Review: "Porky's" is Still a Raunchy Classic (Remembering Bob Clark)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Porky’s (1982)
Running time:  94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Bob Clark
PRODUCERS:  Don Carmody and Bob Clark
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Reginald H. Morris (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Stan Cole
COMPOSER:  Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer

COMEDY

Starring:  Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson, Cyril O’Reilly, Tony Ganios, Kaki Hunter, Kim Cattrall, Nancy Parsons, Scott Colomby, Boyd Gaines, Doug McGrath, Art Hindle, Wayne Maunder, Chuck Mitchell, and Alex Karras

The subject of this movie review is Porky’s, a 1982 Canadian-American sex comedy from writer-director Bob Clark.  The film is set in 1954 and focuses on a group of high school boys who try to help a buddy lose his virginity and end up seeking revenge on the sleazy owner of a honky tonk and his redneck sheriff brother.

Porky’s spawned a franchise, including two direct sequels.  The film won the Golden Reel Award at the 1983 Genie Awards and also received a “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” nomination for actor, Doug McGrath.  Porky’s was a surprise box office success and for decades was the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time.  It apparently still is, when adjusting for inflation.

Porky’s is set in Angel Beach, a small town in South Florida.  There, we find six teens that are desperate for sexual satisfaction.  These young, red-bloodied, American males, who play basketball for Angel Beach High School, have raging hormones and are horny for just about any female willing to do “it” with them.

The most desperate is Edward “Pee Wee” Morris (Dan Monahan), a short guy (in more ways than one), who wants desperately for a girl to relieve him of the burden of his virginity.  Pee Wee and friends hope to find sexual relief at a notorious honky-tonk joint in the next county, Porky’s.  However, the club’s owner, Porky (Chuck Mitchell) himself, rips them off and throws them out – even going so far as to seriously injury one of the teens who later seeks to get back at Porky.

So Pee Wee, Billy (Mark Herrier), Tommy (Wyatt Knight), and the rest of the gang plot an incredible revenge against Porky and his brother, the redneck Sheriff Wallace (Alex Karras).  Meanwhile, the boys’ adventures and activities earn them the unwanted attention of the foul-tempered girls’ gym teacher, Beulah Balbricker (Nancy Parsons).  Also, new junior basketball coach, Roy Brackett (Boyd Gaines), seduces sexy fellow gym instructor, Honeywell (Kim Cattrall), and makes a shocking discovery about how she acts during the heat of passion.

The late filmmaker Bob Clark is probably best known for his holiday movie classic, A Christmas Story (1983).  His infamous teen comedy, Porky’s, is also fondly remembered and apparently has influenced other filmmakers who have made teen films.

With Porky's, Clark, who died with his son in a 2007 car accident, took an unabashed and fanciful look at raucous high school adolescence in the 1950s.  However, the story has a timeless quality because of the truth at the heart of its idiocy:  sex weighs heavily on the minds of both high school boys and girls.  Porky’s can be pretty frank about that reality, but that is what makes this film both unique and unforgettable and difficult to duplicate – as its less successful sequels can attest.

Porky’s is silly, even a bit misogynistic, but I first saw it as a teenager and loved it.  Other than being a teenaged male, I had nothing in common with the characters, but I loved the film.  It is funny just to watch these high school kids’ antics – both guys and girls.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, April 04, 2014


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Review: "Big Trouble in Little China" is Still a Big Deal (Happy Birthday, Kurt Russell)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: John Carpenter
WRITERS: Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein; adaptation by W. D. Richter
PRODUCERS: Larry J. Franco
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Cundey
EDITORS: Steve Mirkovich, Mark Warner, and Edward A. Warschilka
COMPOSERS: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

ACTION/ADVENTURE/FANTASY with elements of comedy

Starring: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton, and Donald Li

Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 fantasy and martial arts film from director John Carpenter (Halloween) and starring Kurt Russell. The comic adventure film follows a truck driver who plunges into a mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown where he takes on a powerful ancient sorcerer.

Big Trouble in Little China may well be John Carpenter’s most entertaining film with its heady mish mash of kung fu, eastern mysticism, action movies, fantasy, and camp. It’s a celebration of how a dumb movie can actually be outrageous, inventive, silly, and kinda smart, after all.

The story revolves around big-talking, wisecracking trucker Jack Burton, played by Kurt Russell as a kind of John Wayne beset by bad luck and pratfalls. Determined to get money owed to him, Burton follows Wang Chi (Dennis Dunn), a business associate, to the airport to pick up his fiancée, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). When gang members kidnap her, Jack and Wang follow them into a wild adventure that tests the limits of Jack’s endurance and disbelief. Lo Pan (James Hong), a 2,000-year-old sorcerer who rules an underground empire in Chinatown, needs Miao to extend his life and power. A busybody lawyer (Kim Cattrall) further complicates Jack’s life when she tags along for the ride through Lo Pan’s terror filled labyrinth.

Carpenter directs the film at a break neck pace. Virtually every scene is packed with something strange and wondrous, so much so that the viewer never has time to really pay attention to the holes in the film. But it’s all played for fun: wild and lunatic martial arts fights, bizarre and ugly monsters, colorful costumes, imaginative sets, sparkling special effects, off-kilter shootouts and chases. It’s a great time at the movies, and that it maintains its charm without its SFX seeming dated is a testament to Carpenter’s skill, an under appreciated cinematic genius.

As usual, the team-up of Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell, who have worked together on three films and a television movie, results in a good movie. Russell, known as an action star, is actually an excellent comic actor. I don’t think this movie would really work without him, and it is certainly worth watching again because of him.

8 of 10
A

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Review: "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" Gets Better with Age (Happy B'day, Star Trek)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 233 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Meyer
WRITERS: Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn; from a story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal (based upon the TV series “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry)
PRODUCERS: Steven-Charles Jaffe and Ralph Winter
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hiro Narita
EDITORS: Ronald Roose with William Hoy
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/MYSTERY

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, Mark Lenard, Grace Lee Whitney, Brock Peters, Leon Russom, Kurtwood Smith, Christopher Plummer, Rosanna DeSoto, David Warner, Michael Dorn, Iman, and Christian Slater

The cast of the original “Star Trek” (1966-69) returned for its sixth and final feature film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (also known as TUC).

After the explosion of its moon, Praxis, the Klingon Homeworld has only a 50-year supply of oxygen left. The subsequent economic and environmental instabilities mean that the Klingons won’t be able to continue their long-running hostilities with the Federation, so they sue for peace. Starfleet, the diplomatic, exploration, military defense, and research arm of the Federation, sends the U.S.S. Enterprise to meet the Klingon ship Kronos One, which is carrying Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) to Earth for negotiations. The Enterprise’s Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is not only upset about escorting a Klingon ship, but also about peace with them because it was a Klingon officer that murdered his son.

While en route to Earth, the Enterprise appears to fire on Kronos One, and assassins, apparently from the Enterprise, murder Gorkon. The Klingons arrest Kirk and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) for the death of Gorkon and imprison them on the penal mining colony, Rura Penthe. Gorkon’s daughter, Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto), becomes the new chancellor, and she vows to continue negotiations with the Federation.

Meanwhile, Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) assumes command of the Enterprise. Spock must discover how or if the Enterprise fired on Kronos One when the ship’s computer says it did, but no weapons were expended, and he must clear Capt. Kirk of Gorkon’s murder. With the aid of the U.S.S. Excelsior, commanded by former Enterprise crewman, Captain Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Spock must also rescue Kirk and Dr. McCoy from their imprisonment. The heroic Enterprise crew is running out of time to discover the identities of the Gorkon’s assassins and of the traitors aboard the Enterprise before they strike again to stop peace negotiations between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

An allegory for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe (which had occurred around 1990, just before this film went into production), Star Trek VI is a poignant expression of the need to end cold wars, constant hostilities, and old grudges. It emphasizes letting go of yearnings to avenge personal and painful losses that come about because of war (the death of Kirk’s son).

The film also has a melancholy edge because the Enterprise is to be decommissioned after this adventure, and this is the last time the original crew would be together. The performances, all of which are good (especially Christopher Plummer as Klingon General Chang), portray the essence of something grand coming to an end. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is not the best Star Trek feature film, but its sense of purpose and determination, and the engaging mystery that hangs over the narrative make this a nice farewell.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1992 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (George Watters II and F. Hudson Miller) and “Best Makeup” (Michael Mills, Ed French, and Richard Snell)

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Review: "Police Academy" is Still Really Funny (Thanks for the Movie Memories, Bubba Smith)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 66 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Police Academy (1984)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Hugh Wilson
WRITERS: Neal Israel and Pat Proft and Hugh Wilson; story by Neal Israel and Pat Proft
PRODUCER: Paul Maslansky
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael D. Margulies
EDITORS: Robert Brown and Zach Staenberg

COMEDY

Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, G.W. Bailey, Bubba Smith, Donovan Scott, George Gaynes, Andrew Rubin, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, Michael Winslow, Bruce Mahler, Ted Ross, Scott Thompson, Brant Van Hoffman, and Marion Ramsey

Police Academy is a comedy film that debuted in early Spring 1984 and went on to become a box office smash hit. The film also spawned six sequels, an animated television series, and a short-lived live action TV series.

The movie takes place in an unnamed city. The newly-elected mayor decides that the Police Academy will now be open to any and all applicants regardless of height, weight, sex, intelligence, etc, and the floodgates of oddities and eccentrics bursts open. The story focuses on a group of good-hearted, but incompetent misfits led by Cadet Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), a prankster who was forced to join the Academy to avoid jail time. The instructors, in particular Lt. Thaddeus Harris (G.W. Bailey), are not going to put up with Mahoney’s pranks, and Harris is also determined to get rid of any cadet who wouldn’t have made it into the Academy under the old rules. However, Mahoney is determined not to let Lt. Harris get his way, so he leads his misfit friends into proving that they can protect and serve.

The 1984 R-rated Police Academy spawned a slew of PG-rated sequels, and while some of them are funny, the original is still the best. Over two decades later, the first film is still as funny today as it was then, and I have to admit to laughing hard and often while watching this. Basically, Police Academy was the Anchorman and Dodgeball of its day. The script doesn’t let you know the characters, although the jokes and humor are almost entirely character based. There isn’t a whole lot of comedy based on the setting (except for a gay bar); these characters could be played for jokes even if they weren’t at a Police Academy (in fact, future films often moved them outside the Academy).

Co-writer/director Hugh Wilson and fellow writers Neal Israel and Pat Proft (both known for writing movies that send-up or spoof just about anything) keep the often juvenile humor coming, and most of it works. Also, one cannot over emphasize how important the affable and likeable Steve Guttenberg playing the smart-assed/wise guy/jokester was to making this franchise’s early films work so well.

Police Academy – still going strong over a quarter-century later, and I think I’ll watch it again to remember Bubba Smith as Cadet Moses Hightower.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, August 04, 2011

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Review: "Sex and the City 2" is a Little Lost in the Desert

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 98 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sex and the City 2 (2010)
Running time: 146 minutes (2 hours, 26 minutes)
MPAA – R for some strong sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick King
WRITER: Michael Patrick King (based upon the book by Candace Bushnell and the television series created by Darren Star)
PRODUCERS: Michael Patrick King, John Melfi, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Darren Star
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Thomas (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Berenbaum

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone, Willie Garson, Liza Minelli, John Corbett, Omid Djalili, Art Malik, Raza Jaffrey, Lynn Cohen, Joseph Pupo, Miley Cyrus, Penélope Cruz, and Alexandra Fong and Parker Fong

Sex and the City was an American comedy television series that was originally broadcast on HBO over six seasons from 1998 to 2004. Created by Darren Star, the series was based in part on Candice Bushnell’s book of the same title and spawned a hit feature film in 2008. The success of the first film gave birth to a sequel, Sex and the City 2, released earlier this year.

Sex and the City 2 opens two years after the wedding that almost wasn’t. Now, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and John Preston A.K.A. Mr. Big (Chris Noth) have settled down, but John has settled down a bit more than Carrie likes. Meanwhile, Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), now 52, fights a never-ending battle to stay ahead of menopause. Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) struggles at the law firm where she works and where her new boss seems not to like her. Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) struggles with being a mother of two children, especially because her youngest is in the full throes of the terrible twos.

An Arab sheikh (Art Malik) approaches Samantha about devising a PR campaign for his business. He offers to fly her and her friends to an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation in his country Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). Once in the country, the girls find themselves living like royalty, but trouble is ahead. Carrie runs into an old boyfriend and Samantha chafes under Abu Dhabi’s strict laws about showing public affection and how women may act.

While much of the first film was about the girls and the people in their lives, Sex and the City 2 is primarily about the girls, and from there, Carrie and Samantha (to a lesser extent) dominate the film. There is nothing wrong with that, except that the film lacks conflict, and the drama is more like melodrama. The film is too insular, and considering that these four women already seem pampered and spoiled, the lavish Arabian setting in which this film drops them, makes them seem even more pampered and spoiled. Carrie’s troubles with Mr. Big come across as slight, petty, and childish, and even Samantha gives the impression that she is less a lusty woman and more a desperate trollop. Her two sex scenes are certainly funny, but in a way, look mechanical.

Still, I had fun with this movie. I enjoy watching Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte going places together where they can have fun and just talk about whatever and the luxuries of Abu Dhabi are nice. While Sex and the City 2 is not as good as the first film, it is always good to have the girls around, and this movie won’t stop fans from wanting a third trip to the theatres to see them.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, December 02, 2010

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Review: "Sex and the City: The Movie" is Groovy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sex and the City (2008)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick King
WRITER: Michael Patrick King (based upon the book by Candace Bushnell and the television series created by Darren Star)
PRODUCERS: Michael Patrick King, John Melfi, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Darren Star
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Thomas (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Berenbaum

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone, Candice Bergen, Lynn Cohen, Gilles Marini, Joseph Pupo, and Alexandra Fong and Parker Fong

Sex and the City was an American comedy television series that was originally broadcast on HBO over six seasons from 1998 to 2004. Created by Darren Star, the series was based in part on Candice Bushnell’s book of the same title.

Sex and the City the series focused on 30-something Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), a columnist for the fictional New York Star and book author, and her three best friends: 30-somethings Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and 40-something Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall). The girls often discussed their desires, sexual fantasies, love, and life. In 2008, the TV series made it to the big screen as Sex and the City: The Movie.

The movie’s story opens four years after the television series ended. Carrie and the on-again/off-again love of her life, John Preston A.K.A. Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are about to get married, but what began as a modest wedding has nearly quadrupled in sized. As her 50th birthday approaches, Samantha is living in Los Angeles with her boy toy actor boyfriend, Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). Samantha is also Smith’s manager, and she is starting to feel like a housewife, which she does not like.

Miranda and her husband, Steve Brady (David Eigenberg), have stopped having sex, and their marriage is in trouble, bigger trouble than she thinks. Charlotte and her husband, Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler), are also in for a big surprise regarding their marriage. 20 years after they first met in New York City, the girls are still supporting one another, and they need each other now more than ever.

I’ve only seen a few episodes of the Sex in the City series, and that was only in syndication when the episodes were edited for content. To date, I have liked what I’ve seen, although the series obviously isn’t aimed at me or my demographic group. The characters are what appeal to me. Each has personality traits which both attract and repel, but those characteristics are more substantive than quirky. Perhaps, I like them because I expected them to be vacuous, but instead found them engaging.

Carrie Bradshaw and friends are not shallow. While they are professional women living lives of affluence and abundance, those lives are not without conflict, drama, and dilemmas. The glamour is not without some gloom, and writer/director Michael Patrick King (a driving force behind the television series) freely goes to some dark places in the lives of the women.

Sex in the City is partly about love and all its complications – even the gritty complications that cause you hurt and make you want to punish the love of your life. Sex and the City, however, is really all about the girls. If you loved them in the series, you’ll love going through hell, healing wounds, and enjoying friends and family with them in this film. Sex and the City: The Movie is both effervescent and tart the way romantic comedy should be, and this movie is one of the best modern romantic comedies.

7 of 10
A-

Monday, October 25, 2010

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Review: Roman Polanski Spins Thrills in "The Ghost Writer"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 74 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Ghost Writer (2010)
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
WRITERS: Roman Polanski; from an adaptation by Robert Harris (based upon the novel The Ghost by Robert Harris)
PRODUCERS: Robert Benmussa, Roman Polanski, and Alain Sarde
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pawel Edelman (director of photography)
EDITOR: Hervé de Luze
COMPOSER: Alexandre Desplat

MYSTERY/SUSPENCE/THRILLER

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton, Tom Wilkinson, Jim Belushi, Robert Pugh, Jon Bernthal, Tim Preece, and Eli Wallach

In the film Green Zone, director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland presented their critique of the run-up to the Iraq War within the framework of a military action thriller starring Matt Damon.

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski (The Pianist) and co-writer Robert Harris also have something to say about Iraq. They present their criticism of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cooperation with the U.S. invasion of Iraq as a murder mystery and political thriller entitled The Ghost Writer, based upon Harris’ novel, The Ghost.

In the film, Ewan McGregor plays a successful British ghostwriter, a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, reports, etc. that are credited to another person. He is hired by a giant American publishing house to ghostwrite the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). McGregor’s character is unnamed in the story, but he refers to himself and is known to others as “The Ghost” or “Lang’s Ghost.”

The Ghost’s agent sees this job as the opportunity of a lifetime, but this project seems doomed from the start. The Ghost’s predecessor on the project, Mike McAra, a long time aide to Lang, drowned in an apparent suicide. The Ghost arrives at Martha’s Vineyard (near Cape Cod, Massachusetts), where Lang is staying in an oceanfront house. It is the middle of winter, and The Ghost finds Lang under siege. He has been recently accused of possible war crimes by a former British foreign secretary, Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh), and now faces the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

As The Ghost works with Lang and researches the project, he discovers that Lang is surrounded by untrustworthy people, and the circle of shifty characters seems ever-widening. Lang’s political controversies bring a swarm of reporters and protestors, eventually forcing The Ghost to move into Lang’s home. There, he uncovers clues suggesting that McAra may have stumbled onto a dark secret about Lang, and The Ghost wonders if he will ultimately share McAra’s fate.

Polanski can certainly write and direct a thriller. This film is tense, and stylish, but not in a showy way. The Ghost Writer is almost always mesmerizing and often riveting. Polanski teases his audience with just enough tidbits about the characters and their pasts to keep their brains on overdrive trying to decipher the players and their actions. Sometimes, this movie is too coy about the characters and their motivations, but the atmosphere of paranoia and deceit will make you overlook any faults. The film’s smooth pace belies its ability to keep the viewer on the edge, never settled, and too busy to nitpick.

Ewan McGregor executes the perfect turn as the laconic Ghost, who views everything with a critical eye, but is also always on the lookout for clues. Olivia Williams is both vicious and vulnerable as Lang’s erratic wife, Ruth Lang, and the underrated Kim Cattrall gives a clever performance as the red herring chanteuse, Amelia Bly, Lang’s personal assistant.

Your politics or your opinions of the director may affect how you feel about this movie, but this confident thriller is perfect for those who love political intrigue. The Ghost Writer makes other recent political thriller/murder mysteries (like Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson) look positively anemic. I won’t say that The Ghost Writer is as good as Polanski’s classic Chinatown, but this is good stuff.

7 of 10
B+

Tuesday, September 07, 2010