Zapped Again!

This is your brain. This is your brain on prune juice. A lot of people hate this movie, but it offers entertainment of the mindless kind! And it's good for that purpose. I saw it when I was teenager (I'm 24 now) and it has been a classic between my homies and I. Buddah help you if you don't like this film when I show it to you (GET OUT)!;-) I worry about people who dislike it so much. It means they are too serious. I suppose you need to be in the mind frame of a kid to really enjoy it, without jaded sexual expectations (and weirdoes, don't rent/buy this movie if you're just horny). Not the typical eighties sex fest. Rent it or buy it just to see the stupid mistakes (they are unreal) and the endless jokes you can get from it. Classic! It's genius. So bad it's good. For instance, when they have the super cheesy 13th annual penguin run, then they say the key club has held the title since the 40's or something, IT JUST DOESN'T ADD UP! and its GREAT! Or when they lock doors and three seconds later they just pop open. HILARIOUS, because it's not intentional!!! C'mon now! If you cant find humor here, you are DEAD or just too damn serious. Don't expect an award winning script, it's about prune juice and telekinesis!!!!!

Todd Eric Andrews is brilliant in this film, working with a very witty, charismatic and charming character. His presence is not only enough to compensate for a silly plot and a predictable, lifeless romance, but he is also able to bring this sequel to a level higher than the first film. The are a number of amusing moments, and they are genuinely funny this time round, with likable even if very silly characters and Andrews heading the cast. Just like the first entry, this is not a film to watch for nudity, as there is very little. It is not one to watch for the premise either, because all the science behind it is not deeply examined. But, it is a film to watch for amusement - simple good fun.

My review was written in March 1990 after watching the movie on Nelson Entertainment video cassette.

This made-for-home video (it even lists a teleplay credit) sequel to 1982's "Zapped" offers the same formula of teen t&a, but it's gotten stale over the years.

With verbal references to the Scott Baio-starring original, pic covers exactly the same territory. Todd Eric Andrews, a poor man's Kevin Bacon, is the new boy at Emerson High School who joins the Science Club and finds Baio's mysterious elixir, which gives him telekinetic powers.

These are used, naturally to cause girls' garments to raise, drop or split on cue. Other dumb gags proliferate as Andr4ews, plain Jane heroine Kelli Williams and their friends fight with the stuck-up campus bullies led by Reed Rudy.

Overacting in the adult roles are Lyle Alzado as the football coach and Sue Ann Langdon as school principal. Linda Blair and Karen Black camp it up in guest shots as teachers.

Limp effort is quite dated, presenting a condescending, old fogeys' approach to the way young people supposedly talk and behave.

There was nothing so terribly great about the first Zapped movie, certainly nothing that warranted inflicting a sequel on the American movie going public. But who knows what the producers thought in making another film. I can't believe there was a great demand for a sequel.

All the tumult from the Carrie like prom night that ended the first Zapped movie has died down. It's some eight years later and a whole new group of kids is at Emerson High School. A new misfit of a kid in Todd Eric Andrews comes to town.

After that it's the usual angst as the various cliques in the school shun him and he joins the science club where they find in the lab where Scott Baio accidentally discovered that telekinesis formula. It's seems like he hid a stash of it behind the Albert Einstein picture in a hole in the wall. When Todd imbibes, the high school world becomes his.

Of course Todd's got eyes for the head cheerleader Maria McCann even though Kelli Williams of the science club really digs him. Maria's property of Reed Rudy the head jock at the school and he and Todd keep having it out. Of course Reed's overmatched from the gitgo with that telekinesis thing Todd's got going for him.

The climax at the homecoming was really dumb. Rudy frames the science club and gets their space for his exclusive fraternity and then further tries to humiliate them at the homecoming. But putting them in charge of the food? Dumb, Dumberer, Dumbest, that's just begging for payback. What a MAROON.

It's funny like the first Zapped in a juvenile sort of way and its for them I'd recommend it.

The only reason I watched _Zapped Again_ was because I had again watched the original _Zapped!_ after 19 years (see my review for _Zapped!_). From some of the reviews in video books and on the IMDb, I was prepared for an unmitigated disaster. Surprisingly, I found myself reasonably entertained for an hour and a half.

First of all, I should say that _Zapped Again_ isn't a great movie. Its origins and status as a low budget, direct-to-video movie clearly show. The plot is very superficial, the constant double entendres (especially the "wiener" jokes) get a little annoying, and the stand-up-for-your-friends-and-don't-go-with-the-popular-crowd moral that pops up in every teen film has been conveyed much more effectively. Even the special effects are worse than the original _Zapped!_, which actually came out seven years earlier.

But in spite of all of this, I didn't think this was half bad, probably because I went in with lowered expectations. One reason was because the movie doesn't rely on strong profanity, sex scenes, or gross-out scenes to entertain its target audience, the way so many other teen movies do. In fact, this is basically a PG-rated movie with some nude scenes incongruously thrown in--just like the original _Zapped!_. I'm no prude, and I have to agree with the reviewer who said that the movie is "gosh darn wholesome," but not all movies--or even all teen movies--require racy elements. Maybe this IS too much like _Saved by the Bell_, but it does have PG-rated material (and those nude scenes, the only reason why this is rated R).

I should devote a separate paragraph to Kelli Williams, who plays the hero's love interest (by the way, her mother, Shannon Wilcox, plays the hero's mom in the opening scenes). I had never heard of her before watching _Zapped Again_ (I never watch TV, so I hadn't even seen her on _The Practice_), but let me tell you, she helps this movie immeasurably. You see, her character is supposed to be a science nerd, just like Felice Schachter in the original _Zapped_, but Kelli lights up the movie every time she appears onscreen. Not only is she the perfect "sweet nice girl" (I always had a weakness for those characters), but she plays this part without overacting or resorting to caricature; she gets it just right. Although roles like this are never meant to win Oscars, Kelli takes this little part in a direct-to-video flick and actually does something with it. Although I'm sure she'd like to forget all about _Zapped Again_, the movie is much better for her presence. I'm not surprised that she went on to her present success on _The Practice_.

The acting is actually better than in _Zapped!_, which is one main reason why I liked _Zapped Again_ better. However, I thought that the types that

some of the characters were supposed to represent were inconsistent with those characters' portrayal and actions. Kevin (played by Todd Eric Andrews) acts just too "cool" to be an outcast nerd; I can't see why he would have any social problems. As for Kelli Williams as Lucy, I just couldn't accept her as a nerd girl (although I certainly don't object to her presence here). Not only does she look too good for the part, but her attempts at nerdy intellectualism fall flat, and the two scenes where she inexplicably wears glasses (and just as inexplicably takes them off) look like weak attempts by the filmmakers to establish her character. They should have just had her play a straightforward "nice girl" (which she does admirably). Linda Blair doesn't cut it as "the hottest teacher in the school": not only does she not look "sexy" enough, but her character is also just too nice.

Still, I thought that _Zapped Again_ was a half-decent movie, especially because the acting was better than _Zapped!_ (maybe because 1989 was a more exciting year than 1982, and had that hip attitude?). Hey, it kept me entertained, and sometimes I like to take a break from the Criterion Collection and watch something that does nothing more than entertain you.

If you demand that all teen movies and sex comedies have refugees from WB Network shows, big budgets, and great soundtracks (always a big selling point with teen films), then you'll hate _Zapped Again_ (which, by the way, is more a remake of _Zapped!_ than a sequel). But as long as you lower your expectations, and as long as you don't expect a late 80s teen classic like _Heathers_ or _Say Anything_, you might get a little something out of this.