Episode 12 - Van Nuys Blvd. (1979)
Van Nuys Blvd. is another outing from Crown International and by the late 70’s their true colors were showing. No longer would Crown attempt to produce a movie that has anything resembling an actual story or three acts, they went full on into blatant commercialization and drive-in fodder that served no other purpose than to generate a few laughs and give the patrons time to ignore the film.
Van Nuys is one of their worst offenders, it actually features an entire 15 minute sequence of the film dedicated to Six Flags California and their newest roller coaster. Not only do the patrons talk about the roller coaster, we actually ride the damn thing - the entire thing!
Van Nuys Blvd. is a movie that shouldn’t have been watched outside the drive-in and was nothing more than something to stick in a double feature. A movie made up from cocktail napkin jokes from other Crown projects left on the cutting room floor.
Despite its shallow nature, Van Nuys is an enjoyable film because it’s so blatant in its inability to care about the conventional norms of filmmaking.
