Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Film critic Joe Bob Briggs says the revised and updated edition of Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In, available Tuesday, shows the origins of populist film criticism. The book collects Briggs' early movie reviews, which were published in the Dallas Times Herald from 1981 to 1983.
Briggs is the satirical persona John Bloom created to review drive-in movies as "the redneck film critic." As Bloom, he also worked as a journalist and covered 9/11 out of New York for UPI in 2001. UPI also ran Briggs' columns.
In a recent phone interview with UPI, Briggs said films like Basket Case, Mad Monkey Kung Fu and Parasite called for a comic persona.
"The exploitation titles, they just begged you to be funny," Briggs said. "They were just outrageous films and so that's what made them fun."
Briggs also pointed out that prior to 1981, film critics were decidedly highbrow. Even legends like Pauline Kael and Vincent Canby, Briggs said, were inaccessible to regular moviegoers.
