Who payed the critics

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

HOT SUMMER IN BAREFOOT COUNTY is a great title for a very much nondescript 'moonshine' exploitation picture, a film that feels surprisingly tame given the genre and description. A city cop hunts for a redneck moonshine operation and chases women for most of the running time in unfunny scenes, but there's next to no nudity and few violent elements either. Troma's attempts to make this sound like a skin flick are close to false advertising. It's very boring, anyway, more romance-flavoured than anything, and feeling a little like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre without the horror.

This movie begins with a car chase between a female moonshine bootlegger named "Mary Ann" (Sherry Robinson) and a county sheriff named "Bull Tatum" (Charles Elledge). As luck would have it Mary Ann manages to easily outrun the sheriff and returns to her base of operations which is run by her mother "Stella Holcomb" (Tonia Bryan). From this point the movie shifts to the state capital where a special agent by the name of "Jeff Wilson" (Don Jones) is ordered by his boss to drive to Barefoot County to investigate everything that is going on down there. Unfortunately, as soon as he enters the county he is driven off of the road by some obnoxious teenagers headed by a young man named "Culley Joe" (Jeff MacKay) who thinks he can do whatever he wants--especially with the local women. At any rate, having sustained an injury in the crash, Jeff's car is spotted by Stella and he is subsequently taken to her home and cared for until he is back on his feet again. Upon regaining consciousness he resumes his assignment and goes undercover by working for Mr. "Otis Perkins" (Ned Austin) who just happens to be the father of Culley Joe. Needless to say, having Jeff around does not make Culley Joe very happy and soon the two of them have problems with each other. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film was about as boring as anything I have ever seen. For starters, the plot was very thin and also rather predictable. Further, for a comedy the humor was noticeably lacking, the action was rather boring and the music was sub-standard as well. As a matter of fact, other than the presence of a few attractive young ladies to brighten the scenery there really wasn't anything worth watching. That said, I have rated this movie accordingly. Below average.

I have to admit that HTIBC is really a train wreck of a movie if you consider its low budget and shoddy cinematography. The fact that the movie doesn't take itself seriously makes up for these shortcomings. Don Jones' character is that of a state investigator who is sent down to a remote, hick inhabited county named "Barefoot". The county Sheriff evidentally has a problem containing the proliferation of local moonshing which is pretty much done out in the open and sold at the only establishment in town that you can buy anything. The incompetence of the sheriff and deputy in not being able to see the forest for the trees makes up the comic element of the film. After watching HSIBC one seems to sympathize with the main character's dilemma and long for the simplicity of the rural life he has enjoyed during the course of the investigation. An academy award winner it's not but its not a waste of time either.

This movie is NOT good. But for a fan of late night crap flicks I guess it has some merit. It kind of takes me back to those days when people really believed that state investigators were sent down to some insignificant place to investigate crimes that aren't important. The sheriff was a hoot - "Gotta go do some sheriffin..." and the character of "Cluuy Joe" was mildly humorous. All the gals in the movie are not remarkable and in one scene of the leading female character we see a partial nude shot revealing untoned flabby hips. The stereotyping of backwoods folks in this movie is unapologetic to say the least. I gave it 5 stars.