The Dumb Cool Weird Podcast

Street Trash: Absurdity and Shock Unveiled (1987) - Episode 52

Wes Walker and Nick Zervas / Lovely Season 1 Episode 52

Street Trash" isn't just a film—it's a chaotic experience that leaves you questioning reality. Join us on the Dumb Cool Weird Podcast as we dissect this 1987 cult classic with our special guest, Lovely. From scenes that shock to an erratic plot that's all over the place, we tackle "Street Trash" head-on, questioning where it stands between offensive and absurd. You'll hear our raw reactions to its disturbing themes like rape and necrophilia, and our heated debate on whether the film's fragmented storyline and jarring death sequences serve as a twisted form of social commentary or just pure madness.

In the second half, we delve into the film's missed opportunities and moments of sheer ridiculousness. Imagine a junkyard filled with homeless people, a mysterious deadly alcohol from the Prohibition era, and a drunk night guard who couldn't care less. We explore these bizarre elements, laughing at the penis keep-away game and marveling at the creativity behind the tire fort with electricity. Lovely joins us in contemplating the potential of what "Street Trash" could have been with a more coherent narrative. This episode promises a rollercoaster of emotions, from disbelief to amusement, as we unpack the chaos that is "Street Trash.

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Speaker 1:

dumb cool weird podcast. Okay, welcome to the dumb cool, weird podcast. This is wes, this is nick and we have a guest today. Hello, tell the people your name oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:

It's my first time hi, I'm lovely nice and I'm nipples the enchilada.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and today we watched street trash, street trash, 1987. So what can we say about this movie? Jesus, if you like to get offended, so that's literally why it was created, apparently, according to wikipedia yeah, honestly, this was like a snuff film and what did you guys call it? Torture, porn and fetish stuff and a melt movie and a melt movie yes, that's a degradation, torture porn stuff film yep, it was definitely the.

Speaker 1:

We couldn't decide what was worse king kung fu or this. This is still remotely entertaining at times, but then highly traumatizing. King kung fu just makes me want to put a handgun to my head. Sounds about right. Basically, this is a movie that I discovered because I saw a video on Instagram and it was literally a guy melting into a toilet and I was like what the fuck is this? Yeah, and the caption on it is me, when I have dairy at my age.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it's. Yeah, that is true, I do shit a lot when I drink some milk. Then you melt into the toilet. Yeah, I don't, my genes are superior to yours. Thanks, adolf. What else would you like to talk about? Do you want me to go take a shower next? You would have fit right in on that movie.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there literally was a scene where this homeless guy was so sad that he had to take a shower. Hadn't taken a shower in three months. I have a theory on this. All right, it's all animals in the wild. If they don't smell like the other animals, they can get attacked by their pack. So he was afraid that his pack would eventually attack him again. So you saw he was trying to drink up and trash himself up. They even gave him new clothes. Yeah, they cleaned him up and put him back on the street. Basically, I can some. I can summarize this entire movie. It's just follows a bunch of homeless people on the streets of New York and they're basically just trying to rob people, they're trying to get money, they're trying to find booze, raping people Yep, basically, yes, a lot of rape, a lot of necrophilia, a lot of necrophilia. There was about to be some pedophilia in the movie.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that didn't happen?

Speaker 1:

cutting genitals off, I got genital a lot of racial slurs slung around I like to call it terminal kinks nice, yes, like cancer. Basically this whole movie is they said it, bet, like these two said it best. It's basically no plot. Basically what's going on in this movie is homeless guys do things, the, and then we cops, cops stick their nose in it. And then all of a sudden we go back to the main plot of the movie, which is about this poisonous alcohol from the 1920s, from prohibition era.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, with a really scummy porn looking liquor store attendant yes, yeah, but the what's weird about it is that seems to be like the whole point of the movie but, you only see it in the very beginning and then you get five times. And yeah, it's like the distance between it's like the entire middle of the movie has none of that alcohol in it, so it's not really even driving the plot. It's really strange.

Speaker 1:

There's 40 minutes without that alcohol. Yeah, and I was expecting there to be some kind of payoff with the alcohol. Oh, maybe Al Capone came to New York and made this alcohol. It was a bad batch. They got mixed in with some fucking retrovirus or something that makes you turn liquid shit, basically Like a goo monster that haunts the streets. Yeah, but no, we got no explanation on that. Literally in the beginning of the movie, this Jewish guy runs a liquor store, goes into his basement and cracks open accidentally, cracks open the wall, and he goes oh, what is this? And he opens it up and he's oh, this is 60 years old. And me and Nick did the math. We're like, oh, 1987, 1927. Prohibition, Prohibition. And so it must have been just a bad batch of alcohol. But personally, I've never seen bad alcohol do that to somebody. We're not sure yet, though. I we're not sure yet, though I don't think we should drink something that's 60 years old and been living in a wall.

Speaker 2:

I thought it was really strange how everybody who drank it died slightly differently. Ultimately, one guy exploded.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Maybe that was a commentary on his weight, because he was like a larger character.

Speaker 1:

Could have been.

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, his death had me cracking. I was having a, I was wheezing, I was laughing so hard at that, but then and that's the thing, though, is most people just melted he exploded. Yeah, and then Sorry, no, I was going to say the. To say is like the liquor store guy did a melt and explode kind of thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, then that, that one chick who was like the, I guess the girlfriend, no, she was.

Speaker 1:

She was the junkyard homeless like poor is basically what I think she was billed as.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Seriously, she just walked around in a bra. Well, how she died was like zoomed in on her breasts melting and she was like putting her hands up under the skin of her breasts as they like melted into goo, and maybe that was a commentary on her whorishness, I don't know. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cause when they had the, remember she had the nipples that lactated the. The goo too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Every time we describe it, it just gets worse. Yeah, and, by the way, a lot of these homeless people are world war or I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Vietnam vets.

Speaker 1:

World war nom. Actually, some of them probably were Korean vets, though. Yeah, no, but yeah, most of them were Nam vets, and it's the fucking bone knife, the femur bone knife. Yeah, and, by the way, we get flashbacks to nam and we could figure out why this guy's such a piece of shit, because he's just making femur knives from bones of his enemies he was a piece of shit in all of his flashbacks.

Speaker 1:

It's not even we didn't even watch the fall of a character, he was just always a piece of shit yeah, he never had any arc of being a good person and even in the police station, like, yeah, he was a piece of shit. He like was dealing drugs and numb and he was talking about making the locals parade around naked. This guy had no redeeming qualities. No, it's just the junkyard master he was. He couldn't even be the dirt master. He couldn't even be the dirt master. And see, one of the things that really bugged me about this movie is we had to turn on the subtitles because we could not understand a word. Half these people were saying literally the beginning of the movie. He introduced the nom. The Vietnam guy who was the leader of the junk people is like Bronson, the king of the homeless.

Speaker 1:

And basically the first thing he says to him. It literally came out as and the translation says I'm going to tear his liver out of his asshole. And then me and Nick looked at each other and go that is not what he said. In fact, 90 of the dialogue wouldn't have been heard. You didn't have the subtitles, because most of it was her, yeah, which actually makes sense because I've been downtown and I've I've been around some homeless people and they do talk like that yeah, we also watch the homeless people pee on each other.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, so there was that one scene where the police officer who Actually did he even have a point as a character. He was hunting Bronson down, but then Did his existence move the plot at all?

Speaker 1:

A bit, it did a bit, but it was just just. There was a lot like there was a hitman thing, and then he puked on the hitman and then it, he was just like you know what. I guess I'm just gonna finally go after bronson.

Speaker 2:

I'm no longer gonna wait for evidence yeah, I think he existed for the sole reason to puke on that one guy and also, but I also think that he also existed because he was just trying.

Speaker 1:

I think he was the cop stereotype, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the rogue cop yeah, the rogue cop. There's a lot of stereotypes in this movie and I think they were trying to go for that black comedy feel, but honestly, because of how ridiculous it was, I don't think it really. One thing that happened in this movie that really actually fucking was disturbing to me was they raped this girl in the junkyard and then they dumped her body on the side of the riverbank. And then the big fat guy, which the fat guy has been in a lot of movies he was in a lot of similar movies like this.

Speaker 1:

He's been in a lot of the trauma movies. He was the mayor in Toxic Avenger, but in this he's a fucking slime ball and, yeah, he basically has sex with a corpse and then he gets syphilis and, to be fair, that's not disturbing you.

Speaker 2:

We were all disturbed.

Speaker 1:

He got his comeuppance. Yeah, the third guy Wait, can you tell who Seaman it is? Officer, yeah, we could, but it's not going to matter.

Speaker 2:

The third guy had had syphilis, though, and everyone, and he just starts scratching his dick like oh, okay yeah, um, let's not forget the reason why he fucked a dead body is because the chick who worked for him refused to have sex with him. So he went outside and was like, oh, how convenient after trying to also sexually assault her.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, yeah, yeah, there was a lot. There was a lot of sexual assault in this uh film. Yeah, and was like, oh how convenient, after trying to also sexually assault her yes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there was a lot of sexual assault in this film. Yeah, there was a lot of that. Overall, it's just it's 80s cheese. I would say it's the most over-the-top 80s cheese I've ever seen. It's like if this was 80s cheese, had 80s cheese and then had a baby, that's what this would be. It'd be super 80s cheese. And then had a baby, that's what this would be. It'd be super 80s cheese. And then that baby grew up and held a gun to its parents head. Yeah, yeah, there you go. That's 80s cheese to the max so let's talk about the dumb.

Speaker 1:

Cool and weird, so what?

Speaker 2:

I feel, like.

Speaker 1:

We've gone through this, we need to lay it out. So what was the dumbest thing about this movie? The homeless people that were doing all the murdering, the raping and the robbing, just existing in this junkyard that everybody knew about. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I feel like there's a lot of missed opportunities. I would say that's the dumbest part. You notice the two brothers. Even though they were fighting. They were one of the two that made it to the end alive. They could have done something with that. They could have made a commentary about how brothers stick together, and it's just.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

No, we're too busy focusing on necrophilia and shit. We're not going to have a plot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and this is where I need to chime in and say I think the dumbest thing about this movie is the fact that we never got any backstory for this fucking alcohol Pisses me off.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that actually is a good one yeah makes me mad, because it was a missed opportunity to have introduced some Prohibition era background and they just didn't do it. I didn't know that. Why did it only come up conveniently to kill people in the movie? But there was nothing more to it. Like they just never built on that, like it just shows up, like you said, without a backstory, and then it just exists within the realm of the film.

Speaker 2:

To be fair, everything in this movie just exists. There's really no point to any of it.

Speaker 1:

This is true, yep. And the thing is moving on to the cool. I think the coolest thing about this movie is obviously some of the special effects, especially when they're melting. That shit was pretty fucking cool. That was solid. I could definitely tell they put a lot of work and effort into doing the visual effects for this movie, a lot of practicals. So if anybody from the practical effects team, if you're still alive, if you're still kicking and you're listening to this, good job.

Speaker 2:

I liked their tire fort.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'd hang out in there, if not that one specifically.

Speaker 1:

I just love how they had electricity ran to that tire fort too. You see that was the thing they had electricity and candles yeah.

Speaker 2:

They have to light the set somehow, I guess so.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but it's just funny because in the background you didn't. I don't know if you guys saw this, but they had practicals where they had a practical light set up in the back. Literally it looked like a house lamp that sits outside of the house. Where did that come from? Were they tapping into the fat guy's power source or something? That's why he's probably so pissed. His power bill is so high. He's trying to run a business and he's just got bums living within the realm of his business killing also killing and raping his employees.

Speaker 1:

It is and let's, let's. Let's get to the weird. You know what's really weird about this movie? The fact that this guy owns this business and the junkyard. We've seen the junkyard. It's big, but it's not that big. How the fuck does he not notice eight or nine people living in this fucking junkyard?

Speaker 2:

No, I think he noticed.

Speaker 1:

He just notice eight or nine people living in this fucking junkyard? No, I think he noticed he.

Speaker 2:

Just why didn't he get rid of him? Yeah, but there was a that got that rambo turbo cop got stabbed in the back.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but I'm saying like but he didn't know about that guy. So he's walking around the junkyard with his dog and he sees the fat guy, yeah, and he goes. Who the fuck are you? No like like like he, like he had never seen that guy before. So that's what I saying.

Speaker 1:

It's almost like he didn't know those guys were even in there. How do you not know? Like he was only aware of the brother and his like the two brothers, and that was it, and maybe the black guy. And then he was like I don't, it's not like I. He never figured out that he had a psychotic ape of a man controlling the homeless, stabbing and raping people yeah, I think, I yeah, that dog really wasn't doing its job.

Speaker 2:

You really think about it? That dog was the real bum.

Speaker 1:

We also found out that the night guard was just always strung out drunk. That's true, he was passed out drunk on some burnets.

Speaker 2:

Maybe the homeless people like paid him with the burnets I doubt it I don know I don't think the homeless people would pay anybody in booze. That's booze they could have for themselves. The homeless people in this movie.

Speaker 1:

Think about it. But there's a reason why they would pay off the guard, though, because he's the gatekeeper for letting people in and out of there. But, like I said, the guy, the fat guy, he was acting like he was unaware that anything was going on, because he literally was like who's that guy in the bathroom? And then, actually, you know what? We didn't even see him at the end of the movie. Did you notice that? He just drove off? He probably had to go deal with his syphilis. Yeah, his wife and his kids too. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he had a lot of problems man.

Speaker 1:

He doesn't talk his kids. He has a gay dog. Yeah, he's also the mayor of tromaville. It's a. It's a hard life for him, probably why he lost all of his hair and got fat. Is there any final thoughts about this movie?

Speaker 2:

oh, I thought the penis keep away was a really weird scene as, speaking of weird that's, that was really weird, that was a really weird and I the weird office dick and then they play a game of people.

Speaker 1:

The weirdest part about that whole situation is the actor was just nonchalantly acting about it. Most of that whole sequence he literally was just like no, you're literally bleeding to death. Act like you're bleeding to death, dude. Yeah, he would have died, no. But I also thought it was funny when the junkyard whore caught the penis and she almost got her teeth knocked in by the gorilla bronson. You better throw that dick somewhere else. Yeah, it's just. Yeah, that was weird, like we talked about during the movie. It's also weird that this cop was murdered here and then the other cops didn't show up. But that but you know what that probably wasn't a part of the budget so probably probably not a part of the budget, so they probably couldn't have that.

Speaker 1:

But we were also supposed to get a dance, like a nice dance in the junkyard.

Speaker 2:

According to Wikipedia, there is a deleted dance sequence and I feel like that belongs in this movie.

Speaker 1:

It wouldn't, be out of place.

Speaker 2:

No, I want the dance sequence. They should have left it.

Speaker 1:

We had unnecessary Vietnam flashbacks to tell us nothing, so we could have used the dance sequence. Yeah, that was street trash. We're going to me and Nick talked about it. We want to try to see some more movies with the fat guy in it, because he's apparently been in like six or seven of them. He died suddenly Of a heart attack. Apparently Shocker, I know right I would have ever thunk it.

Speaker 1:

I know right, I would have ever thunk it. Obesity kills you. Yeah, I know right. All right, that's the Dumb Cool Weird Podcast. Nick, sign us out. Stay sexy, atlanta. Thanks for checking out the Dumb Cool Weird Podcast. We're a movie podcast now, so Movie Monday is every Monday about crappy movies from the 20th century. It's going to be great, folks. I can't wait to show y'all.

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