Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Stunt Rock is a love letter — perhaps accompanied by mixtape — to the movie stuntman. Particularly Australia’s own rough-and-tumble rogue Grant Page, who plays himself. As the film opens, he’s headed for Hollywood to ply his trade for the (fictional) TV series Undercover Girl starring Amsterdamned actress Monique van de Ven, who plays herself.
That’s as far as storytelling dare tread. Throughout, Grant just does his thing, which is to say he jumps on moving cars, hang glides, dune buggies, gets set on fire, dives from cliffs, scales buildings, spins a web any size and then mansplains how it all works to a pretty journalist (Margaret Gerard, aka Mrs. Trenchard-Smith) he wishes to woo into the sack.
The second word of Stunt Rock’s title comes into play because Grant’s cousin (Curtis Hyde) toils as the Prince of Darkness in real-life rock band Sorcery, whose gimmick is an onstage wizard performing feats of magic during concerts. One band member hides his face under sparkly hoods of various colors, while the drummer wears suspenders over a Perrier logo T-shirt. Imagine KISS meets D&D. Now divide your expectations tenfold.
Although a well-known package of Ozploitation madness, Stunt Rock is an utter drag whose pieces of insanity resist any glue. With way too many Sorcery numbers and clips from Grant’s greatest hits and misses (Gone in Sixty Seconds, Mad Dog Morgan and Trenchard-Smith’s own The Man from Hong Kong), the flick bears more padding than the men and women who do all that derring-do. —Rod Lott