Two and a half stars.
Actor/softcore porn director (and possible lost twin of Marjoe Gortner) Zalman King stars as a Jerry, a man on the run for murders not committed by himself, but by people tainted by a specialty brand of LSD, eponymous with the title.
Jerry's trouble begins when he and his girlfriend Alicia (Deborah Winters) attend a get-together with some old college friends from Stanford University. One of his friends named Frannie Scott (a guy named Frannie, I'm not misgendering him) is revealed to be completely bald after a mishap with one of the guests. Frannie goes an a kill-crazy rampage and chases Jerry until he's hit by a by a moving truck. The drivers' mistakenly believe Jerry is responsible, which leads to Jerry also being blamed for the other murders committed by Frannie.
Jerry finds himself on the lam, trying to clear his name ala The Fugitive. Jerry does a poor job of this through most of the movie, as he acts like a total lunatic in every single situation. He enlists the aid of Alicia and surgeon David Blume, another friend from Stanford. Upon further investigation, Jerry learns that a rash of bizarre homicides have been perpetrated by persons that have gone completely bald. He visits one of the crime scenes, which reveals the killer possessed a psychedelic poster with a local politician's face and the words "BLUE SUNSHINE" written at the bottom.
This leads Jerry to Edward Flemming (Marc Goddard), who's running for Congress. And boy, does this movie let you know that he's running for office. Almost every goddamn scene for the remaining two-thirds of the movie features either his campaign posters or his workers canvasing every fucking neighborhood. I'm not certain why this is so prevalent in the plot, as he appears to be running unopposed. There's no sign of another candidate anywhere to be found. I will say, Flemming gives some major Greg Stillson vibes, which makes me wonder if Stephen King saw this before he wrote The Dead Zone.
After Jerry has a confrontation with the politician at one of his rallies, he discovers that Flemming had been an LSD pusher who also attended Stanford. He specialized in dealing Blue Sunshine and that every person affected had been customers. Through some more misadventures, Jerry gets blamed for another death and rushes to find proof before the police close in on him.
Blue Sunshine has an interesting story that was based on the public's growing fear of LSD meltdowns following the drug-addled late 60s. The scenes where the LSD-zombies flip out are genuinely creepy and you're never certain which person will go crazy next. It's pretty entertaining. But I have some problems with it as well. For starters, the plot isn't well fleshed out. The viewer never receives any real explanation for why this specific type of LSD is causing the plague of attacks and there simply isn't enough movement in this film to make up for this lack of information. The ending sorta fizzles out with a lame epilogue text. It's implied that Flemming is somehow behind a conspiracy to distribute this drug, something in the vein of MK-ULTRA. But this doesn't come to fruition. Nor does the overexposure of Flemming's political campaign in the film. Flemming's character could've easily been a variety of other professions and the movie would still have the same basic ending. This leads me to believe that writer/director Jeff Lieberman was forced to excise portions of the script due to some constraints. There are too many setups that never really pay off and it's jarring.
Be sure to watch for the two best sequences in the movie. One is a showdown between Jerry and Flemming's ex-wife, when she snaps and tries to murder her neighbor's annoying-ass children. The other involves Flemming's bodyguard (Ray Young, who I swore was Merlin Olsen) have psychotic break and running amok in a shopping mall and disco. Out-fucking-standing!
After Jerry has a confrontation with the politician at one of his rallies, he discovers that Flemming had been an LSD pusher who also attended Stanford. He specialized in dealing Blue Sunshine and that every person affected had been customers. Through some more misadventures, Jerry gets blamed for another death and rushes to find proof before the police close in on him.
Blue Sunshine has an interesting story that was based on the public's growing fear of LSD meltdowns following the drug-addled late 60s. The scenes where the LSD-zombies flip out are genuinely creepy and you're never certain which person will go crazy next. It's pretty entertaining. But I have some problems with it as well. For starters, the plot isn't well fleshed out. The viewer never receives any real explanation for why this specific type of LSD is causing the plague of attacks and there simply isn't enough movement in this film to make up for this lack of information. The ending sorta fizzles out with a lame epilogue text. It's implied that Flemming is somehow behind a conspiracy to distribute this drug, something in the vein of MK-ULTRA. But this doesn't come to fruition. Nor does the overexposure of Flemming's political campaign in the film. Flemming's character could've easily been a variety of other professions and the movie would still have the same basic ending. This leads me to believe that writer/director Jeff Lieberman was forced to excise portions of the script due to some constraints. There are too many setups that never really pay off and it's jarring.
Be sure to watch for the two best sequences in the movie. One is a showdown between Jerry and Flemming's ex-wife, when she snaps and tries to murder her neighbor's annoying-ass children. The other involves Flemming's bodyguard (Ray Young, who I swore was Merlin Olsen) have psychotic break and running amok in a shopping mall and disco. Out-fucking-standing!
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