Rock Hotel Majestic

This movie is very similar to the 1980 film Xanadu. A lot of IMDB users may not like that film either, but at least Xanadu had the beautiful Olivia Newton-John and a great soundtrack. This film has about 10 minutes of the cute Marisa Tomei and 1 decent soundtrack song (Say the Word by Arcadia). I wanted this movie to end so badly, yet it was like watching a car accident. I just couldn`t turn away because it was so bad!! This movie is no `Xanadu`.

...in September 1986 when I was 13 and caught it on opening weekend - the only weekend it appeared at a theater - because it sucked so bad no one saw it besides me and some others that barely helped it crack that weekend's top 10 grossing film. Just glancing at this IMDb page reminded me that it remains one of the WORST movies I've ever seen. Don't torture friends or family with this stinker unless you don't want to associate with them anymore. Where do I start? The trailer with the exploding toilet received heavy exposure on MTV, where I suppose the Weinstein brothers got a favor thrown their way for advertising this bomb of bombs, or the horrible acting and non-existent script. If you're looking for good 1980s flicks marketed towards younger moviegoers, anything is better than this with the exception of "St. Elmo's Fire". Find "Fast Times At Ridgemont High," "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Say Anything," "Heathers" or "The River's Edge" - just don't go near "Playing For Keeps."

When I first looked at the LaserDisc jacket, I thought this movie was going to be a bomb, but was instead pleasantly surprised. Better than below average 80's Teen Adventures (like Kevin Bacon's often cheezy Quicksilver '86), this fun movie included a very young Marisa Tomei and super cute Mary B. Ward. Worth a watch.

OK folks, if you LOVE 80's cheese, then this is the movie for you. I love this movie primarily because my dad played Cromwell(the villain)in it, but beyond that, I just really enjoyed the silliness of it all and the fact that the film transports me to a different time in my life. I was 14 years old when the movie was released, so I was really into all of that early MTV cheesiness. The soundtrack was great and was truly one of the best things about the film (other than Dad, of course), but there were also scenes in the film that were very clever and funny. I think that the direction could have been a lot better (sorry Miramax), as the young actors had the tendency to "chew the scenery" at times and needed their overacting to be reigned in a bit. Harold Gould's performance was flawless, however. He's a true professional. It's very hard to make sense out of a silly script, but he managed to develop a wonderful character. The bottom line is that the film is just good fun. Forget about the improbable plot, the bad acting, and the terrible direction and just let the movie transport you to a different time in your life. I've seen it hundreds of times over the years with friends who have wanted to see some films my dad has done. Before I let anyone watch it, I always give the disclaimer that it is a super-cheesy 80's film and believe it or not, my dad is a Shakesperean-trained actor (he played Horatio in Richard Burton's Hamlet, among other roles), but everyone always ends up loving the movie because it's truly a piece of 80's nostalgia. My dad will be the fist person to tell you that it's a horrible movie, so he always chuckles when someone tells him how much they loved it. In my opinion, if you want to relive 1986, then this movie is a must-see. :)

I loved PLAYING FOR KEEPS when it was released in '86; I went to see it three times, and bought the soundtrack at least twice on cassette (I kept wearing it out). What can I say? I was 12. It was, at the very least, my introduction to Pete Townshend and, eventually, The Who. Last year I found the CD for a dollar in a cutout bin, and I'm shamelessly wallowing in it right now. (I'm in full-tilt cheesy '80s soundtrack mode - I've already run through BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, and I've got HIDING OUT ready to go.)

Speaking of $1 finds, I recently came across a beat-up VHS tape of PLAYING FOR KEEPS, and since a DVD release seems unlikely ever to happen, is there any other way to revisit something I enjoyed in seventh grade?

After watching the tape, I wondered how I could have found such an inane, simpleminded movie so appealing. The best part is right at the top - the opening credits, with Townshend's spirited "Life to Life" starting things off. Or, at least the beginning was joyful in another time; the credits are interspersed with images of New York City, including a tinted, fractured photo-negative of the World Trade Center. The movie now, at least to me, starts off on a melancholy note, but the montage is fairly brief, and unrelated to the main story.

Most of the movie is set in some generic, podunk New England burg, where it's Conservative Establishment vs. Idealistic Youth as our heroes plan to change a dilapidated hotel into a rock and roll manor (the reason that a large hotel was first built in such a remote location with no visible amenities in its vicinity is never given). Thinking this premise is somehow simultaneously predictable, stock, unlikely and implausible is letting the screenwriters off easy. I guess it goes without saying that this hotel turns out to be supremely gaudy and not the least bit cool; the production reeks of early MTV - it's replete with garish neon, acid wash denim, musical montages, and "Thriller"-era choreography, including break dancing.

The credits are really the only part of PLAYING FOR KEEPS that doesn't make me gag now. The movie itself is unrelentingly shoddy and drowning in clichés, occasionally surfacing for inept acting and astonishingly lamebrained dialogue. (And the obligatory invocation of the movie's title couldn't have possibly been delivered with more agonizing ham-handedness.) No wonder that the cast, with one notable exception, continues to toil in obscurity.

That exception is, of course, Marisa Tomei. PLAYING FOR KEEPS will be invaluable for the future Friar's Club Roast in her honor. I doubt even her biggest fans are aware of this movie, for which she must be grateful. PLAYING FOR KEEPS also the answer to a fine trivia question; how many people would know that this is the only directorial effort by Bob Weinstein? Miramax should package the DVD with director's commentary. I'd love to hear what co-writers & directors Bob and Harvey Weinstein have to say about this skeleton, and surely most of the cast could take some time off from their oh-so-busy schedules to record a separate cast track.

Now that I've come clean about PLAYING FOR KEEPS, I should go ahead and disown other cinematic indiscretions from my youth. I better start rumaging through the bargain bins for used VHS tapes of RAD and MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY to expunge any lingering fondness for those equally banal movies.