Satisfaction

Most of it was filmed in Isle of Palms, S.C. I should know, not only was I there, but I was in the movie......

Not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. The storyline is a shocker and the acting is, at times, quite bad. However, seeing Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson in early roles before they were big stars makes it worthwhile. The one redeeming feature about this mess is the dog! He is so cute! But Justine Bateman is just awful, can't sing, can't act and can't talk properly. It's no wonder her big stardom has been confined to Family Ties.

Justine Bateman was probably the primary pull, or point of interest for me - from 'Family Ties'. I saw this movie when I was younger (high school perhaps). I even made several attempts to locate/purchase the soundtrack. To this day, I still sing their version of 'Iko Iko'. I had no clue who Julia Roberts was at this time - but her character did stick with me. This movie is fun to go back and watch now, with all of its cast who have gone on to further their careers.

Satisfaction is a movie about five teenagers who have a band called Mystery.Justine Bateman plays the leading singer of the band called Jennie Lee.Justine is best known as Mallory from Family Ties.Satisfaction from 1988 doesn't make any movie history, it's just an enjoyable movie.And there's a great opportunity to see what Liam Neeson did before Schindler's List and what Julia Roberts did before Pretty Woman.

The rock-loving teens in this movie don't seem to know anything about making music. We get no information about their musical backgrounds, and their idea of jamming is to feign a version of "Iko Iko" while driving in their stolen van (I say 'feign' because the sound of their unison vocals is distinctly studio-enhanced). There's one guy in the otherwise all-girl band, and they make him sleep behind a sheet--out of modesty?--and yet the girls themselves are sexually active and think nothing of having sex in that van until the damn thing just about topples over. The movie wants to have it both ways: be a modern look at streetwise teens and yet also be an old-fashioned musical. Justine Bateman works hard in the leading role, but she seems to suffocate under the plastic handling; newcomer Julia Roberts shows off a nice sense of sarcastic humor, but the movie is an underachiever, with oldies-rock tunes given '80s makeovers that wouldn't pass muster on Star Search. ** from ****