I'm not exactly sure why, but for whatever wonderful reason I believe that JOYSTICKS, TERRORVISION and SURF II are the Holy Trinity of silly, low-budget, teen comedies of the 80's. Based on the IMDb ratings (3.2, 5.2 and 2.9 respectively) it appears that the general public doesn't agree with my love, but oh well. For some reason these films just click with me and even after dozens of viewings I still love them dearly. Can you relate?
Video games, short shorts, farting, punk hair, mini-motorcycles, 80's fashions, lots of topless moments, S & M, mud wrestling, cheesy humor, but best of all JOYSTICKS has...King Vidiot!!! Jesus Christ, this guy is great. Vidiot is a punk who along with his four female minions pester the kids who hang out at the arcade. They eventually team up with Joe Don to try and close down the arcade. What makes him so great is Jonathan Gries over the top performance. I can't even explain how awesome this guy is. I wish he had his own movie! Luckily though he played a similar character in TERRORVISION.
In the commentary director/producer Greydon Clark (yes, the same Greydon Clark who played Acid in SATAN'S SADISTS) says the film costs $250,000 and opened #1 in the box office. I have no idea if that's true or not, the listing on Box Office Mojo shows it opening in 8th place at only 310 screens, but still it made money.
Highly recommended to those with a sense of humor and a love for the 1980's. Also, maybe its just me, but it seems that the end credits don't include the entire cast.
