Never Too Young to Die

Are ya feeling like breaking out? Looking for danger Feeling adventurous Then you must Put your trust Not in a stranger

Playin' your own game Do it your own way Keepin' your own sound That you found Goin' down Playin' like you play

Who knows what you'll find You might like it, or not But all that you find, boy Is all that you got

(Stargrove!) Flying like you've never flown (Stargrove!) Runnin' through a danger zone (Stargrove!) Are you gonna stand alone? Stargrove! Stargrove!

You feel like takin' The world on your shoulders You're just a Robin Hood Makin' good Where you could You're one of the soldiers

Faster than lightning Nothing can strike you You got the good stuff Tough enough Stayin' rough There's no one like you

Who knows what you'll find You might like it, or not But all that you find, boy Is all that you got

(Stargrove!) Flying like you've never flown (Stargrove!) Runnin' through a danger zone (Stargrove!) Are you gonna stand alone? Stargrove! Stargrove!

This should have been released as a single. It should have been #1 on Billboard's charts for months! Absolute perfection.

And Gene L. Simmons should have won the Oscar for best performance in '86. Absolute genius.

I haven't seen this movie in over ten years but it still sticks in my mind. Gene sticking his middle finger on Vanity's chest and maniacally shouting out, "STARGROVE!!!!" The gay dance sequences. The unrequieted love of poor Cliff for his mondo studdly friend and hero, Lance. Gene's performance of "It takes a man like me to be a woman like me" (some of the lyrics of which were so good, incidentally, that Gene recycled and used in the song 'Spit' on the album 'Revenge') This whole movie rocks. I can't believe it is out of print, and I can't believe it isn't available in digital format yet. You can't go wrong with this movie.

OK, I'm not actually through with the movie -- I'm about halfway through, and I had to tell everyone to buy it!

John Stamos' father is a secret agent, murdered by a gang of weirdos who want a disk that tells how to poison the city water supply. John inherits a farm house and discovers what his father's work was as he finds all kinds of weapons and gadgets in the farm house and is pursued by the same bad guys as his father, who also left behind a pretty partner who knows how to shoot.

There are motorcycles, kisses, and, more -- and I haven't even finished the tape!

Only in the 1980s could we get something this gloriously deranged and utterly idiotic. It's flashy, and it's dumb, and it's obviously proud to be so. It's essentially a "junior James Bond" as John "Uncle Jesse" Stamos plays Lance Stargrove, a college athlete whose dad Drew (one time Bond George Lazenby) is a spy. Dad isn't THAT great at his job, though, managing to get killed by the movies' villain. And what a doozy this villain is. He/she is Velvet Von Ragner (rock star Gene Simmons), a hermaphroditic megalomaniac with a legion of followers who look like refugees from a "Mad Max" knock-off. Lance determines to get some revenge, hooking up with our leading lady, Danja Deering (supremely sexy Vanity), just one of dads' "associates".

This one is pretty bad, all right, but that doesn't mean it ain't entertaining. The action scenes are decent enough, the stunts and camera work especially effective. The costumes on the henchmen are absolutely hilarious. The upbeat pop soundtrack consists of some pretty rancid cheese, yet unfortunately it will stick in your head, especially the title theme song. Director Gil Bettman ("Crystal Heart", "Night Vision") works from a terminally silly script credited to Steven Paul (of "Slapstick (Of Another Kind)" infamy) and Anthony Foutz, that is wise to include some very alluring scenes with Vanity, as well as the kind of gadgetry we often come to expect in an espionage thriller.

Stamos is okay as the hero, no more; he lacks a strong screen presence. Vanity definitely fares better. Supporting roles and bits are played by the likes of John Anderson ("Psycho" '60), Ed Brock (in his one and only movie role), Peter Kwong ("Big Trouble in Little China"), Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund (wasted in a nothing part), Tara Buckman ("Silent Night, Deadly Night", "The Cannonball Run"), Patrick Wright ("Track of the Moon Beast"), and Branscombe Richmond ("Hard to Kill"). But this thing really belongs to Simmons, who clearly realized he was doing a p.o.s. movie, and gives it some flair by camping it up something fierce as the bad guy / gal.

Recommended mainly to completists who'll gladly lap up the craziest things that the 80s had to offer.

Five out of 10.

This movie is so horrifying, stultifyingly bad that it's total lack of anything that could remotely be termed "quality filmmaking" deserves some sort of Nobel Prize. (After which anyone involved in this project, down to the caterers, should be bundled up and sent to The Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity.) It's one of those very rare projects that leaves your jaw dropped in sheer aghastness from beginning to end. They say "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was the worst movie ever made. No. I've seen "Plan 9" and this makes it look like "2001: A Space Odyssey."

"Stargrove, Lance Stargrove." John Stamos plays the son of super spy George Lazenby (you know, the guy who played James Bond in one movie) in this 80s teen oriented Son-of-Bond type of story. When his super spy dad is murdered, high school gymnast Stamos teams up with his dad's former partner, 80s sexpot Vanity, to stop evil hermaphrodite Velvet Von Ragner (Gene Simmons). Generally speaking, this film is a mess, but it's a glorious unintentionally hilarious mess. Try to imagine if Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was suddenly a James Bond villain, which admittedly would be pretty funny, except this film couldn't seem to make up it's mind if it wanted to be an straight James Bond action film or a spoof. Simmons many "disguises" wouldn't fool anyone outside of Scooby Doo and it's completely baffling why Simmons' army of henchmen are dresses like refugees from a Max Max film. Why would the creators of this film have thought the world wanted another gymnast action hero after 1985's rousing flop "Gymkata"? I suppose this film was directed by Gil Bettman, the man behind "Knight Rider" and "BJ and the Bear," so he is someone who thought the world needed a crime solving car and road stories of a trucker and his pet monkey. Oh, you also get Robert Englund in a hammy role as one of Simmons' henchmen. I'm pretty sure both England and Simmons realized this movie was a mess, but I'm not sure anyone else did. Only worth watching as a so-bad-it's-good viewing experience.