The ButterCream Gang

Don't get me wrong - I believe in morals, but this movie gives them a bad name. A good moral is no excuse to make a bad movie. Someone made this film to teach kids the value of good deeds and unconditional friendship, but it's so badly put together that nobody's going to associate that message with anything good. What really did it for me was the idea that a good small-town kid (who looks plenty old enough to be somewhat set in his values) could go off to the city and almost immediately come back with a new fashion statement, a bad attitude, and a very unconvincing stereotypical urban bad boy accent. Sheesh, at least avoid insulting our intelligence by allowing several years for this transformation.

It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but it was always one of my favorites. It was primarily filmed in Draper City, Utah, which is where I spent a lot of my childhood days playing. I used to go out in the same fields, parks, and streets as the movie portrayed. I even went down to the tree house that is shown in the movie. If you've seen this movie, you are probably familiar with Draper City, since Utah is where this film was primarily marketed, as one of the feature family films treasures. If you liked this one, another one I would recommend would be `On Our Own', released in 1988. This was also distributed by F.F.F., and is a pretty good movie too.

I believe this film was the best I have ever seen. I believe it a biblical lesson about loving others. One thing this film teaches that God wants us to do is to love our enemies. When one of the members of the buttercream gang, Pete, went to Chicago and joined a real gang that does nothing but commit evil, Pete really changes from a very good person who helps to a very mean person who harms. When Pete went back to chicago, he was mean until Scott made a difference in his life and changed him back to the good person that he was because he loved Pete even though Pete has hurt him. I believe the biblical lesson that this movie teaches us is to love your neighbor as you love yourself and that also means loving our enemies. I would recommend this movie to everyone.

One of the great masterpieces of our time, the buttercream gang takes a subtle approach to such important issues as the aryan nation, homo eroticism between childhood friends, and cheese. Younger viewers may not pick up on these themes and appreciate the movie as its makers intended- a commentary on how ideal our world would be if we all were fundamentalist conservative christians. Some concerned parents will object to the risqué dancing scene, and secular music, but this is where the film finds its "edge." The riveting story of pete, scott, lenny and eldon will have every viewer at the edge of their seat. Will the widow jenkins fall down again? will another flower bed fall victim to the harrowing actions of pete and his gang of troublemaker?? smiley face graffiti and broken bottles?? (you may want to cover the young ones eyes, these parts get pretty intense.) The climax of pete beating the p*ss out of canned goods is a moment in film history. So, strap on to this emotional roller-coaster if you dare, its worth the ride!

Ok, there was enough sap in this film to gum up every VCR & CD unit in the world...but, I still liked it. I also liked the sequel which contained quantities of corn sufficient for the feeding of all the hungry in China AND India. This movie had a good message which, although presented a tad simplistically [ok, big time simplistic], was still a good one even though I can't see most folks living by it. Call me a pessimist, but in the real world I see guys like Pete going to the pen for life or being blown away in the course of a drug deal gone sour. Old people, or lamed out losers like myself, would probably really go for this picture.