Porn 'n Chicken

This television movie about an underground Princeton porn club had potential. It was better than I thought it would be. Yes, it didn't go beyond the Animal House level of complexity, but it actually tried to deal with the material using a small measure of intelligence.

Not enough though. I was disappointed that every time the movie introduced an interesting plot thread which would have made the movie about more than just "liberated students vs. stifling university dean" it was dropped by the next commercial because serious thought would have interfered with the party atmosphere the movie tried to foster.

This movie was such a stinker that I'm embarrassed to admit I even wasted my time watching it, much less even more of my time commenting on this sorry spectacle.

I thought it was going to be a funny and zany movie, but... this movie just isn't funny!! It tries (very lamely, too) to be a hip and edgy variation on various campus-based movies such as "PCU", "Dead Man on Campus", "Animal House" and "American Pie".

But it doesn't work. None of the characters are really likeable or compelling, the story premise is ridiculous, and really, I think most viewers are still more than a little uncomfortable with the whole notion of unabashed pornography in society. All the more so in the midst of the college campus environment. Say what you will, but most people still consider admission to college an honor and a privilege, not to be taken lightly. Some people, amazingly enough, still hold to the hope that our youth are our future. This movie seems to dump massive amounts of excrement as well as other bodily fluids on that notion.

True, some of this was based on actual events at a college campus somewhere in the U.S.A. But, having been in college myself, I can assure the rest of the world that, by and large, young Americans have much higher ideals and aspirations than those portrayed in this cheesy sexploitation movie. So don't come over here to America assuming that every college dorm on every college campus is an XXX-rated movie set with sex orgies going on around the clock. (Or maybe it's just that nobody ever bothered to invite me to one when I was in college.)

These are just my personal opinions, of course. Your mileage may vary...

I saw one of the many reruns. I thought it was good; it was a fresh idea, carried out as best we could have thought, even a little better. The pace was good, and the jokes where fresh and inventive. Yes, I think that if you find this on, you should watch it.

I found myself enjoying PORN N' CHICKEN in spite of myself. Sure, the story is slapdash and winds up being completely anticlimactic, but you gotta appreciate a cast that is so enthusiastic. They seem truly happy doing what their doing, and that happiness is infectious. There are some truly charming performances from the five or six characters at the center of the story, especially by Ebon Moss-Bacharach as Hutch and Angela Goethals as Polly. The dialogue is quite clever, even if the plot is never quite as fleshed out as it should be. I get the impression that writers A.D Miles and Lawrence Trilling had some problems compacting their story into a two-hour, TV movie format, and so some important scenes were dropped, especially at the end. However, I had fun watching this. I think anyone who isn't too critical will feel the same.

For Comedy Centrals first movie, it was compelling and sometimes amusing. I don't think it was meant to be a comedy as much as it was billed that way. I enjoyed the film primarily because they were able to film in recognizable locations at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. The characters were well written. Any college student can probably relate to some of the people in this movie. This is kind of like reality TV meets the average teen movie. The acting was not wonderful, but it was decent. The plot was predictable and not very cutting edge. The best thing this movie has to offer is its portrayal of the college student in a real life story.