Hunk

I just adore this movie. It is in my category of 'Poundshop Classics' because it was discovered by an ex in a poundshop about 10 years ago. It is my second favourite movie in that category (after 'The Independent').

I've never really understood why this film is not more of a well known 80's cult classic as it has everything a good 80's film should have: the costumes, the music, the effects and the self-referencing humour. The characters and casting are all ace - Hunk Golden surely has to be one of the best character names of all time!

It is a silly, silly film and there's always time in my life for silly films.

This is a gay man fantasy heck of a movie, if you'd even call it that! Let's just leave it at that!

I remember watching it back in the early 90s on TV. The only vivid memory I had about it was the night when he was sleeping and got transformed, specifically when he got **AHEM** "expanded", if you know what I mean. And I don't mean his upper body torso.

Watching it again now, it's just bad! But for what it's worth, it's a watch worth of nostalgia. That's it.

By the way, you know when they say you should never remake movies that are already perfect? Well, this one is in desperate need of a serious makeover.

And since I did drop Glen Powell's name in the title, perhaps they could consider him playing Hunk since young John Allen Nelson bore uncanny resemblance to Powell.

A friend new the director, so I went to the premiere, which was in a prestigious Westwood (L.A.) theatre. We all found it very entertaining.

The story was this: Lawrence Bassoff went to USC film school, where he made a hilarious twenty-minute comedy about an outer space themed Bar Mitzva. http://www.film-making.com/breaking.html

From that, he succeeded in getting a low-budget movie deal from Crown International Pictures for his first commercial film, Weekend Pass, which was moderately successful. Then Crown said they wanted to fund him to make another low-budget film, and they wanted it to be called 'Hunk'. No treatment, no script, no plot ideas. Just make a comedy about a hunk, and do what you want.

A lifelong movie poster collector, he never made another film but has written three books on movie posters.

The only thing good about this film is that it holds up a very good looking man as the object of voyeurism (refreshing, since typically in films, women are the exhibitionists and men are the voyeurs). John Allen Nelson certainly lives up to the title.

Other than this, the acting is atrocious. Of course, the script probably didn't leave the actors much to work with. The dialogue seems very stilted and uninspired.

The film is enjoyable in the "it's so bad it's good" vein, though. This is definitely a film for those who like bad movies or just like to see a cute guy in a small swimsuit. Not much else to offer.

A computer nerd makes a deal with a sexy she-devil to become a muscle-bound beach hunk.

Hunk shares quite a similar idea to the one later used (copied?) in Bedazzled (2000), where we have a hopeless nerd given the chance to become cool by a super-sexy she-devil, with the result that he realises that it is more important to be yourself than superficially good-looking. In that later film we had Elizabeth Hurley turn in a mind-bogglingly seductive performance, in Hunk its Deborah Shelton who is somewhat convincing as a rather hot seductress. The leading ladies certainly are very important to the success of these films but they both also feature other decent performances. In this case it is John Allen Nelson who most impresses in a role that has him play a stereotypical hunky guy while remaining nerdish at heart. It's a good comical performance that works well alongside Shelton's glamorous seductress.

While I wouldn't describe this as an especially funny film, it is definitely a likable one. It is much less moronic than quite a few of the teen comedies of its day and I think it stands up fairly well. It naturally has oodles of 80's cheese as well but that is pretty much a positive detail as far as I am concerned. All-in-all, a very fun film.