La fête à tout prix

This vacant, plotless and thoroughly unfunny comedy has a better cast than it deserves: all the girls are credible (the boys less so), and Dedee Pfeiffer (Michelle's sister) is a genuine revelation in her few quiet moments. But then there are all those surfing scenes....(*1/2)

This film stars Susanna Hoffs (of Bangles fame) and focuses mainly on her desire to have a great romance(well in actuality, it's more her desire to get laid).

This also gives us a glimpse into the lives of a group of college kids leading up to their graduation. Of course they get involved in the usual predicted teenage crisis, the importance of which seems greatly magnified to those involved. Sometimes the dialog proves hilariously awful in this silly mess of a film. Pam Grier, who is much too talented to be appearing in this forgettable teenage comedy romp, makes a short appearance as a lady officer. For a real Beach party film, one must look instead to the 1950s and the 1960s. Watch Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello instead.

80's higher education ennui... Like a strange cross between "Reality Bites" and "Adventures in Babysitting" (yet nowhere near as good as either).

Aside from Susanna Hoffs in her underwear, Pam Grier's late single scene cameo is pretty much the only entertaining or amusing thing about it... Otherwise, it's thoroughly mediocre!

I've always enjoyed the Bangles and Susanna Hoffs, and I purchased the DVD not expecting much more than a light, fun 80s throwback to the Bikini Beach movies. That pretty much is The Allnighter in a nutshell, but there's nothing wrong with that. The plot centers on three college roommates (Susanna Hoffs, DeDee Pfeiffer and Joan Cusack) having one last fling before college graduation. Susanna is absolutely gorgeous as Molly, the Pacifica College valedictorian who is still searching for that one earth-shattering romance, and although there's not much to the story, there are some wonderful moments (including the jail scene, featuring what must be the filthiest toilet ever to appear in a major motion picture), and I loved Pam Grier's cameo as Sgt. McLeish. An interesting aspect of this movie is how it went back and forth from film to "camcorder" at least 10 years before Blair Witch came out (and 5 years before MTV hit us with "The Real World"). Speaking of which, how about that primitive, bulky Olympus "camcorder" that Joan Cusack lugged around throughout the movie? Remember when those were "state-of-the-art"? Or how about the huge, clunky answering machine in the girls' beach house? Totally 80s, no doubt about it. If you're expecting Oscar-caliber entertainment here, skip this. However if all you're looking for is a fun movie to watch on a rainy day, check your high expectations at the door and enjoy!

The Allnighter is mostly a vehicle for Bangle Susanna Hoffs and she does a good job with it. Hoffs in fact saves this movie, as you get the feeling if she wasn't in it the movie would be pretty hopeless and completely forgotten by now.

Somewhat derivative of many mid-to-late 1980s teen and college comedies, the plot really isn't much new, though it is fun to see the 80s fashion and hear music from that era again. Despite the weak plot, it will remind you of a time before you had to go out into the "real" world, and you can recall many of the desires and hopes put forth.

Hoffs rarely talks about this film in interviews, and critics have not been very kind to it over the years. While not up to the level of films of the same era made by people like John Hughes, The Allnighter is worth a look once, more if you like and/or remember the Bangles.