So just about everything bad that happens to everyone in this movie can be blamed on 1 female character(Virginia Aldridge, who was in mostly T.V. stuff) and her terrible manipulative charms. It's a pretty simple plot about a nerd who gets taken advantage of and goes down the wrong path and since it's the 50s we have to learn that crime doesn't pay before it's all over. Besides the anti-crime message it has a pretty downer ending for the 50s. So for that I give it props and recommend this one for some gangsters vs. juvenile delinquent thrills.
I own this in a DVD set of Roger Corman flicks. Corman was the executive producer who financed the production.
Originally released on a double bill with T-BIRD GANG(another Corman deal).
The story here is apparently an adaption of Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING which came out 3 years earlier and I really need to watch one of these days.
Japanese director Takashi Miike has made some enjoyable extremely violent films that I've enjoyed like FUDOH and ICHI THE KILLER and then there are the weird films(VISITOR Q for one) that I found interesting even though they seem pretty pointless beyond just being weird. A film reminiscing about youth in Japan with tumultuous relationships is probably not exactly what I would want to see from him. It is mixed with the usual hyper-violence so things don't fall too much into the romantic chick flick mode but still one of my least favorite Miike films so far.
There was a follow-up to this called YOUNG THUGS: NOSTALGIA the following year, which is actually a prequel, but I'm in no hurry to see that one. There's also s 1996 film titled BOYS BE AMBITIOUS which is supposed to be part one except it takes place in the 70s and wasn't helmed by Miike.
I've never actually seen an episode of DAWSON'S CREEK or BEVERLY HILLS 90210 or really any TV programs aimed at high school kids and their problems but now after watching this I feel like I have. This movie deals with a semi-retarded girl(AnnaLynne McCord) who has a blood fetish and wants to be a surgeon. The gross-out dream/fantasy bits are just about the only cool parts of this. The rest is just a waste of time with the unfortunate decision to mix heavy drama with comedy which results in just negating each other. Somehow the director even manages to waste John Waters in his portrayal of a boring priest. In more horrible casting Traci Lords plays the mom role even though she looks nothing like her supposed daughter. And of course in typical Hollywood fashion the big genius message here can be summed up with the mantra "religion bad! science good!" and to top it all of this movie, like a lot of modern American films, has some really intense and distracting lighting that makes everything look like a shitty TV show. I would avoid this unless you're currently a 15 year old girl.
This was based on a short film with the same name by the same director(Richard Bates Jr.) and it might work better at 18 minutes but I'll let someone else find out for me.
I think technically this wasn't released until sometime in the 80s as TEEN LUST to cash in on the popularity of teen-sex comedy stuff like PORKY'S, before that, back in the 70s, it came out in a differently edited version as THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR. Also at some point it was known as HIGH SCHOOL TEASERS, MOM NEVER TOLD ME, POLICE ACADEMY GIRLS(I think this was one of the video-release titles made to remind people of POLICE ACADEMY) and in England as POLICE GIRLS ACADEMY. The version I viewed, in a theater on glorious 35mm, had no title but I'm guessing it was from its 1980s incarnation. What you got here is pretty much what you would expect from a sex-comedy unless of course you're thinking of an 80s sex-comedy because this one feels very 70s despite it being re-released so much in the later decade. It's full of nekkid boobs, close-up ass shots and really retarded comedy skits including one character who is an actual retard. Everyone is clearly older than high-school age despite what they're portraying and the humor is decidedly non-pc( the dreaded "n-word" anyone?) which I found highly amusing since I was watching it with an apparently easily shocked crowd of sophisticated city-fied morons. My personal favorite scene, and the most bizarre thing in this film, was the part where an unruly gang of 10 to 12 year old boys attempts to gang rape the main actress(Kirsten Baker) and proceed to rip her clothes off to the theme tune to THE PEOPLE'S COURT before being stopped by the law. Who thought this scene up?? Pure genius or madness? Either way it made the film way more memorable in my opinion. Obviously only recommended if you can handle really dumb sexy 70s flicks should you give this a watch.
Probably the most interesting thing for most cult movie fans is that this was directed by James Hong, that Asian dude with the artificial eyeballs from BLADE RUNNER and one of the Asian dudes in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA amongst many other roles, who I didn't even know was a director before this. Apparently he also made a porno flick called HOT CONNECTIONS before this that I would be interested in perusing someday.
Since I don't think you could really consider anyone in this movie a beatnik of any sort the title is a just a tad misleading. The plot actually deals with a group of street hoodlums/petty thieves who, after robbing a convenience store, happen to run into a talent agent who offers the gang leader(Tony Travis) a shot at becoming a pop star. The film is pretty clunky(like for example; why does this producer guy offer this piece of shit hoodlum anything after he just smashed into his car?) but moves along at a brisk enough pace that it still works as an entertaining look at 50s juvenile delinquents. My favorite character, who only appears briefly, is the old lady owner of a craphole diner named "Mama" who possesses the most cartoonish accent I've possibly ever heard. The original working title was SIDEBURNS AND SYMPATHY which is a lot more accurate. Give it a watch for some old-timey knife fights, Sinatra-esque crooning, and various 50s hooligan shenanigans.
The director of this "raging teenagers in their 30s" epic was Paul Frees who is most well known for being a voice actor in tons of animated stuff and maybe most importantly on THE BANANA SPLITS program. This would be his only directing job which is kind of a shame because he certainly had that exploitation movie feel down.
"Revealing as it holds the answers to the beatnik questions all America is asking!":
Made well after the heyday of the 80s-teen-sex-comedy, this is the very low-budget and not very funny comedic story of a gal(Tracy Dali) who gets sent to an all-girls Catholic school after getting in trouble with her Dad(Burt Ward(Robin from the 60s BATMAN TV show)). Linnea Quigley is also a student there and plays the villain role well enough and was definitely the sexy highlight in this movie to me. Everyone else seems pretty retarded and annoying, especially our main gal's boyfriend and his even stupider friends. I think I laughed once during the whole runtime and the music, performed by a band called The Checks is pretty awful but you do get Miss Quigley topless in a sex scene and Mr. Ward involved in a whips and chains and bondage-filled marriage so that's something. For far superior naughty teen romps stick to the previous decade.
Some aliens who seem a lot like Earthlings and speak excellent English are on a mission to raise giant lobster-monsters, to be harvested later on for food, on the Earth. One of them is a rebellious "teenager"(who seems to be in his 30s) who runs away, falls in love with an Earth-lady(Betty Morgan) and screws everything up for them. The aliens use a cool ray gun that makes flesh disappear and leaves nothing but a skeleton behind(kinda like Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS). Clunky acting, silly dialogue and dumb stuff abounds but hey it was still the 50s so you kinda know what to expect here.
The lobster-monster went on to rape Divine in MULTIPLE MANIACS and some of the background music went on to be in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Pretty sure this movie was the inspiration for this lovely tune although they never actually say they are from mars in the film:
A young Ralph Macchio, before he became THE KARATE KID, is the Italian/Mafia kid in a group of typical 80's teen-sex comedy types sent to a military academy where stupid hi-jinks ensue. You get the fat kid, the black kid, a wacky Arab kid, and the normal kid who's trying to get laid. It's basically an ANIMAL HOUSE-rip-off and as with pretty much all of these types of films everything that happens is dumb and completely politically-incorrect which is exactly what you want from a teen sex flick. Unfortunately this one lacks in the boob department with a total of zero exposed fun-bags. There is a lot of cleavage though, much of which supplied by Barbara Bach as a boner-inducing teacher. Other notable appearances include Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas and Tom Poston as a super gay-stereotype teacher of ballroom dancing. This was presented by Mad Magazine and it is pretty true to their style of ridiculousness. In a couple of creepy spots their mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, himself shows up. Strangely in the TV showings of this Alfred was cut out of these scenes. Apparently Mad wasn't very proud of this epic and had their name removed from the credits or something. What elevates this one above many of the other teen comedy movies of this time, for me anyway, is it's soundtrack which is filled with some awesome power pop and punk jams. While clearly not amusing to everyone I say check it out for some cheap low-brow knuckle-headed laughs.
Five years after the original MEATBALLS this happened. There's a lot of shitty things about this movie. Firstly, this is a teen sex comedy with no boobs and really no sex at all! A god-damned PG-rated romp full of mostly ugly people. There's an E.T.-ripoff alien in this for no reason at all and no one seems all that surprised by him and his magical powers. Bill Murray is replaced by Richard Mulligan who I recall from that show SOAP which he was good on but he's no Bill Murray. In addition to him you get a lot of familiar faces including Pee Wee Herman as the bus driver, Elayne Boosler, John Larroquette as a gay military fellow and the main gal(also one of the few attractive humans in this), Kim Richards, who was in that fine TV-movie DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL. Also of note is one scene where our campers have a showing of the zombie flick SHOCK WAVES which is a much better PG movie which contains arguably more laughs.
A sort of not as epic version of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE starring John Ashley who I know mostly from those 60's Filipino monster flicks. In this one he beats up kids in High School with the help of his leather-clad greaser gang, extorts them out of money or just plain robs them. He also seems pretty popular with a lot of the kids and even the teachers and ends up becoming student body president at one point. It all comes to an end though when Ashley ventures into the murder and attempted rape neighborhood. This movie could use some better tunes and a little more action to spice up what is ultimately a pretty dull juvenile delinquent tale. Probably of interest only to hardcore rockabilly types.
