Gas-s-s-s

In this 1970 counterculture satire, the end of the world arrives thanks to a military mishap: the accidental release of a nerve gas that instantly turns everyone over 25 into senior citizens. As the elders die of old age, only the teenagers and young adults are left and the film follows the odyssey of flower children Coel (Robert Corff) and Cilla (Elaine Giftos) from Dallas to a commune in New Mexico. Along the way, they collect traveling companions (Bud Cort, Talia Shire, Ben Vereen, and Cindy Williams) and wind up facing cowboy car rustlers on motorbikes, a football-themed militia engaged in looting and pillaging, and a biker gang that has taken over a golf course where they trade in their motorcycles for golf clubs. Alternatively titled Gas! or, It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It, this counterculture apocalypse was one of the last films directed by B-movie legend Roger Corman, who continued to produce hundreds of low-budget films for theaters, home video, and cable TV. But the portrait of hippie culture here is silly and clichéd, the satire is broad and clumsy, and the film is more odd than funny—a time capsule curio that has dated badly. Not a necessary purchase. (S. Axmaker)