A bizarre, demented, utterly berserk multi-chapter hoot that's a pure delight for camp enthusiasts, sci-fi movie freaks, and fans of the demented in any form. Wild, woolly adventures in a lost city in Africa which seems to have only three inhabitants. The story, if one can call it that, concerns an elderly captive scientist who elongates and lobotomizes natives (and can also make black people white), his beautiful daughter, the evil dictator who holds them captive, his assorted flunkies, a fiendish jungle priestess of some sort, a painfully earnest hero and his doltish, bumbling sidekick, and God knows what else. Weirdly acted, scripted by someone who must have been drunk out of his mind (or SOMETHING), and, oddly, has impressive special effects, given the time. Derivative, racist, whacked out, and utterly delightful.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Private Resort
(1985)
Everybody Has To Start Somewhere, Even Oscar-Nominated Pirates
15 July 2006
One of a plethora of PORKYS-inspired teen-sex comedies, memorable mainly for starring future TV star Rob Morrow ('Northern Exposure') and future mega-star Johnny Depp ('Pirates of The Caribberan', among others). It's essentially the same set-up as any other movie of this type: Two callow youths, one a self-professed Lothario (Depp), the other naive but desperate to lose his virginity (Morrow), find themselves in an exotic location, in this case a beach-front hotel, and become involved in wacky hijinks while in pursuit of sex. Depp is understandably not fond of this thing, done very early in his career to pay the rent. Both he and Morrow have fairly lengthy rear-nude scenes, mostly running around trying to hide when their attempts at seduction go disastrously wrong. There's also a subplot about a violent thug plotting to romance a scatter-brained dowager to obtain a valuable jewel, as well as an exasperated hotel manager determined to catch our heroes in the midst of inappropriate behavior.
Surprisingly, it's only half as awful as one would expect, thanks to some lively comedy and a fairly talented cast. To put it in perspective, it's better than, for instance, PORKYS 3, but not quite as good as an average 'Three's Company' episode.
Surprisingly, it's only half as awful as one would expect, thanks to some lively comedy and a fairly talented cast. To put it in perspective, it's better than, for instance, PORKYS 3, but not quite as good as an average 'Three's Company' episode.
Amusing Adaption of Popular Children's Book Series
6 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The first of two half-hour television programs adapting Robert Newton Peck's popular 'Soup' books, based loosely on his childhood in Depression-era rural Vermont. SOUP AND ME and its sequel, SOUP FOR PRESIDENT, were shown in the 1970's (and rerun for years afterward) on the Saturday morning children's program THE ABC WEEKEND SPECIAL. Though the WEEKEND SPECIAL series tends to be remembered as dreary and vapid, the kind of thing parents and teachers preferred kids watch, the SOUP adaptions are fondly remembered by many Gen-Xers, probably for the same reason the books were so successful: They were genuinely funny, a rarity in 70's children's television.
SOUP AND ME combines two chapters from the book of the same name and updates the kids to more or less present day, presumably for budget reasons. Soup (Christian Berrigan), a young boy who's just clever enough to get himself into all sorts of trouble, and Rob (Shane Sinutko), his more sensible but easily beguiled friend, go skinny-dipping during an unseasonably hot Autumn day and their clothes are stolen by bully Janice Ryker. Forced for modesty's sake to swipe dresses to wear from a church charity bazaar ("Aren't there any poor MEN in the world?" Soup exclaims in frustration when they can't find any other clothes), they set out in their 'costumes' to the school Halloween party, 'borrowing' a huge pumpkin from irascible farmer Mister Sutter's garden to enter in a contest. Naturally, things go wrong from there.
SOUP FOR PRESIDENT is, in my opinion, even funnier. Soup is running for class president and Rob is his campaign manager. Unfortunately, Norma Jean Bissel, a pretty girl Rob has a mad crush on, is running against him and Rob finds himself torn between friendship and puppy love. Worse, Janice Ryker is Norma Jean's campaign manager, and she plays dirty.
Both shows are rarely screened nowadays, but the books can often be found in the children's section of public libraries.
SOUP AND ME combines two chapters from the book of the same name and updates the kids to more or less present day, presumably for budget reasons. Soup (Christian Berrigan), a young boy who's just clever enough to get himself into all sorts of trouble, and Rob (Shane Sinutko), his more sensible but easily beguiled friend, go skinny-dipping during an unseasonably hot Autumn day and their clothes are stolen by bully Janice Ryker. Forced for modesty's sake to swipe dresses to wear from a church charity bazaar ("Aren't there any poor MEN in the world?" Soup exclaims in frustration when they can't find any other clothes), they set out in their 'costumes' to the school Halloween party, 'borrowing' a huge pumpkin from irascible farmer Mister Sutter's garden to enter in a contest. Naturally, things go wrong from there.
SOUP FOR PRESIDENT is, in my opinion, even funnier. Soup is running for class president and Rob is his campaign manager. Unfortunately, Norma Jean Bissel, a pretty girl Rob has a mad crush on, is running against him and Rob finds himself torn between friendship and puppy love. Worse, Janice Ryker is Norma Jean's campaign manager, and she plays dirty.
Both shows are rarely screened nowadays, but the books can often be found in the children's section of public libraries.
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl
(1976)
Deranged 70's Cheese Fun
17 June 2006
One of three segments presented on the 70's Saturday morning kidvid THE KROFT SUPERSHOW; The others were 'Wonderbug,' a Herbie The Love Bug knockoff, and 'Doctor Shrinker,' about a mad scientist who shrinks three teens. All three, if I remember right, were dumped in favor of new short features when the SUPERSHOW came back for a second season, though 'Wonderbug' might have stayed around. Only eight episodes of 'Electra-Woman And Dyna-Girl' were produced, but they're vividly, and sometimes even fondly, remembered by Generation Xers. A weird, low-budget pastiche of the campy 1960's BATMAN with a bit of Lynda Carter WONDER WOMAN thrown in, the show starred Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis as 'Lori' and 'Judy,' two magazine writers who, when trouble strikes, usually in the form of a flamboyantly costumed, wildly overplayed super-villain, become super-heroines Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl. They battled evil using their 'Electra-comps,' clunky-looking devices worn on their wrists that allowed them to fire various types of low-budget rays and kept them in communication with Frank, the crusty scientific genius who invented the Comps and manned the 'Electra-base' in Lori and Judy's basement.
What makes the show interesting and fun, if not exactly good, is the bizarre sense of conviction most of the actors bring to their roles. They all overact wildly, especially Judy Strangis, but seem perfectly attuned to the claustrophobic confines of the bizarre little world they inhabit. Despite looking like it was made in someone's basement, the show did its best to ape the fantastic comic books it copied, sending its heroines through time, into alternate dimensions, etc. Admittedly, it did it all with apparently two sets, a maximum of six actors, and a budget of twenty dollars, but it could be seen as trying to bring back the spirit of the old CAPTAIN VIDEO-type shows. Or not.
What makes the show interesting and fun, if not exactly good, is the bizarre sense of conviction most of the actors bring to their roles. They all overact wildly, especially Judy Strangis, but seem perfectly attuned to the claustrophobic confines of the bizarre little world they inhabit. Despite looking like it was made in someone's basement, the show did its best to ape the fantastic comic books it copied, sending its heroines through time, into alternate dimensions, etc. Admittedly, it did it all with apparently two sets, a maximum of six actors, and a budget of twenty dollars, but it could be seen as trying to bring back the spirit of the old CAPTAIN VIDEO-type shows. Or not.
Coming Attractions
(1978)
Hasn't Aged Well
13 March 2005
An occasionally amusing, often confusing, gleefully profane 70's movie that hasn't really aged well. A precursor to Saturday NIGHT LIVE, it's a hodgepodge of spoofs and takeoffs of popular movies of the time. Some of the material is quite good ('The Shaggy Studio Executive,' where Walt Disney comes back as a guy in a dog suit), some of it's dated badly (A 'Snacktime' concession stand advert featuring a stoned guy with the munchies), a lot of it you have to think for a minute or two to figure out what's supposed to be funny (Who knew the eulogist at the biker funeral was supposed to be a takeoff of Georgie Jessel?). Best if you remember the time.
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