Porkys Rache

"Porky's II: The Next Day" was a weak and frustratingly tame movie that couldn't hold a candle to the wayward original; which I personally consider to be a classic in its own specific league. One of the – admittedly many – reasons of failure was the absence of the titular redneck character who was more or less profiled as the teen protagonists' arch enemy in the first film. Porky Wallace (glorious role of the late Chuck Mitchell) was a fat and sleazy night club owner from a neighboring county who humiliated and deceived the oversexed high school teenagers and prevented them from getting laid in his club. This led to fantastically comical and vulgar situations, but the first sequel skipped all this in favor of politically correct humor and ethically valuable morals. Well, just like the producers of "Halloween" found out after the disastrous third installment … every franchise also partly relies on a solid villainous character. The input of Porky's character in this third and final movie isn't exactly tremendous, but it definitely helps. The jokes and absurd situations are also a lot funnier again (albeit not nearly as funny as in the original) because they all revolve on raging hormones, bizarre sexual fetishes, embarrassing encounters and plain juvenile delinquency! Few weeks before graduating high school (about time, as they all appear to be in their mid-twenties…), the cheerful posse has the chance of realizing their biggest dream: winning the state championship in basketball. They face a big – literally – obstacle when it turns out their beloved coach has unsettled debts with Porky, who now owns a luxurious casino boat. The only way out is for the team to lose the finale and have Porky cash in the betting money, but their mind is too strongly set on winning… This is good old-fashioned and textbook 80's comedy, meaning relaxing and utterly brainless. Ideal stuff to re-watch after all these years and revive the spirit of 80's trash.

Seeing as how Bob Clark didn't participate in this movie, it doesn't surprise me that the final movie in the Porky's trilogy lacked the energy that made the first two so funny. The events leading up to the revenge just seemed so unnecessary. Ultimately, this so-called revenge seemed more like another attempt to make Porky's life miserable. This was an inglorious way to end the series which (when it first started) was the first important teen movie of the 80s before we were subjected to the legacy of John Hughes and the Brat Pack.

Believe it or not, Porky's is the most successful Canadian-made film in history (still!). Porky's was the movie that first graduated from the drive-in circuit to the cinema. A big hit in both Canada and the U.S., it was the commercials that became my gateway to adult entertainment. Sadly, I was only 9 when the movie came out, so I had to wait.

After seeing all three movies a number of times, I have to admit that Porky's Revenge is the best one. The story: Set in the late 1950's, a bunch of boys with "sex on the brain" battle with their nemesis, Porky. Porky is a "southern gentleman" who runs an illegal casino/brothel situated on a riverboat. The boys have been wanting to make this man's life miserable ever since he embarrassed them in the first movie. So once again, they plot to destroy his operation once and for all.

The movie had some great scenes, like the pool party, the sneaking into a teacher's apartment and then seeing her and another faculty member doing S&M, and the basketball scenes. This one's script is a lot better and James "Welcome Back, Kotter" Komack does some decent direction. It's not very good, but it's watchable enough, I've seen this one about 7 times, including today.

One last note: Porky's riverboat casino looks like the insides of The Hard Rock Hotel/Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. I guess now we know where Peter Morton got his inspiration from!

The final film of the Porky's trilogy is clearly the better of the two sequels. It ignores the next day plot of the second film and goes back to direct raunchiness that made the first film so successful. However, the story should have put them in a different setting such as college, since the actors portraying the high school seniors were well into the late 20's early 30's by the time the third film was made. Overall, it is good comedy compared to the other films that were made in the mid 80's ** out of ****

This film wasn't as great as the first one, but it was still good nonetheless. The song "High School Nights" at the end of it was a good song to close the series. Although some of the characters from the first two (Tim, Mickey, Officer Jarvis) are missed, this film has a good plot, I reccomend seing it.