Post by StevePulaski on Jul 15, 2011 15:11:49 GMT -5
The girls locker room in Porky's.
Rating: ★★½
Porky's spends more time being almost a biography of a group of teens from a small town rather than being clever and funny. Not to say it's bad, but most of the movie is a few chuckles, smiles, maybe a few memories of your adolescent years. What it boils down to is this is only funny if you've been through something like this or can recall your quest for sexual satisfaction.
Even someone's strangest quest for pleasure probably wouldn't touch some of the desperation focused on in Porky's. It aims below the belt, and sometimes results in either a hilarious scene or an awkwardly thrown together one. I knew what I was getting into when I hit play, so don't accuse me of misjudging or misinterpreting this film.
The plot is a group of high school boys in 1954, Tommy Turner, Edward "Pee Wee" Morris, Anthony "Meat" Tuperello, Mickey Jarvis, Billy McCarthy, and Tim Cavanaugh, are content on losing their virginity and will do it whatever way they can. They first try to go to a rundown shack at midnight in hopes to get lucky with a stripper, but end up humiliated. The next guess is to try to go to Porky's and pay for sex. This seems inches away from happening when the owner, Porky, dumps them in a swamp after taking their money. Now it becomes a quest of sex and payback.
Porky's is sort of like a steam roller on a newly-tarred street. It paved the way for other teen movies (cars) to follow. It was like the leader of the pack in 1982 next to the 1978 classic Animal House. So, in its own respect, it should be recognized and someway appreciated for that.
But by the time the end scene rolls around, we don't feel accomplished. Our characters certainly do, but for some reason, the movie seemed to want to focus on so much in such a little time frame. In order to do so many things with the same characters you have to first introduce them properly and give them their own chance to speak. That is done here, but the development isn't very large. I could probably write one, two sentences max on each character.
I liked Kim Cattrall as the drop-dead gorgeous teacher, but wasn't very amused by the "Lassie" scene. I liked many of the boys and wanted to learn more about them, but didn't. Porky's has laughs and a few smiles, but not enough to recommend to someone looking for a great comedy. Although if someone asks me a film with screwball antics and below the belt jokes Porky's will be the first film I give them.
Starring: Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson, and Kim Cattrall. Directed by: Bob Clark.