Alice in Wonderland 2

Alice in Wonderland 2

“Alice in Wonderland” is a true oddity an R-rated musical porno that is both a send-up of kiddie porn and, in a weird way, more of a kiddie movie than the Disney version. It also is quite innocent, which is not to say that it’s wholesome; there are some fairly raunchy scenes. But the raunchiness somehow seems mild and good hearted, as if everyone were playing post office.

Maybe I liked the movie, which was directed by Bud Townsend and produced by Bill Osco (who made “Flesh Gordon”), because I expected it to be much worse than it was; X movies have gotten into such a barrel-

scraping habit lately that when one comes along with four or five laughs and half a dozen likable performances, you want to stand up and cheer. And the best thing about the movie is Kristine De Bell, who plays Alice. She has a fresh-faced beauty with just enough high school cuteness left in her face to make her uncommonly pretty during those moments when she isn’t faded back into ordinariness by the camera lighting.

She’s really quite beautiful during most of “Alice,” except for the pubic hair shot at the end. Her acting style combines matter of fact realism with wide-eyed wonder, which is probably why she’s so convincing sitting on rocks beside funny animals and chatting with them about uncertain topics. She also sings well “Alice” features several original songs but what’s important about her singing voice isn’t its quality so much as her apparent lack of self-consciousness while she sings: This girl could sing at my funeral any time she wanted to.

She wanders through Wonderland like Carroll’s own blond émigré from Venice Beach come true or maybe like some free-living chick from San Pedro who could really turn you around if only she weren’t afraid somebody would steal your wallet while she was doing it. She meets a lot of strange people there, including Roy Clark in a blond wig and Sammy Davis Jr. in a purple one, but the most interesting are Mr. Rabbit (played by the appropriately named Larry Gelman) and The Queen (played by Dena Dietrich).

These two actors seem to be on some kind of bizarre wavelength together, as if they’d survived years of Golden Turkey dinner theater together and were staging their own private revolt.

Townsend went to some pains to re-create Carroll’s Wonderland characters for his movie (although he probably didn’t have to go through all that much trouble to find an actor who’d look like Humpty Dumpty after the great fall). But he never does anything with them once they’re onscreen; “Alice” is badly paced and sort of rambling. There’s also little sense that Townsend has thought out any kind of consistent comic approach to the material; some scenes look like “Carry On Alice,” while others look like “The Perils of Pauline.”

But just when it seems that “Alice” is about to become only another example of wasted opportunity in low-budget movies, we get a scene like the Mad Hatter’s tea party or the harebrained trial scene with Dietrich as The Queen serving as both prosecutor and judge (“Off with her head and I mean that!”) or Alice wandering into a casino where everybody’s singing “Home on the Range” (except for Clark, who sings “Me Lov-a-Da-Dah Beats”). And you realize that maybe something has gone wrong with your critical facilities: This movie just doesn’t seem bad enough.

One of those moments happens, too, during Steve’s attempt at seduction in the garage. He’s got Alice down on an oil-stained workbench, although so far she has successfully resisted his advances. Finally he looks at her sweetly and asks if she believes in love. She does indeed, she says. “Well,” he tells her, “I’ve got some right here.” And he reaches into his pants.

There’s also a nice little exchange of dialogue when Steve tries to put Alice at ease about the mechanics of seduction. He seems to be under the impression that all women are equipped with automatic pilot. “I just want you to sit back,” he says, “and let your mind go blank.” She nods and smiles. After a moment’s reflection, she asks: “Do I have to help it along?”

Watch Alice in Wonderland 2 For Free On Gomovies.