Meet the Hollowheads

source: Meet the Hollowheads

Meet the Hollowheads

It's like a late-Snakefinger era Residents video that goes on forever because one little boy WON'T LET THEM STOP!! In our house we always follow it up with a Mongolian Death Worm quiche and Quisp pie. Most folks don't necessarily need the 151-proof white rum chaser, but we strongly suggest you just take your medicine and shut the heck up -- especially during all those extra juicy food preparation scenes. This is a great movie when it's served to your dinner guests without all those pre-conceived notions like Germanoid meal tickets getting in the way. Make sure you keep those internal visions of Jesus doin' the hustle in your head all updated and stuff and you'll survive the night just fine, which is more than you can say about Juliette Lewis' acting career. Does anybody else get her confused with Shayna Knight? So it's just me then. I thought so.

I wouldn't have given this movie more than a five if it hadn't been so inventive. The mother and daughter both gave fabulous performances, but I can't say the same for the rest of the crew. The sets were overcolourful and far too "Saved By The Bell" for my tastes. I would have liked this movie even more if we'd been allowed to have seen more of the world in which the Hollowheads live in. There were a few moments in this where I just had to fast-forward because nothing was happening (the Splatspray game, for instance). Very inventive, and a few good lines. But for the most part, the awful oversaturated sets and nauseatingly bad acting just kind of brought it down. A few moments made me feel as if I were riding a bad haunted house. This would be an interesting movie to remake with better production values.

If you're expecting a serious, normal movie, than this movie is definitively not for you. This is a very colorfull movie with a real twist of humor, basically anyone who spent his or her childhood poring thru sci-fi publications and who is a fan of people like Monty Python will like this movie. Although the sci-fi backdrop of this move is very enticing it is just that, a backdrop, on the front you have a simple minded story of a simple guy who is tryign to escalate the corporate ladder in a very imaginative alternative-society world (think of THX1138 in LSD) and the misfortune that hits him and his family when he brings his new boss home for dinner.... this movie has no teaching at all, and it will only be worth a laught, still the humor is not toughtfull but rather on the sillyness, clownsy side. After all this movie beign worth only a laugh has a "something", so it's already on my permanent collection list along with "tank girl" and "the little shop of horrors".

The first time I watched this movie, I wasn't in the mood for camp. What a mistake! This is campy and bizarre, right up there with movies from Tim Burton but stranger, if you can believe that. Condiments are delivered through tubes and food is kept alive in cabinets. Furniture is straight out of the Jetsons and makeup out of the eighties. The kitchen even has a creature that heals black eyes -- while your child is strapped into what looks like an evil torture chair, screaming. Oh yes, and no house is complete without a seeing eye. Definitely recommended. Not exactly fine cinema, but it's got some really worthwhile elements. I bought it on laser disc when I saw it on clearance at Camelot years ago -- I don't know if you can still buy it. Good luck.

This movie is not good or bad its just plain crazy. It takes place in another universe where people get everything given to them through tubes. Its craziness does it good though, it could have cult potential if it were more widely known. The movie features a cameo by the hilarious Anne Ramsey (Throw Mamma From The Train)and very young Juliette Lewis before her breakthrough role in "Cape Fear." Its a silly crazy piece of work, could be worth a see to some people. Not bad.

MEET THE HOLLOWHEADS is an oddball surreal sci-fi comedy made on an indie budget. The whole story plays out in a single room where a quirky family play with futuristic technology and overact terribly. I found the characters overbearing and the events that transpire completely unfunny throughout. This reminded me of the fake sitcom in NATURAL BORN KILLERs but even more OTT, if that's possible. The only actor I recognised was Juliette Lewis, popping up near the end for another over the top role.

Everything revolves around tubes in this futuristic "dark comedy" . The eclectic cast is interesting, with Nancy Mette, Richard Portnow, John Glover, and especially a cameo by Ann Ramsey. Ramsey is in charge of the local tube station, and her subtitled rant is worth the price of admission alone. Meanwhile the neon sets are creative with tubes pumping everything in and out of the domicile. There are obvious sexual double meanings referred to in all the "tube talk". Things eventually turn nasty with the Hollowhead's defending themselves from Mr. Hollowhead's lecherous boss. "Meet the Hollowheads" is definitely going to be an aquired taste, but for the right audience this is cult film caviar. "Good shift" . - MERK

This is sort of like a lite version of BRAZIL; which takes a standard 60s sit-com plot of a middle-class working father who has to impress his boss with a dinner at the family home; and sets it in some futuristic/alien world. It has quite impressive production values, great set design, and a fairy tight little script. All the child actors especially show a lot of enthusiasm and great personality. Very enjoyable if you like escapist storytelling. It would probably make an enjoyable rainy-day video for the family during holidays.