Ok, I'm a huge fan of Moby, and when I first read about this strange little film I was very confused. So I bought it to check it out. All I can say is.............whoa. Alien Sex Party is a strange little movie that's a combination of Clerks and, well, a sex shop. At one point there is even a cameo of the actual Quick Stop store and Brian O'Halloran (Dante Hicks) from Clerks! If you're a fan of Moby or just want to check out a weird movie, give it a shot. It's pretty funny, but I'm sure most people will hate it. Also, if you're a fan of Moby it's definitely worth it. It contains some songs from Moby and even a few videos of Moby's former bands The Pork Guys and Shopwell.
9 Reviews
Lousy
BigBoote6617 October 2006
Not funny, not shocking, not much of anything. The movie strives for that slapped-together indie vibe and overshoots the mark, much to its detriment. My problems? The characters are one-dimensional and unfunny; they're all made to be so "wacky" (but not funny) that it becomes tiresome almost immediately, especially the boss. The music reminds me of the kind of songs you make up spontaneously while performing some task ("I'm taking the garbage out/Go garbage go/No more will you stink up my house/No garbage no"). The story is nonexistent.
On top of all this, the "Let's teach a lesson" vibe of the sex talk fails to amuse or educate. Nothing these people is saying is anything you couldn't read in a issue of some random supermarket magazine anyway, so what's the point? Do they think they'll be scandalizing the squares with "shocking frankness"? The acting is so wooden that it's a serious possibility that the filmmakers were parodying real pons, with their stilted dialog, but realization of that doesn't make the film any easier to swallow.
The whole thing has the feeling of a home video made by a bunch of freshmen in an afternoon, but since it's a Moby project, you get to see it on the shelves of your local store & pay a few bucks for the privilege to see it. I suppose if you're a rabid Moby fan, it's a worthwhile view, in the same way that you'd get a kick out of checking out his vacation photos. But for anyone else, you may as well just get a bunch of friends together, get silly and start filming each other - you'll have a lot more fun & end up with an equivalent product anyway.
On top of all this, the "Let's teach a lesson" vibe of the sex talk fails to amuse or educate. Nothing these people is saying is anything you couldn't read in a issue of some random supermarket magazine anyway, so what's the point? Do they think they'll be scandalizing the squares with "shocking frankness"? The acting is so wooden that it's a serious possibility that the filmmakers were parodying real pons, with their stilted dialog, but realization of that doesn't make the film any easier to swallow.
The whole thing has the feeling of a home video made by a bunch of freshmen in an afternoon, but since it's a Moby project, you get to see it on the shelves of your local store & pay a few bucks for the privilege to see it. I suppose if you're a rabid Moby fan, it's a worthwhile view, in the same way that you'd get a kick out of checking out his vacation photos. But for anyone else, you may as well just get a bunch of friends together, get silly and start filming each other - you'll have a lot more fun & end up with an equivalent product anyway.
An art film disguised as a comedy?
dutchblaine2 November 2003
I have seen Alien Sex Party at several screenings. I was at the "crew only" screening at Show World last year.(Clever- as the film was originally titled: `Porno') I also have a bootleg vhs along with the dvd. I say all of this because, now, I have seen the film more times than I normally would before writing a review. So, now, I have begun to think this film is oddly brilliant. Something more than a comedy- sexploitation film. I know that this is like saying I saw something deep in Meatballs or Porky's, but trust me, there is more to this film than executive producer Moby with dildos strapped to his head.
Trying to describe this plot in detail is like trying to describe the plot of Richard Lester's The Bedsitting Room (From which the film takes inspiration along with a myriad glop of other absurdists.)
The setting is `Amazing Video', an adult video store on Christmas eve. Richard lester, Monty Python, and Clerks homages are splattered about like KY jelly. Customers come into to purchase copious amounts of the afore mentioned lubricant or to peddle `kitty porn'(feline). There are dildo thieves, mad bombers and singing security guards.
There is Joe (Joe Smith) the owner of the store. Joe is to porn like a fish is to a bicycle. At first I thought that Joe was acting. Joe's character is one you either hate or love. He feels like an oddball actor then you realize, when you watch the `making of', that he may actually be this oddball. His character is very reminiscent of the character that Adam Sandler plays in Punch Drunk Love but in that film we know that Adam Sandler is acting, in this we can't be sure. It's as if Joe-real life- was the inspiration for the character in Punch Drunk Love. Joe is a unique, slightly stunted, possibly insane, but complete and enthralling individual.
Tina is the sexy store's manager. Tina is the most nonjudgmental, open minded, female character I've seen in film. She has managed to have every type of sexual encounter from her cousin to her dog to her brother and by the end of the film, convince me, that it is all OK. At one point, as Tina is about to perform oral sex on her cousin, she happens to mention that she had a tryst with her brother and is surprised by her cousin's ire. And by that point we are on her side. Adam plays her beleaguered ex boyfriend/cousin. who represents the typical everyman. Adam is the mirror for the viewer. His responses to the happenings of the evening would be in line with the normal audience response to the happenings on the film. He is upset at every one of Tina's revelations. but this only serves to be the mirror of our thoughts had we not been enlightened by tina's grace. My favorite moment is when Adam looks directly into the camera and states: `George Lucas should publicly apologize, then commit suicide!' Amen brother.
The film really takes off when Dean and Christian they perform the number: `You Can Have Sex With Anything You Want'. It is the bastard son of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. (Sorry Robert Downey Jr. this is better than your pale vanity remake.)
There are singing corpses, horses, rabbis and priests. The song sticks in your head and you find your self singing it at the bodega the next day. At one point three punks in their underwear storm in. They call themselves Ricco's Roughnecks(a reference to Starship Troopers?!). They literally break into the song `F*ck Christmas, F*ck you!'
Are you still wondering what the plot is? So am I. Does it matter?
No.
There is a wonderful reverse Wizard of Oz sequence where Joe, as his twin brother Harry, Tina and Adam go to a store to buy some pixie stix. THE STORE IS THE ACTUAL STORE FROM CLERKS!
The film goes from color to black and white and we enter this store to find Brian Ohalloran reprising his role from Clerks! With the same prop sign which reads: `If you plan to shoplift, let us know.' It is as if this store rests outside of the film in which it was created.
This is Godardian and post modern in its referencing. It is a pop reference and esoteric at the same moment. Look at it this way, you have a film set mostly in one location, in this case a porn store. You have a limited budget. It is a comedy. Clerks would be an obvious comparison, one couldn't avoid it. An obvious dismissal too-`Oh its just Clerks in a porn store.'-if the filmmakers weren't way ahead of us. They liberally reference Clerks before we have the chance to. Then they top it off by having the actual Clerks locations and actors. At that point I am forced to concede the cleverness instead of dismissing it. I have started to see the film like Cremaster 3. The filmmakers took over a space much like Mathew Barney took over MOMA and recontextualised everything. They turned it into the set of Barney Miller. They turned it into a dance party. They turned it into a punk rock club. They subvert the paradigms of everything they present.
They even subvert their own references to CLERKS! At the end, there is an homage to Mr. Barney's film. The filmmakers present their characters from the film in perfect `Pagentesque' form by parading all of the characters once again during the Christmas dinner. There is even a giant celery who was not even in the film but he is in a video which is an extra on the dvd.
The filmmaker's world has spilled into other parts of the filmmaker's world. We know that Moby is friends with Bjork. Was this a little reference to her significant other? I think so.
Trying to describe this plot in detail is like trying to describe the plot of Richard Lester's The Bedsitting Room (From which the film takes inspiration along with a myriad glop of other absurdists.)
The setting is `Amazing Video', an adult video store on Christmas eve. Richard lester, Monty Python, and Clerks homages are splattered about like KY jelly. Customers come into to purchase copious amounts of the afore mentioned lubricant or to peddle `kitty porn'(feline). There are dildo thieves, mad bombers and singing security guards.
There is Joe (Joe Smith) the owner of the store. Joe is to porn like a fish is to a bicycle. At first I thought that Joe was acting. Joe's character is one you either hate or love. He feels like an oddball actor then you realize, when you watch the `making of', that he may actually be this oddball. His character is very reminiscent of the character that Adam Sandler plays in Punch Drunk Love but in that film we know that Adam Sandler is acting, in this we can't be sure. It's as if Joe-real life- was the inspiration for the character in Punch Drunk Love. Joe is a unique, slightly stunted, possibly insane, but complete and enthralling individual.
Tina is the sexy store's manager. Tina is the most nonjudgmental, open minded, female character I've seen in film. She has managed to have every type of sexual encounter from her cousin to her dog to her brother and by the end of the film, convince me, that it is all OK. At one point, as Tina is about to perform oral sex on her cousin, she happens to mention that she had a tryst with her brother and is surprised by her cousin's ire. And by that point we are on her side. Adam plays her beleaguered ex boyfriend/cousin. who represents the typical everyman. Adam is the mirror for the viewer. His responses to the happenings of the evening would be in line with the normal audience response to the happenings on the film. He is upset at every one of Tina's revelations. but this only serves to be the mirror of our thoughts had we not been enlightened by tina's grace. My favorite moment is when Adam looks directly into the camera and states: `George Lucas should publicly apologize, then commit suicide!' Amen brother.
The film really takes off when Dean and Christian they perform the number: `You Can Have Sex With Anything You Want'. It is the bastard son of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. (Sorry Robert Downey Jr. this is better than your pale vanity remake.)
There are singing corpses, horses, rabbis and priests. The song sticks in your head and you find your self singing it at the bodega the next day. At one point three punks in their underwear storm in. They call themselves Ricco's Roughnecks(a reference to Starship Troopers?!). They literally break into the song `F*ck Christmas, F*ck you!'
Are you still wondering what the plot is? So am I. Does it matter?
No.
There is a wonderful reverse Wizard of Oz sequence where Joe, as his twin brother Harry, Tina and Adam go to a store to buy some pixie stix. THE STORE IS THE ACTUAL STORE FROM CLERKS!
The film goes from color to black and white and we enter this store to find Brian Ohalloran reprising his role from Clerks! With the same prop sign which reads: `If you plan to shoplift, let us know.' It is as if this store rests outside of the film in which it was created.
This is Godardian and post modern in its referencing. It is a pop reference and esoteric at the same moment. Look at it this way, you have a film set mostly in one location, in this case a porn store. You have a limited budget. It is a comedy. Clerks would be an obvious comparison, one couldn't avoid it. An obvious dismissal too-`Oh its just Clerks in a porn store.'-if the filmmakers weren't way ahead of us. They liberally reference Clerks before we have the chance to. Then they top it off by having the actual Clerks locations and actors. At that point I am forced to concede the cleverness instead of dismissing it. I have started to see the film like Cremaster 3. The filmmakers took over a space much like Mathew Barney took over MOMA and recontextualised everything. They turned it into the set of Barney Miller. They turned it into a dance party. They turned it into a punk rock club. They subvert the paradigms of everything they present.
They even subvert their own references to CLERKS! At the end, there is an homage to Mr. Barney's film. The filmmakers present their characters from the film in perfect `Pagentesque' form by parading all of the characters once again during the Christmas dinner. There is even a giant celery who was not even in the film but he is in a video which is an extra on the dvd.
The filmmaker's world has spilled into other parts of the filmmaker's world. We know that Moby is friends with Bjork. Was this a little reference to her significant other? I think so.
Adjectives fail me
abdel41115 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
It is obvious that this script was written about four minutes after the writer saw "Clerks" and probably shot a little smack. The characters are something out of a perverted kindergarten play. The writer obviously feels that there is no higher comedic device than contradiction. A sex-store owner who is a prude. A guy who is sexually conservative. A girl who is sexually liberated. Two cousins having sex. Gee, how much funnier can it get? Jokes range from moronic to painfully bad. One joke actually features a flamboyant man walking in, buying KY jelly, and walking out without delivering any sort of punchline, but that's just as well. By that point I couldn't take much more of the film's scathing wit and originality.
I rented this because I noticed Brian O'Halloran (Dante from Clerks) was in it. Yes, it's true, the Quick Stop is featured in the film, and Brian is there as Dante. Finding him and convincing him to work in this piece of trash was probably more work than they did on the entire shoot for this film.
Bottom line, it's a bad carbon copy of Clerks that made me physically ill.
I rented this because I noticed Brian O'Halloran (Dante from Clerks) was in it. Yes, it's true, the Quick Stop is featured in the film, and Brian is there as Dante. Finding him and convincing him to work in this piece of trash was probably more work than they did on the entire shoot for this film.
Bottom line, it's a bad carbon copy of Clerks that made me physically ill.
Hilarious, insane, amusing!
OkkieDeGruwel3 October 2004
I saw this together with two buddies. One of them is a big Moby fan and bought this blind because moby was affected to it, we watched it and man, did we laugh.
I didn't expect much, since i saw the rating it gets here, but oh how wrong i was. This movie is good, bad and so bad that it's good. Everything i can say has been said before. So, if you like smart references to other movies, stupid humor, insane dialog and a surprisingly good soundtrack (hey! Moby! :)) check this out! (beer and a couple of friends is recommended for full viewing pleasure :D)
What i admired the most is the fact that Moby doesn't give a crap about what anybody thinks and just does what he likes to do. (eg. making a movie that gets a 1.7 rating at this website :))
I didn't expect much, since i saw the rating it gets here, but oh how wrong i was. This movie is good, bad and so bad that it's good. Everything i can say has been said before. So, if you like smart references to other movies, stupid humor, insane dialog and a surprisingly good soundtrack (hey! Moby! :)) check this out! (beer and a couple of friends is recommended for full viewing pleasure :D)
What i admired the most is the fact that Moby doesn't give a crap about what anybody thinks and just does what he likes to do. (eg. making a movie that gets a 1.7 rating at this website :))
This movie is BETTER than Clerks.
Stuy3084 December 2003
Coming from a long time video store clerk, I find this movie to be a little bit better than Clerks. I say this because it only focused on the very funny aspects and odd situations that only happen in video stores. Finally, I would would to just say that Moby was an incredible sport in getting this movie out to the public.
one of my favorites
sarah-dmonrx26 September 2007
I LOVE this film. I bought it about a year ago without knowing anything about it, and I fell in love.. one of the best Christmas movies ever! heh. I'm so surprised more people don't know about it, maybe it was due to the title change.. I dunno. The Clerks homage was great, I just can't say enough good things about this. Obviously it's not Oscar worthy but it's a lot of fun. OK, I need more lines in this.. blah blah, la de da. I want to wish you a merry Christmas! I want to wish you a merry Christmas! I want to wish you a merry Christmas, from the bottom, of my hearrrrt!I want to wish you a merry Christmas! I want to wish you a merry Christmas, from the bottom, of my hearrrrt!
a very funny comedy with great music and cameos
phonicoid29 September 2003
it's about time this movie finally got released to the public! for a few years word has been around about this movie, but it's been the rare copy or screening that have allowed people to see it until now! finally it's out on dvd, and packed with great bonus features!
for the general movie viewer: it's a great comedy about a porn shop on christmas eve that deals with lots of little humorous scenarios, and the personalities and interactions of the main characters throughout these. there's a few musical numbers (you'll have a couple of these great songs stuck in your head for long after), and a variety of cameo appearances.
for the moby fan: he makes... 4 different appearances in this movie, including the infamous "dildohead" character, and is in a couple of the musical numbers. and let's talk bonus features! there's short films paul did that include moby and/or moby's music spanning the past... 17 years i think? and material from "shopwell" (a noise band moby used to be in), "the pork guys" (a punk band moby was in not too long ago), some of moby's normal solo stuff, etc. this dvd is such a total score for the moby fan/enthusiast/collector.
so i think everyone should check this movie out and spread the word about it. it's not to be missed!
for the general movie viewer: it's a great comedy about a porn shop on christmas eve that deals with lots of little humorous scenarios, and the personalities and interactions of the main characters throughout these. there's a few musical numbers (you'll have a couple of these great songs stuck in your head for long after), and a variety of cameo appearances.
for the moby fan: he makes... 4 different appearances in this movie, including the infamous "dildohead" character, and is in a couple of the musical numbers. and let's talk bonus features! there's short films paul did that include moby and/or moby's music spanning the past... 17 years i think? and material from "shopwell" (a noise band moby used to be in), "the pork guys" (a punk band moby was in not too long ago), some of moby's normal solo stuff, etc. this dvd is such a total score for the moby fan/enthusiast/collector.
so i think everyone should check this movie out and spread the word about it. it's not to be missed!
Paul Yates Christmas
jyates100007 August 2006
Alien Sex Party
Fun, Good Nature Christmas Movie
Entertaining, goofy, funny, caring and loving with a positive message. The best version of Feliz Navidad/I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas EVER! This is a must when you're tired of the insane Norman Rockwell like impressions of Christmas that never existed, this is not your typical White Christmas of past but even with aliens this is more real and what Christmas is all about!
This is what PAUL YATES has done with very limited funds. Paul and his AFI Fellows will kill when supported by the movie industry and use of all the good equipment!
Congratulation AFI Graduate PAUL YATES Director and to all his AFI Fellows!!! All the BEST and of course May the FORCE be with YOU Uncle Jimmy
Fun, Good Nature Christmas Movie
Entertaining, goofy, funny, caring and loving with a positive message. The best version of Feliz Navidad/I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas EVER! This is a must when you're tired of the insane Norman Rockwell like impressions of Christmas that never existed, this is not your typical White Christmas of past but even with aliens this is more real and what Christmas is all about!
This is what PAUL YATES has done with very limited funds. Paul and his AFI Fellows will kill when supported by the movie industry and use of all the good equipment!
Congratulation AFI Graduate PAUL YATES Director and to all his AFI Fellows!!! All the BEST and of course May the FORCE be with YOU Uncle Jimmy
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