Black Cats

O.C. & Stiggs is one of my favorite 80's movies. I truly wish it would get issued on DVD but I realize the chances of this are remote. The movie did not have too much of a plot. And, while I loved the liberal trashing of the extreme right-wing conservative neighbor, the movie was quite mean-spirited at times. It is tough to classify this film, but I believe it struck a chord with me due to the anti-establishment mentality of the two lead characters.

The story centers around the two lead characters, high school guys with way too much time on their hands with an affinity for the African music stylings of King Sunny Ade and an extreme antipathy towards the ultra-right-wing insurance agency owner who lives in their neighborhood. The movie follows the two leads as they prank the family (the Schwabs) and otherwise try to survive a record Arizona heat wave by bothering as many people as they can. For instance, their joint purchase of the "Gila Monster". A giant monster-truck-tired old-school convertible which made more noise and belched out more smoke and fumes than any self-respecting oil refinery. Perhaps it was my being 16 when I first saw the movie and latching onto ti for being different (and funny), but hey, if it ever gets re-released, I will re-buy it.

The movie isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed it immensely. One quote in particular was worth the price of the rental back in 1988: "That's the problem with insurance. Destruction just isn't permanent anymore". And, if I can ever find my old VHS copy (many, many friends have borrowed this tape), I need to find out the title of the King Sunny Ade song he plays in the impromptu concert scene.

By far the most wacked-out teen comedy of all time, this bizarre Robert Altman nugget was adapted from a single issue of National Lampoon magazine, the 1982 "Utterly Monstrous, Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs" special. The plot is simple: O.C. and Stiggs are two bored, horny, Arizona high schoolers who find immense satisfaction in tormenting the Schwab family (the patriarch is fabulously portrayed by Altman regular Paul Dooley). Over summer vacation, they canoe to Mexico, buy a machine gun from Dennis Hopper, organize a King Sunny Ade concert, and try to woo Cynthia Nixon. There's no sentimentality in this film whatsoever. The two leads are unlikable, homophobic morons, but it still adds up into a remarkably funny endeavor. If you're not in the mood for something with a profound statement to make and enjoy laughing at bizarre non-sequiturs, give this film a try.

I loved the National Lampoon magazine story O.C. & Stiggs was based on but this film is nothing like it's predecessor. It does however back up my long held opinion that the only reason Robert Altman has been allowed to make films after 'Nashville' is because of the prolific amount of drug use amongst movie critics. Altman has an uncanny ability to produce films that, regardless of the budget, look low budget. This one reads like a student film or worse. The two edgy & cool leads are horribly miscast with two very uncool comedic softies that completely undermine the angst and subversion of the original characters. Picture Jim Varney as Hunter S. Thompson or Paulie Shore as Ferris Bueller. Rather than subversive the material comes off looking juvenile and just mean spirited. But for those who insist on pretending they love Altman films, no worry. There is plenty of bad photography, busy cameras, scenes that makes no sense, overlapping dialogue and most of all, a huge cast of name actors that all look like they are practicing their lines.

Like many of Robert Altman's smaller movies, O.C. and Stiggs is under-appreciated. Most of the teenage movies that clogged up the mid-80's consisted of nothing more than stupid sex jokes and gross-out shots designed to humiliate straw men villains. O.C. and Stiggs is a movie where you feel that all sorts of things are possible. It's humorous in the best sense.

It remains a mystery why some of Altman's films are overrated (e.g. The Player and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean), while others are immediately forgotten.

I really wanted to like this movie, mainly because I laughed my ass off reading the 36-page odessey of O.C. & Stiggs in National Lampoon. Naively, I thought that an otherwise great director like Robert Altman could show us the wickedly funny side of hard-core juvenile delinquency. Instead, he lets us down by stripping away almost all of the mean-spiritedness that made the story so hilarious. All that's left are some wishy-washy hijinks from a couple of kids trying to look cute. Perhaps Danny Boyle, the director of "Trainspotting", could have done more justice to the story.

The movie is not entirely worthless, though. Occasional gems from the story survive in Altman's adaptation, and Altman's trademarked style is as evident as ever. Each scene is almost littered with celebrities, and there are plenty of layers of dialogue that no other contemporary director pulls off as well as Altman.

Phoenicians can entertain themselves during lulls in the movie by spotting local landmarks. Overall, you could do worse on a dollar rental, but you really should read the story to appreciate the little bits that survived in the film.