Warning: This Movie May Make Your Head Explode

Saw this on cable way back in the 80s, and just watched it again for the first time on DVD.

WOW. Just like I remembered it, this movie is indeed a strange brew. As a previous post here said, you need to have a seriously wide open mind when you watch it (some adult recreational substances wouldn't hurt either). This film is so jaw-droppingly ridiculous and over-the-top, I personally can't help loving it on a very bizarre level.

This is super-80s radioactive cheese at its worst and finest...a perfect storm of the archetypal characters, elements and overall look that make movies from this decade so laughable today.

A gang leader who looks like a back-up singer for Duran Duran and a stand-in for James Spader's character in "Less Than Zero". A henchman who belongs on the June page of the 1987 "Smokin' Bi Guys" calendar. A tough chick who (to quote "Spinal Tap") looks like "an Australian's nightmare"...and of course the requisite "hottie" Tangerine, whose outfits are straight out of the Miami Vice color palette with the Hue and Saturation cranked up. Throw in some classic 80s studio band quasi-porno synth music, and boom! Magic.

Poor MacKenzie Astin...I wonder if he still gets wedgies for starring in this thing. Not that he wasn't doing a fab job of it just by himself, but his character Dodger gets decked out in a series of increasingly homoerotic outfits guaranteed to both get himself stuffed into his locker during gym class, AND tackled in the street by every child molester in the county. (and WHAT is up with the creepy bathtub scene, where he's being scrubbed down by midgets in foam suits while the only adult in the room looks on contentedly?) Even when he has his "triumphant" moment at the end and gets in a few good punches on Juice, he still walks away crying like a b*tch...tragic.

If you're like me, then you love the gooey, campy goodness of 80s films like this (even if to simply shred them MST3K-style)...as well as thinking about how a group of responsible adults thought this was a "swell idea", and dedicated a few million bucks and several thousand yards of film stock to make it reality. (how else do blackholes like "Howard the Duck" get zapped into existence?)

And I seriously wonder how much longer it will take for our current retro-fashion trends to swing full circle back to this neon-lit Andrew McCarthy/John Cryer/Tubbs & Crockett era, and future viewers of this movie will exclaim, "Shazam! Those outfits are BOSS!" (I can already hear the vintage Patrick Nagel prints being unrolled and tacked to dorm rooms everywhere...)

Pointless, silly, crass, utterly moronic, and covered in acres of corn syrup...a great way to spend an evening high as a bat and firing down Taco Bell in front of your flatscreen. Enjoy!