Tomboy

You know the drive-in experience... Trying to find a good parking space... The queue at the intermission for snacks... And of course, the *ahem* entertainment you can have in the backseat if the movie sucks...

Which it invariably will.

Tomboy is one such 'delight' of a bygone era. You may think, looking at the packaging and tagline, it's an attempt to tackle the very serious subject of a young female trying to make it in the man's world of mechanics and motor sports.

Heck no.

This is instead, a rather cunning subterfuge for it's REAL agenda... Which is of course, to display as much female flesh as humanly possible. It does a pretty good job of it, I suppose. Not a moment goes by where our director concocts a situation that he can exploit to load the back and foreground with soft core naughtiness.

Naked Swimming. Stripping. Shower scenes. Hot dancing. Wet T shirts. And of course, the predictable moment when the music turns soppy, and everything is shot in soft lighting... Yep, the Obligatory Sex Scene (TM). This particular one is filmed in a gym, and features our heroine literally having her top TORN off, by the aptly named Randy.

I hope she got reimbursed for her damaged clothing post-coital. The film never specifies if this is the case. Talk about your plot holes...

Betsy Russell tries her best, she really does. An actual film promoting her struggle in a male-dominated industry might have been interesting. Alas, all we have is this collection of cheesy montages and Carry On-esque humour, so I guess you'll have to make do with it...

Actually, no. You don't. 4/10

I had a lot of fun with this movie. Betsy Russell is charming as 'Tommy' and the film is pure teen 80s sexploitation cheesiness. Don't get me wrong, the movie would be considered trash by most standards and there is probably an excess of skin (is that even possible?), but there is also an honest innocence and a lot of nostalgic charm.

Not a flashback for anytime of my young boy to teenager 1970's, or my young adult to college BA and Master degree then first professional job in 1989, nor does it represent the hundreds of people I knew and worked or studied with during this time. However, it simply is a mindless ride into what might of been if all the stars were aligned and an actual UFO had landed inside your favorite college or NFL stadium and world peace had spontaneously broken out. Grab some popcorn, your favorite drink, put the top down on your convertible, and shot for the stars. A Crown International Picture, and thank God, not a Cannon production. I bought a used 12 pack of Too Cool for School as wanted to see The Van, and I will say that you get a full 1920 Kps with 12 chapter index, while a Cannon 4 pack had no chapter indexes and usually 75 minute run time, while AIP run a full 90 minutes. I also own AIP 200 movie pack of drive in both horror and sci fi and most US movies are filmed with professional care, unlike Canon and many International producers.

Please. don't you just get sick of all those films that are just made as an excuse to put as much female flesh on display as possible? This one is probably worst than most though: not only do you have to put up with the usual bimbos and hunks with perfect teeth but no visible trace of any acting ability, you also have to endure some painfully cliched love scenes (complete with drippy mid 80's soundtrack of course) and an end race between the female lead character and her professional race-driver boyfriend that could have been lifted straight out of Grease (I won't bother telling you the outcome, if you hadn't guessed by now you've obviously never seen one of these underdog movies before, and good luck to you). Still we do learn a couple of interesting things from this film, one is that if you're a man (or a woman) who wants to get into the opposite sexes changing rooms, all you have to do is walk round the wall of your own changing rooms and you'll find it! Oh yeah, and all you need to turn a old rustbucket of a car into a gleaming new 150mph dream machine is 500 dollars and half a dozen spare parts from your local trashheap! So enjoy this flick, but most of all be prepared to have a blooming good laugh...

This is perhaps one of the best "worst" movies ever made. This movie is so bad that most people who worked on it never worked again in Hollywood. The earliest anyone worked after this movie was 1989. It was certainly a career killer. But it was much more than that. If you think a girl shooting hoops on a motorcycle is hilarious or that a race car goes faster because cardboard accessories and onboard computers, this is the movie for you. This is one of the finest examples of the teen "sex-politation" genre in the early 80s. It stars the the recently deceased Eric Douglas and Betsy Russell (who was the Gretta Garbo of this genre). If you can find this movie- buy it. It is that good.