The Trip

Released Aug 23, 1967

1 hr. 25 min.

Fantasy

List

39%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

52%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Paul (Peter Fonda), a director saddened by his failed marriage and unsatisfied with his work, is looking to start over. His friend, the cool, sage-like John (Bruce Dern), suggests that an LSD trip is exactly what Paul needs to get out of his rut. Paul decides to indulge, and experiences visions that are alternately beautiful and terrifying. His hallucinations, which include a carnival populated by dwarfs, bizarrely erotic encounters and even his own death, radically reshape his consciousness.

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Critics Consensus

The Trip's groovy effects and compelling message can't overcome the rough acting, long meandering stretches, and pedestrian plot.

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Matthew D

A visual feast, but not much of a movie.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/18/21

Full Review

Audience Member

What the hell did I just watch? Peter Fonda on a acid trip in the 60's sounded like it would be interesting. Turns out I was confused by this movie, probably only made sense to people on acid idk I only watched this movie once and once is more then enough, don't even watch this movie once.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

This is the OTHER Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper hippy flick, and it's far more obnoxiously styled and insecure than its successor. Perhaps my lack of hallucinogenic drug-use will be apparent, but compared with, say, Midsommar, this never came close to putting me in that state. The dated tripping scenes, of which most of this movie is comprised, range from boring to straight-up laughable; I kept expecting Austin Powers to pop-up.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Oversimplifies in some respects and is downright misleading in others. Kudos to them for trying, but tripping is an individualized, altered perception, multi-sensory experience that just can't be truly captured on film.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

emile h

A lot of LSD was taken and it shows, though it makes for some great imagery. It's like the film nobody wants: long, strange, and definitely a trip. Thus, Roger Corman is able to tackle the subject by giving the mind a chance to freak out to the written exploits taken by Jack Nicholson. It's the vision tampered with by its own experiences, which is why it's so worth watching on any day or night.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Now, let me get something straight with you people reading this 4.5 review of this film. This movie is definitely a B-movie Roger Corman psychsploitation movie from *the* psychedelic year, 1967. Which is to say that technically it's not good by almost any standard now and is in some places hilariously dated (almost every character says "groovy" and uses hippy dippy philosophical language). So why do I nearly give it five stars? Well, *because* it's a 1967 psychsploitation B-movie, and it does almost the best job of that that you really can. Some of the trip scenes look like "soft-focus tinsel, Lite Brite, and secondhand Vincent Price dungeons" in the words of Charles Cassady, and the ending was a studio forced "don't do drugs" PSA, but the film still remains startling and powerful despite these issues. The imagery is memorable and creative at its best, with some astonishing editing that cuts in and out of images at a wild pace. Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay for this film, as he did with one of my all time favorite films, "Head." The film is unfortunately more tiring and repetitive at times than "Head," which was certainly a much more accomplished masterpiece. While the words in this film are not brilliant and the plot is threadbare (as one should hope with a drug trip movie), it does a perfect job of capturing an era. This is really what it boils down to for me. The movie has a lot of faults if you're a staunch modern critic who wants everything done your way, but looking at it through the lens of just seeing a fun psychedelic B-movie with some stunning visuals from the height of the era, then you're going to walk away happy with the experience. I also give props to the tagline for the film, which may be one of the best of all time: "A Lovely Sort of Death." Why has no one used that for an album title?

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

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Roger Corman

Director

Peter Fonda

Paul Groves

Susan Strasberg

Sally Groves

Bruce Dern

John

Dennis Hopper

Max

Salli Sachse

Glenn

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TIME Staff

TIME Magazine

The Trip is a psychedelic tour through the bent mind of Peter Fonda, which is evidently full of old movies.

Feb 25, 2019

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Unconnected scenes begin to spin off the screen with increasing speed and with no attempt at explanation.

Jul 7, 2010

Full Review

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

In trying to visualize a notion of what Peter Fonda goes through on an LSD trip, Roger Corman has simply resorted to a long succession of familiar cinematic images, accompanied by weird music and sounds.

Oct 13, 2007

Full Review

Gene Youngblood

Los Angeles Free Press

This is simply a beautiful movie about a fellow who takes an acid trip - with all its ups and downs.

Feb 3, 2020

Full Review

Wendy Michener

Maclean's Magazine

Some of the camera tricks are corny, but Corman has created one of the most lyrical expressions of sexual pleasure I've seen in the movies, and it's all perfectly decent, too, thanks to prisms and projections.

Mar 26, 2019

Full Review

TV Guide Staff

TV Guide

These images more closely resemble a bad dream following an overdose of pepperoni-and-onion pizza than the result of ingesting hallucinogenic drugs.

Rated: 1.5/5

Feb 25, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Paul (Peter Fonda), a director saddened by his failed marriage and unsatisfied with his work, is looking to start over. His friend, the cool, sage-like John (Bruce Dern), suggests that an LSD trip is exactly what Paul needs to get out of his rut. Paul decides to indulge, and experiences visions that are alternately beautiful and terrifying. His hallucinations, which include a carnival populated by dwarfs, bizarrely erotic encounters and even his own death, radically reshape his consciousness.

Director: Roger Corman
Screenwriter: Jack Nicholson
Distributor: Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
Genre: Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 23, 1967, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 4, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $29.5K
Sound Mix: Mono

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