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highway234
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18-Year-Old Virgin (2009)
Well-Written, Totally Underrated Hidden Gem
I think this may be one of the most underrated movies ever. Yes, it was plainly made on a limited budget, the male lead seems a bit lost at times, and there are some other problems. But it has really good music, tight editing, a very talented and funny female lead, and -- and I think this is the strongest thing about it -- it's well written. Yes, I said it and I'd say it again. It's founded on a solid premise. (Katie loves her friend Ryan because of a kiss she believes they shared when they were kids, but because Ryan won't have sex with a virgin, if Katie wants to have him, first she has to find someone else to sleep with before the night is over.) There's a lot of raunchy humor, but the writer puts some thought into it. A lot of the jokes are about NOT showing the male penis, for instance, which I think puts the movie into the camp of retro softcore like Flesh Gordon and Fantasm (although I actually think 18-year-old virgin is better written than either of these).
The movie seems to have a lot of compassion for Katie and really delves into some of the confusions and anxieties of a young woman confronting sexual issues for the first time. It's really funny how she's simultaneously drawn to and offended by the penis. (I loved the bit when she asks "Is that what it's supposed to look like?", takes a cellpicture of a guy's naked penis and shows it to her more experienced friend...) There's a lot of amazingly Freudian moments in it too. Katie likes to correct people's grammar (and that's another thing, I'm a copyeditor and loved how the writer took the time to make all of Katie's grammatical corrections actually correct, rather than just putting in throwaway lines) and at one point refers to a dildo as a "dangling modifier," which Freud would have a field day with. It's a pun that works on a variety of levels.
I can get why people would hate this movie because of its low budget, or because they're expecting something like "40-year-old virgin" (despite the name, this movie is almost completely unlike 40-year-old virgin), or because it's raunchy. (It's VERY raunchy, much more so than American pie and mainstream movies of that ilk, but I don't mind that. Chaucer was raunchy, too.) But I wanna take exception to people who call the movie "mindless" or "just a T&A movie." A lot of thought went into the writing with this movie and because of that, I found it to be a delightful surprise for more than just the obvious reasons. Naomi Selfman wrote the screenplay and based on this movie alone I'm definitely going to be seeking out other movies she's worked on. Well done, Naomi, and remember, haters gonna hate.
Der Fall X701 (1964)
overlooked mst3k fodder...
In any case I don't think the ever did it. But for all its mediocrity it has tons of what makes a movie riffable... tons of German accents to mimic, old guys to make fun of, lines like "you don't think we've been conducting these experiments for the benefit of a half dozen monkeys do you?" and most importantly, lots of scenes featuring an aggressively drunk lady, many of which even involve the flagrantly irresponsible brandishing about of loaded firearms.
SPOILERS that said, i didn't think it was as dreadful as a lot of the people here do. if you're in the mood for a talky retro drama you could do much worse. it IS rather slow though. it takes an hour yor the inevitable freeze-drying of the lead doctor guy to even happen. minor correction to a comment above: joan is not murdered but kills herself accidentally in a very darwin award-y moment. although it could be argued what's his name set her up by making her think the gun was empty and taking forever and a frickin' day to call an ambulance.
To the Devil a Dog (2005)
Holy... Is That Those Witch Mountain Kids?!
like i'm sure at least half the people who grew up in the late-70s i loved the Disney witch mountain movies with the brother and sister with supernatural powers who were forces for good. (i think a comic book series would have totally been in order, but that's a story for another time.) i had no idea the two child stars from those two movies were in anything else together until a couple of years ago, when i found out they were in this other made-for-t.v. movie called "devil dog: the hound of hell."
the movie itself is pretty campy, but hilarious for all that -- i bought an Asian bootleg on ebay and the quality of the new print from rareflix is much, much better. and it was such a great idea to have this bonus DVD, where they interview one of the movie's producers and find ms. Richards and Mr. eisenmann (now known as Mr. eissinmann, i believe) and get their recollection on the movie and on their careers in general. the anecdotes from devil dog are great (particularly the bizarre tale lake tells about the carny dog trainers) and from the various other movies the two were in throughout the 70s (who knew Kim Richards was so frequently almost mauled by wild animals?). a great purchase for anyone of our generation, those in their 30s and 40s who remember these two as childhood icons of the disco era, and interesting in its own right as a document about what it's like to perform for movies and television.
only thing is, where's the commentary track?
Starship Invasions (1977)
so bad it's good
I have to agree with the people who say this movie's bad, but disagree with the ones who say it isn't so bad it's good. This movie is completely hilarious! I can only hope warner pulled SI out of distribution because they're working on a 30th anniversary DVD edition with lots of making-of featurettes where the director details how much crack he was on while he was making it. (It's out of circulation now and amazingly it's going for 150 bucks on amazon, this movie. Fortunately my video store happens to have an old copy.) Wait till you see the part with the pocket calculator! In this movie a guy uses a 70s style pocket calculator to compute flightpaths for a flying saucer. I rather would have thought that interplanetary trajectories would be a bit complicated for a pocket calculator, but what do I know? I remember when SI came out pocket calculators were a huge fad, along with digital watches. Everybody was all, now we can finally achieve world peace, because there are pocket calculators.
And the overacting family in the huge car! "look! it's a flying saucer! For god's sake DON'T MAKE THEM ANGRY!!" And the robots who look like trash cans...
And the sadistic kid who squashes the tomato...
Believe it or not I remember seeing this thing 29 years ago when it came out. I was all, wow, that really sucked, mommy. And my mom was like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. So hilariously stupid and trashy. it's got goofy flying saucers, lots and lots of cheesecake, christopher lee losing every scrap of his dignity, tons of mind-controlled people acting really zombified and stupid, space battles that look like they were lifted straight out of "mars attacks!", possibly the most ridiculous costumes of all time, and the real coup de grace -- one actually extraordinarily talented actress (Helen Shaver, the wife of the UFO researcher guy) caught in the middle of it all, trying valiantly to salvage this whole mess. oh, and the soundtrack kicks. and yet is completely inappropriate for the subject matter.
I know, I know, you probably didn't find this review helpful.