the ultimate "director's commentary" to the continent of Austrailia's contribution to the great exploitation films of the 1970's and (mostly) early 1980's. Direct-to-video markets pretty much killed this unheralded era of international cinema, though every now and then, genre films make limited comebacks (think SAW and any of its myriad variations and derivatives).

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD plays out as a loving embrace to these films, these actors, and the directors who made these down-and-dirty films possible. It's documentary format is loose and fun -- much like the stories it celebrates -- but it's all handled with the tremendous grace, admiration, and professionalism that this oft-overlooked influence so richly deserves. The documentary is packed with plenty of familiar faces -- indeed, Quentin Taratino contributed much of the behind-the-scenes influence to get the film made -- and nowhere else will you find such a plethora of tales told with such gusto. Indeed, once it's all over, the viewer feels sad that most of the films are relegated to the backshelves of the ol' video store; I did a quick search of several titles detailed at length here, and I couldn't find a single one of the available on DVD. Hopefully, some of these gritty classics will see the light of day again as more and more viewers turn to the past as today's megaplexes continue to churn out one CGI-laden effects-fest after another. These films relied as much on the ingenuity of the filmmakers as it did the audiences. One can only hope for such respect from next weekend's major blockbuster.

That's not to say that all of the films celebrated within NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD deserve the moniker of 'art.' It's only to say that the documentary makes and takes its stripes as well as the creative folks who produced these gems in the past. There's something for everyone here -- horror, vice, greed, action -- and, if nothing else, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD will make you think twice about (in a positive way) about picking up some unadvertised direct-to-DVD production in hopes that you're about to discover the next Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, or De Palma ... and maybe you just will ...

1/5 Don't even think about it!
  by Gwyn Edwards (Mountain View, CA USA)
What were they thinking? Don't you even think about it! Unquestionable the worst documentary I have ever seen!