Joy of Sex

Pretty tame and in spite of the random humour of site gags, a few wacky characterisations and the very occasional one-liner, it's also mostly bereft of comedy. What's left is a coming-of-age story concerning high school senior (Meyrink), who mistakenly believing she only has weeks to live, tries to "seal the deal" and lose her virginity. Lisa Langlois plays her bestie, as the two manufacture a series of oddball situations in which the deed can be done.

There's a couple of funny moments (e.g. Paul Tully's self-absorbed anchorman trying to cajole Meyrink into a sleazy motel shag), but mostly the capable cast is just wasted in embarrassing, undignified characterisations. An exception to this is Joanne Baron's bookish school mistress characterisation, humiliated by her adolescent tormentors at every opportunity; sexualised pranks are the order of the day for the ill-disciplined students of this particular school establishment, much to the frustration of hard-line principal Ernie Hudson.

Interesting to see Hudson and Lloyd just ahead of their career-defining moments in "Ghostbusters" and "Back to the Future" respectively, while I could have sworn it was Jeff Daniels playing the sleaze-bag reporter, alas, it was Paul Tully (no disrespect intended). Hastily concluded the plot holes have been papered over and the film leaves you to presume more than it resolves. It's quirky but ultimately not among the best of its eighties' breed.

This film's low rating is not surprising, exactly, but it deserves better. Granted, it has suffered on several levels, from being tied to a title of a book that it had nothing to do with, to John Belushi's death prior to filming. All of this is unfortunate, as a lot of people go into this film expecting something that it was never meant to be. Plus, as someone noted, the poor editing certainly doesn't help.

All that aside, what we're left with is a pretty decent 80's teen comedy along the lines of Better Off Dead, Weird Science and The Last American Virgin. Though not as classic as the above titles, it shares a lot of the same elements, and has plenty to offer to fans of the genre: some great lines, some genuinely funny scenes, a flashback to that 80's American high school experience that's embarrassingly perceptive enough to still ring true, and the great underrated Michelle Meyrink.

It is seriously overdue for DVD release.

Most people would probably say that the "National Lampoon" franchise jumped the shark in later years, but it was bad as early as this time. They just happened to be making better movies featuring the Griswold family. This isn't quite one of the worst comedies I've ever seen. That's probably only because modern bad comedies are worse and constantly use fart and poop jokes. Much of the humor in this film comes from making jokes about animal genitalia. The funniest bit is when the teacher says she wishes she could teach in kindergarten where sex was a word no one understood.

The basic plot is that a girl thinks she's going to die soon and tries to lose her virginity. They use the old out of context eavesdropping trope. The fact that there's a bunch of misbehaving young adults makes it seem like they were trying to cash in on the success of "Animal House". Then again, this was based on a book...loosely apparently. It's weird how this could even be considered a National Lampoon movie if it was based on something else. The story is mostly pointless and the characters are bland. *1/2

This movie has several scenes that are very funny to watch interspersed with a lot of chaff. The director attempted to juggle far too many subplots, many of which are given short shrift in the mixed-up editing. In the end, it looks like one person directed about two films' worth of footage which was then thrown in a blender by another person to create the finished work. Names change from one scene to another, subplots are forgotten, characters are introduced only to be left by the wayside. All that aside, however, there are a few very funny scenes; the two main characters, both of whom spend the entire film trying to get laid (you'll never guess what happens at the end) are appealing.

This movie pulled out none of the stops. 80s High School movies aren't usually this painful to watch. The story had potential to be a fun High School movie, but fell far short of the mark. If it weren't for the fact that I couldn't sleep and it's the only thing on TV, I wouldn't have seen it -- and right now I wish I could have gone with my first impulse and given those sleeping pills a shot.