Un ragazzo come gli altri

This is a charming little movie that never fails to make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've seen it. Terrific acting by the entire cast. Why none of them became big stars is a mystery to me. The fashions, hairstyles and language are a 1985 time capsule.

I suggest you see it for yourself, but not on commercial television, because they edit out all the good jokes!

Just One of the Guys is classic 80s b-teen comedy. Even though it is utterly dated, it is still a great comedy with a good story, good performances, and a good soundtrack.

Joyce Hyser is Terry, an aspiring journalist who wants very desperately to get a summer internship at the local newspaper office. Except, her article on the school cafateria's food selection, wasn't selected for submission. Even though her teacher tries to explain that her writing skills are good, it was just boring content, she is convinced her article being refused has something to do with her gender. She embarks on a misguided attempt to engage in a battle of the sexes in that "anything you can do, I can do better" kind of way.

So, with her parents out of town and a neighboring high school not seeming to require any registration information (or her present high school asking any information regarding her two week absent during her experiment), she easily poses as Terrence, a guy who will write an article and submit it and prove that there is preferential treatment being practiced in the contest.

But, as Terrence, her experiences in the experiment soon become the subject of her article.

First, are the obviously difficulties of a girl posing as a guy at a high school, and the most obvious examples come from the scenes of Terry in gym class. She has to figure out how to change in the lockeroom without other guys finding out. She has to find ways of getting out of gym class and the possibility of playing "shirts" vs "skins" games. And so forth.

Second, she starts falling in love with Rick (Clayton Rohner), a cute quiet guy who she tries to help get a date and fix up his appearance and personality. This leads to problems when girls, convinced that Terry is really a guy, start falling for her. Particularly, the nymphomaniac, Sandy, played by Sherylin Fenn. It also leads to some moments where Terry risks exposing her identity in the few times she wants to lean over and kiss him.

Third, Terry starts to have problems with her jerky boyfriend who just wants to fool around everytime he comes over and only feigning interest in Terry's current social and academic problems.

And fourth, both Terry and Rick face their share of confrontations with a food-tossing bully named Greg (Billy Zabka).

80s teen movie fans are sure to enjoy this movie. Unfortunately, it is not one that seems to have gotten enough recognition this days, at least when compared to movies like Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, the John Hughes movies, and others which have been revived recently. Despite a few shortfalls (Joyce Hyser's whining in the beginning), this movie is just as entertaining as those. Plus, that gorgeous Bobby Jacoby as Terry's oversexed younger brother, Buddy; 80s teen favorite Billy Zabka as Greg; and soft-spoken Clayton Rhoner as Rick, all give great performances. I highly recommend it for teenagers and fans of the 80s teen genre.

Rating: ** 1/2 out of ****

I happened to come across Just one of the Guys on TV the other day, and with absolutely nothing else to do that day, I decided, what the heck, why not just give this 80's teen sex farce a shot. At any rate, it was bound to be better than Porky's and I might even get a few cheap laughs in the process. To my surprise, Just One of the Guys turned out to be one of the better teen comedies I've seen in a while, thanks in no small part to Joyce Hyser.

The premise is gimmicky. Basically, hottie teen Terry (Joyce Hyser) decides to dress up like a guy in order to prove she could get her previously rejected article published if she were a man. Well, she ends up befriending a loner named Rick (the underrated Clayton Rohner, who was so funny in April Fool's Day), but does so while in drag. She thinks it's up to her to help him out by getting him a date for the prom, but whatta you know, she starts to fall for him and the rest can't be hard to guess from there.

Okay, I realize I just made this movie sound pretty bad, but if you actually give it a shot, you might find it rather enjoyable. Surprisingly enough, there's not that much nudity to speak of (mostly male, though, thankfully, Hyser does give us a quick shot of her breasts) and the humor isn't half as smutty as I'd expected. Rather, the humor we're given is Terry's balancing act between her "old" self and this new identity she's created. Not all of the jokes work, but there are plenty of inspired moments that keep the momentum going. Take, for instance, the girl (Sherilyn Fenn) who has a crush on Terry; what could have been a set-up for a cruel and tasteless gross-out is given a little weight, and the way this subplot is resolved is satisfying and actually even a little sweet.

The film prefers to use its premise not for gross-out gags, but to build a cute love story, and yeah, it does a pretty good job at that. Hyser and Rohner have appealing chemistry, though it's Hyser who gets the lion's share of the work. Having to balance between playing a very pretty girl and a convincing male teen isn't easy, but she pulls it off with flying colors.

Obviously, the film is going to end with Rick discovering Terry's real identity. That scene is handled rather well, but I found the epilogue a little too abrupt to be entirely satisfying. I found myself caring a lot about these characters; would have been nice to know where they ended up from there.

But enough with the quibbles. Sure, Just One of the Guys isn't a great movie, not by a long shot, but it takes the time to make us care about the characters and their dilemmas, and while the lack of potty humor might not make it as gut-bustingly hilarious (if potty humor is your preference, that is) as some of today's offerings, the fact that the movie touched me made it superior to just about any other teen comedy I've seen in a long time.

I really enjoyed this when I saw it and would highly recomend. Very good,sweet welldone comedy that could have been cheezy but isn't. It's not heavy at all, just a sweet teen comedy that's better then alot of them because it's actually funny and very sweet at the same time. Most of the reviews here seem to be positive as well.

I got this movie at a rental store in 1985. It had already been out and I guess didn't do well so it went straight to video. We asked the guy at the counter what was a good movie to see. He recommended this one. Good choice. I must have seen it about 25 times now.

It's a cute movie about a girl who thinks she's a hot shot school reporter but she gets shot down during a school contest. Winner of the contest gets to work at a real paper during the summer. So she gets in drag(?) as a boy and goes to another school to resubmit it there. Still doesn't get accepted. So the teacher tells her to think of another story with an interesting angle. This is how she turns her future experences as a boy at that new school into "I was a teenage boy for eight weeks"!

This has old stars and new ones in it. Old being Leigh McCloskey from "Dallas" (as the boyfriend) and Toni Hudson of "Cross Creek" and "Places In the Heart" (as the girlfriend). The new stars are Arye Gross from TV's "Ellen" (as one of the geeks), William Zabka of the "Karate Kid" (as the bully), and Sherilyn Fenn of Twin Peaks (as girl who wants the new kid).

Clayton Ruhner is very good in his second ever role. Joyce Hyser is cute and funny as the girl/boy. Though her character is a bit stuckup, she changes her view in at the end. After all, beauty has fallen for the beast, er.. I mean geek. The rest of the cast is good and together makes this movie fun to watch.

Special mention to Billy Jayne as the horny brother who is so desperate to have sex he will try anything to get it. If you get a chance to see it unedited, do it and I know that you will enjoy this cute look at '80s teenage life. Though I don't remember school being like this.