Pretty Smart

2 trouble-making girls get sent off to boarding school in Greece. Just another typical 80's movie, with no substance or acting ability, just rebel kids getting into wacky situations. Not really as bad as many movies, but really boring. At least this one has some attractive girls (Tricia Leigh Fisher) to look at instead of just a bunch of nerds. And what is it about dumb 80s movies that they have these great theme songs? Weird.

Ogling the girls at Ogilvy...

I don't care what the negative reviewers say of it, I liked it. Especially remembered for the come-uppance Crawley gets coming to him at the end when the girls chant "Crawley, Crawley, Crawley", evoking images of relentless persecution. I had a tough time finding it on DVD years ago, the search went on for very, very long. It was years since I had first seen it, and the movie was different from what I remembered, but I was just relieved to finally own it in a proper way. VHS sucks!

A feast for 80s fans. The look is very, very 80s (well, duh! of course! and you can't get any better than the real thing) in a good way. Download the trailer on VuClip for a quick sneak peek.

Maybe the negative voices are from viewers who were offended? Hidden cameras and a stash of sneaked videotaped indiscretions are bound to anger the prudes out there. People, it's all just a lot of fun, lighten up! Consider it a little jewel from the Late Eighties.

Without doubt, this is a not good film, but it is not a particularly poor film either. It has stupid characters and bits of plain stupidity, such as vomiting over a guy having hair on his back, but the film does have enough going for it that it works as lightly amusing stuff. If not worth watching twice, there's enough to give it at least one go, especially for fans of Patricia Arquette. As the main character's best friend, Arquette adds a lot of dimension to her character. Although she is sexy and appears well educated in such areas on the outside, she is actually naive and innocent on the inside, and unaware of so much in the adult world. Arquette is certainly a radiant light in the film's cast, which includes Dennis Cole in a terrible performance playing a typical sleaze-bag with no dimension at all. The acting of the film is not terribly good in general, but Arquette is excellent and Tricia Leigh Fisher in the lead has a few earnest moments when her face is not covered up by overdone makeup.

The other aspect of the film that causes it to rise above the lemon mark is the music. The title song is excellent and the music is generally bouncy throughout in a playful way, like during the tennis matches, and it is in a fashion that captures the rebellious, "in it just to have fun" attitudes of the 1980s perfectly. All that said, it is still bad film, if not a terrible one. There are so many over-the-top racial stereotypes, especially Swedish, that it goes beyond being funny and just becomes stupid. There is also some awful narration by an ageing character added in for the sole purpose of adding a lame joke to the end of the film when the narrator is revealed. The narration is clumsy and serves no purpose in advancing what is being shown. For example, he says "here come the sisters" as the two sisters in the film rock up to the school. Overall, this may not be terrible, but neither is it a good film. It is amusing towards the end and it has a few virtues that prevent it from being absolute trash, plus a memorable line "A rose, bud?" - but that is not quite enough to make it great viewing.

I remember staying up until 2 in the morning to watch this one on Cinemax after dark. Had to wait for the parents to go to bed before I would chance watching it. It had some moments of humor and a few TnA shots. The one line I remember the most and the reason I bought this on VHS was for the comment right before the tennis match where Zigs says to one of the prep boys regarding her sister, "We are thinking about having her spayed." Unfortunately in the copy I bought this line has been edited out with about 15 minutes or so of other scenes that I remember. Really unfortunate, wonder why anyone would do that? I think that the unedited version that I saw had quite a few more laugh lines as well as most of the nudity. Guess that the censors were working overtime on this one. Oh well.

No, not the closing credits - I wouldn't recommend you stay that long! No, I'm talking about the opening credits! The first 5 minutes is all I recommend you sit through, as it is the only thing that contains anything related to a plot, and you get to sit through a rockin' song! If you can stay awake any longer than that, I commend you!