Levada da Breca

Shamelessly riffing most of its narrative beats from Flashdance, but instead of Kevin Bacon dancing, it's the world's slowest stock car race, Tomboy is a real slice of endearing and exploitative 80s B-movie nonsense, a typically silly romantic sex comedy, filled with poor acting, bizarre direction and weirdly high-energy bangers on its soundtrack. Director Herb Freed offers oodles of cheap titillation which often left me equal parts wincing as it did laughing at how inept someone can be when it comes to directing this sort of thing, an exceptionally sweet Betsy Russell acting circles around the rest of the cast even when her character is one-note and completely irrational, a naff 'battle of the sexes' storyline that hilariously mishandles its core message and one of the worst car races in movie history which help to elevate the film from utter drivel to entertainingly hilarious cheese. Rather than providing a full service and mot, Tomboy instead offers an interim at a fraction of the cost, an uproarious delight of a bygone era, one that aims higher than the B-grade schlock it was always meant to be.

Betsy Russell, the 80's B-film queen who provided two of the only three reasons that Private School is worth seeing (Michael Zorek is the other) is miscast as Tomasina "Tommy" Boyd, a young woman who works as a mechanic and dreams of being a stock car driver and meeting her idol Randy Starr. She is also the tomboy of the film, who acts like a jock with her love of athletics than the usual girl things, unlike her friends.

Once again, this is an 80's film, so get ready for the requisites of the best decade of the 20th century. You'll see an aerobic style dancing display, shower scenes, a party, feathered hair, horrible fashions, music in the background almost half the time, etc. At least it's easier to take than the cheeziness you'll see in teen-pop videos, but it's cheddar all the way.

Betsy Russell, even with the Joel Polnochek hairstyle, just can't play a realistic tomboy. She's a gorgeous looking woman. Granted, I may be stereotyping here, but she's not the type who conveys it properly. I'd say that Drew, Lucy, and Cameron of "Charlie's Angels" fame are more "tomboyish".

While nothing more than poor, there are a few good scenes, such as the silly donut commercial that Tommy's friend Seville does, a scene where Tommy eyes her Randy Starr poster and the camera pans it down to a certain area. Also, if the makers of Gran Turismo are reading this, please put the cars featured in this movie in your next game, they rock. I'd love to drive one of those instead of a $2,000,000 F1. Otherwise, pass!

Please. don't you just get sick of all those films that are just made as an excuse to put as much female flesh on display as possible? This one is probably worst than most though: not only do you have to put up with the usual bimbos and hunks with perfect teeth but no visible trace of any acting ability, you also have to endure some painfully cliched love scenes (complete with drippy mid 80's soundtrack of course) and an end race between the female lead character and her professional race-driver boyfriend that could have been lifted straight out of Grease (I won't bother telling you the outcome, if you hadn't guessed by now you've obviously never seen one of these underdog movies before, and good luck to you). Still we do learn a couple of interesting things from this film, one is that if you're a man (or a woman) who wants to get into the opposite sexes changing rooms, all you have to do is walk round the wall of your own changing rooms and you'll find it! Oh yeah, and all you need to turn a old rustbucket of a car into a gleaming new 150mph dream machine is 500 dollars and half a dozen spare parts from your local trashheap! So enjoy this flick, but most of all be prepared to have a blooming good laugh...

Despite her masculine sounding name and a love of traditionally male pursuits (fixing cars, basketball, baseball, driving like a maniac), there's nothing remotely butch about Tommy Boyd (Betsy Russell) when it comes to her physique: under the baseball cap and greasy overalls, there is an absolute babe waiting to get out, as stock car driver Randy Starr (Gerard Christopher) discovers when he invites Tommy (short for Tomasina) to pay him a visit at the mansion of his millionaire sponsor Ernie Leeds Jr (Eric Douglas).

A typically silly 80s romantic sex comedy, Tomboy is predictable, poorly acted and badly directed nonsense, but the oodles of cheap titillation courtesy of the awesomely sexy Russell (and Kristi Somers as her equally hot best friend, dancer Seville Ritz), a naff 'battle of the sexes' story-line, and one of the worst car races in movie history (Tommy's vehicle being equipped with a daft onboard computer and rocket propulsion) help to elevate the film from utter drivel to entertaining cheeze, making it more fun than it really has any right to be.

Not a flashback for anytime of my young boy to teenager 1970's, or my young adult to college BA and Master degree then first professional job in 1989, nor does it represent the hundreds of people I knew and worked or studied with during this time. However, it simply is a mindless ride into what might of been if all the stars were aligned and an actual UFO had landed inside your favorite college or NFL stadium and world peace had spontaneously broken out. Grab some popcorn, your favorite drink, put the top down on your convertible, and shot for the stars. A Crown International Picture, and thank God, not a Cannon production. I bought a used 12 pack of Too Cool for School as wanted to see The Van, and I will say that you get a full 1920 Kps with 12 chapter index, while a Cannon 4 pack had no chapter indexes and usually 75 minute run time, while AIP run a full 90 minutes. I also own AIP 200 movie pack of drive in both horror and sci fi and most US movies are filmed with professional care, unlike Canon and many International producers.