Allen Garfield (billed as Allen Goorwitz) plays the owner of a concert hall in Los Angeles, preparing for a New Year's Eve rock and blues blowout, who is threatened with a takeover attempt by slimy concert promoter Ed Begley Jr. Director Allan Arkush knows how to make a cult film, and this one comes complete with hip casting, some great music, wild gags and in-jokes, but what is accomplished with cheerful rebellion is soon mitigated by shapeless scenes and static slapstick, one out-of-control, overeager sequence after another. Despite the work of three credited screenwriters, the dialogue is pothead-smug and has no snap, and Arkush frequently resorts to tastelessness to get a cheap laugh (such as a naked babe sharing space in a bathtub with a guy in scuba gear). The overall tone is jovial and chummy, as if we were co-conspirators in the picture's euphoric craziness, but Garfield is too intense an actor for his role--he pretends to have a good time, much like the rest of the cast, and it doesn't wash. There isn't, in fact, one character in this group as lovable as Riff Randell from Arkush's 1979 midnight-movie entry, "Rock 'n' Roll High School". ** from ****