Lookin' to Get Out (Extended Version)

After Nick Dawson's Biography
I read Nick Dawson's biography of Hal Ashby and admired the young Scottish biographer's attempt to make sense out of the mad rush of US life in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. What a challenge, and in the book he announces that he has uncovered, with the help of Ashby's daughter, Ashby's own cut of LOOKIN TO GET OUT in the UCLA film archives. He made the movie sound so good I pre-ordered the thing on Amazon and counted the days till it appeared. So this is all your fault, Mr. Dawson! In this case, I'm terribly grateful, because I too had heard the stories of how awful GET OUT was and if you hadn't been so persuasive I wouldn't have given the picture a first chance, much less a second.

We watched it on New Years Day, and it was a good way to begin what I hope will be a much better year than last year. Ashby's direction is topnotch and from the beginning he establishes a mood and atmosphere that carries the movie in a rather different direction than the Vegas Vacation sort of...

Forgotten Masterpiece
Smash and Grab
This movie influenced Tarantino along with "Eight Million Ways to Die". The last couple of movies by Hal Ashby were swept under the carpet but both broke new ground in depicting the quirky underworld characters that would, just a little bit later, become so hip in Hollywood. Ashby, like Peckinpah, was a wild maverick but I can't wait to see his director's cut and if you've never seen this you're in for a real treat.

Lookin' to Get Out
Look at all of the stars in this movie! you will swear you are lookin' at the sky! And the setting is Las Vegas!

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