STUNT ROCK

Australian stuntman Grant Page accepts a job on an American television series and travels to Los Angeles, where he reunites with old friend and fellow daredevil Curtis Hyde. The hirsute Hyde performs magic tricks and feats of daring for a heavy metal act called Sorcery, each gig playing the part of a demon locked in "cosmic combat" with Merlin the Magician (Paul Haynes) while the band blasts out a theatrical but muscular hard rock. Page's first stunt for the cameras goes awry and he is hospitalized, but defies his doctors by escaping out a fifth story window to get back to the set. Such reckless behavior attracts the attention of a newspaper reporter (Margaret Gerard) who is writing an article on people obsessed with their careers, as well as a TV star (Monique van de Ven) who finds herself drawn to the stuntman's professional fearlessness. Together they attend Sorcery concerts, enjoy Hollywood parties with the band and explore the nature of extreme living. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith worked with Page on an earlier "stuntsploitation" film called Deathcheaters, which also featured plenty of hair-raising stunt work.

This unique collision of documentary, fiction, and music video overcomes a serious deficiency of plot with non-stop action and blazing rock & roll. Stunt Rock performs like a demo reel for its dual protagonists, stuntman Grant Page and heavy metal band Sorcery. At the time Stunt Rock was made, Page's stunt credits were primarily Australian action/adventure films (Mad Dog Morgan, The Man From Hong Kong, High Rolling in a Hot Corvette) and director Brian Trenchard-Smith gleefully cuts away at random intervals to footage of Page hang gliding off a mountain, leaping from skyscrapers, driving motorcycles through fire and other death-defying gags. The rest of Stunt Rock's running time is dominated by Sorcery, a 70s-era metal band that presented its bombastic occult-themed rock with an outlandish stage show. Unlike contemporaries like Kiss or Alice Cooper, the members of Sorcery stuck to their instruments and employed a pair of long haired illusionists to handle the theatrical elements. Each concert featured elaborate magic tricks and special effects to dramatize a battle between good and evil, pitting a leather-clad demon against a bearded sorcerer amid pyrotechnic displays. There isn't much more to tell about Stunt Rock; two female characters take turns expressing astonishment at Page's dangerous antics and gasping in surprise when one of Sorcery's illusionists pulls a cigarette out of thin air, and a smarmy Hollywood agent gets his comeuppance during a rock & roll pool party, but that's about as dynamic as the storyline gets. But Trenchard-Smith keeps the pace swift and the volume loud, so those predisposed to the action at hand will hardly notice. FRED BELDIN

So that's my return debut to the All Media Guide fold ... after a couple years off writing for them I've somehow wormed my way back in. Why? I don't know. Why does anything happen ever? It's all a mystery.