JOYSTICKS (1983)

One year before the uptight citizens of the town in FOOTLOOSE got all upset about teenagers dancing, the upright citizens of the town in JOYSTICKS got all upset about teenagers playing video games.  Local business man Joe Don Baker is pissed off about the video arcade, especially since his daughter spends so much time there.  So he and his two bumbling nephews set out to have it closed down by whatever means necessary.  But the kids aren't gonna stand for that!  Hell no!

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 very 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 80's.

THE INITIATION (1984)

Lesser known 80's slasher that's actually a lot of fun.  College freshman Kelly has been having nightmares about a burning man for years.  What can it be?  Her imagination?  A repressed memory?  Freddy Krueger?  Well, her professor wants to find out so he's putting her through a series of tests.  At the same time Kelly is pledging to get into a fraternity and of course that means pranks, parties and initiations.  One of the initiations is to sneak into a large shopping mall and get the security guards clothes by whatever means necessary.  Sounds fun and it would be too if there wasn't a meddling psychopath going around stabbing people to death.  What a party pooper!

When I sat down to watch this film I didn't know anything about it, so not only was I shocked to see Vera Miles and Clu Gulager on the opening credits but also because I actually enjoyed the film and even watched it twice.  Interesting story that's strong throughout the entire film, good acting, passable special effects, little blood, zero gore, best looking non-main chick got naked twice, dream sequence, frat costume paaar-tay, 80's as fuck fashions, awesome 80's hair.  It's not scary in the least, but it's still a fun film.  Recommended for 80's slasher fans.

What is the point of that shirt?

THE PUBLIC MENACE (1935)

Not really all that good, overly-complicated story about a lowly newspaper report (George Murphy) who is tricked into marriage by a source (Jean Arthur) that ends up not having any information.  At the same time he's fired and can't afford a divorce.  More needlessly complicated things happen and soon these two are mixed up with a trigger happy gangster who has every cop in town hot on his tail.

Arthur does the best she can with this mess of a script, but it's honestly beyond repair.  I watched the entire thing, but I didn't care at all what happened cause you know no matter what stupid shit they get into everything is gonna work out just fine at the end and it does.  Weak humor, uneven pace, no chemistry between Arthur and Murphy, ridiculous story.  Skip it.