Pervert!

This film completely surprised me. I rented it thinking it would probably be fairly bad, but be entertaining because of it. I quickly realized that this is actually a very funny and well done flick. The cheese is intentional, the breasts are wonderful, the script is actually quite clever, and the cinematography is impressive. Even my girlfriend enjoyed watching it, and laughed through the whole thing. That is saying a lot, since she has an aversion to anything not released by a major studio.

The only reason I didn't score this film higher is I feel it lost momentum towards the end due to a stop motion animation gag that I think went on a little to long. All and all though, a great movie, especially for such a low budget ($50,000 is the figure given on the making-of documentary on the DVD)

I wasn't expecting too much from this, although there are some extravagant claims by some, but at only 80 minutes reckoned I couldn't go too wrong. The jokey start gave me slight cause for concern but then we were off and by the end of the marvellous corn on the cob licking scene, I was all set for some silly sexy fun. The scene at the garage comes as a surprise and with the director himself playing the mechanic things get a bit harder edged. Fine. But all the time there are these little diversionary bits and bobs and I wonder if I'm the only one not finding everything as hilariously funny as the film makers clearly do. The lurch into slasher/horror territory is not unwelcome but the 'humour' increasingly comes across as silliness and prevents the nastiness from developing. About halfway through and I'd had it and although resigned to watch it through felt it was becoming more and more childish. Always good to look at and very competently made, the material just wasn't worth all the effort. My critical stance has become slightly measured after listening to the director/writer commentary and whilst it's hardly fair to rate a movie on the strength of its commentary, it did make me feel more inclined to give the benefit of doubt. It is by no means a perfect film or even a decent exploitation movie but it is well directed and edited and approached the right way many could get a smile or two and an eyeful over a beer or three.

Tonight I saw a film directed by the heir apparent to Russ Meyer.

Tonight I saw PERVERT!.

While Russ Meyer may have passed on to the great beyond a little over a year ago his spirit certainly lives on in filmmaker Jonathan Yudis and his movie PERVERT!. With PERVERT! Yudis has made a film that Meyer would be proud of. Yudis has done what so many other filmmakers have failed to do in the past: he's captured the crazy spirit that filled many of Meyer's movies without losing any of their bite. Yudis has made what is as close as you can get to a Russ Meyer movie made for the 21st century and in today's politically correct climate I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to do.

In PERVERT! Yudis has created a style of film that, in most cases, has been dead for a long time. It's film that decides to go all the way and not hold anything back. It's a movie that's equal parts comedy, part horror/gore movie, and part sex film. It's a crazy and unbridled romp through Meyers land and it's made even better by the fact that Yudis has obviously studied the geography as his movie comes across almost as if it were made by the man himself. The music, the editing, the dialog…all of it is there. I've often wondered what Russ Meyer might be able to do with the advent of the digital film-making revolution and Yudis has provided the answer. Meyer'd make something almost exactly like PERVERT!.

And in some ways Yudis has made something better than a Meyer film. The director of this movie avoids a lot of the clunkiness of Meyer's films and the movie breezes along at a quick and humorous pace. The movie's actually funny and the lines and moments that are supposed to make you laugh are actually able to do so. While the dialog is just as guffaw-inducing as old-school Meyer there are actually jokes in this film that work. Not to mention that the delivery by many of the actors goes a long way. Specifically by the lead actor Sean Andrews and the actor who plays his father, Darrell Sandeen. Sandeen has some great lines in the flick which he delivers in a way that'd make Adam West envious. All in all Yudis has made an extremely enjoyable film. Special kudos for to animator Corky Quakenbush (Of Mad TV's Raging Rudolf and Davey and Goliath as Son of Sam fame,) for putting together some really great claymation sequences that occur towards the "ahem" climax of the movie. Yep, you read that last part right…PERVERT! even has claymation! It's claymation that definitely isn't for the kiddies but neither is the rest of the movie.

After all, it is a Russ Meyer style movie and yes, gentlemen, it's not for the sexually conservative among you. The film co-stars Skinemax adult star Marey Carey who's more than willing to display her, um, talents for the screen as are several of the other actresses in the film. There's plenty of skin to go around in this movie but then the movie is called PERVERT! after all. In true Russ Meyer fashion the buxom ladies are plenty in this movie and they're not shy. It's not overly explicit and by no means is it pornographic but for those of you that can't stand the sight of female nudity you might want to stay away from this one. For the rest of us, Yudis delivers the ladies in spades and I'm sure Russ Mayers and Marey Carey fans everywhere will be grateful in spades.

Let's just say that I don't think PERVERT! is going to be playing in the Bible Belt any time soon. Which is too bad for them as they'll be messing out on a great piece of cinematic fun. Yeah, a movie called PERVERT! isn't going to be for everyone but for those of you that it is for (and you know who you are) you should be guaranteed a pretty good time or at the very least some really good laughs.

King Russ Meyer is dead … Long live King Meyer! That must have been one of the mottoes director Jonathan Yudis treasured whilst shooting this indescribably demented but surprisingly successful tribute to rancid 70's exploitation, and more particularly to the fabulous repertoire of the Fellini of the Sex Industry; mister Russ Meyer himself. "Pervert!" has a weak premise, an incoherent screenplay, monotonous & uninspired cinematography and horrid acting performances … but we wouldn't want it any other way! It's a silly, brainless smut-production and it advertises a famous porn star's big breasts on all the posters, that is all you need to know! Twenty-something James drives up to his father's isolated ranch in the desert to help him out with the chores during the summer. Father Hezekiah has clearly found some new hobbies since his wife died, like making females sculptures out of rotting meat and – more importantly – share the bed with the large-breasted Cheryl. James, understandably, wants a piece of her as well, which leads to father/son arguments on the ranch. Shortly after, Cheryl goes missing and Hezekiah new and equally voluptuous girlfriend turns up dead. The plot then takes a couple of grotesquely insane twists and ludicrous turns, and only truly die-hard exploitation fanatics will be able to tolerate them. The first words that can be heard in "Pervert!" are the lyrics of a song that is spot-on and immediately determines the atmosphere of the entire film: "Baby, I'm so sick…I'm so twisted. I'm a pervert, baby!". Hell yeah, everyone's slightly perverted (or at least deranged) in this movie! "Pervert!" is definitely inspired by the best work of Russ Meyer. For example, the compilation of moments when James & Cheryl have sex at various places around the ranch while Hezekiah is sleeping is clearly copied from "Supervixens" and the early scene with the yummy hitch-hiker is also a textbook Russ Meyer utopia. Adult movie star Mary Carey can't act, and she honestly isn't very attractive, but she sure has an impressive pair of blouse bunnies. Jonathan Yudis set aside an interesting role for himself as well, namely the nasty and sexually confused mechanic in town. He also rewarded himself with a totally gratuitous and unexpected kick-a-toddler moment, which was priceless. "Pervert!" is a strange, gory (some nasty butchering, too) and totally moronic no-budget fan-boy flick that proves that grindhouse cinema definitely isn't dead. Warmly recommended to people with a bizarre taste.

Pervert! is a modern-day homage to the films of Sexploitation king Russ Meyer. I went into this not expecting much as I'm really not a big fan of the recent flood of "homage's" and "tribute's" being churned out by directors pathetically trying to cash-in on the current "retro" / "grindhouse" trend. Pervert! however, is a totally different beast.

Old Hezekiah (Darrell Sandeen) resides with his young, busty live-in whore Cheryl (Mary Carey) in Desert Range, an isolated stretch of desert in the south(?) where he indulges in his love for the art of meat sculpting. When his son James (Sean Andrews) comes to stay Cheryl gets a hankerin' for some younger meat and the two of them begin an affair behind the old man's back. Suddenly, Cheryl mysteriously disappears and James thinks his ol' man may be behind it. When Hezekiah comes home the next day with a new whore, James sets out to investigate his pops "studio" where he discovers Cheryl's temporarily re-animated corpse. But all is not as it seems, as later on when ol' pops is chained down, the bodies still keep a droppin'...

Writer/director team Jonathan Yudis and Mike Davis obviously have a Russ Meyer obsession. There are scenes and set-pieces here stolen directly from such Meyer films as Supervixens, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Vixen and a few others but nevertheless Pervert! still manages not to come off as yet another feeble attempt at a cash-in. Like Meyers films, Pervert! is very comic bookish in style with dream bubbles, wacky in-your-face camera angles, cartoon sound effects and loadsa really silly humour. Aside from Darrell Sandeen's fantastic performance as the perverted old holy roller, the acting isn't all that good especially from porn star and one-time Governor of California candidate Mary Carey, although she still fulfils the role of the stereotypical Meyer chick: big, natural tits! (in fact I'm pretty sure there's no silicone in this flick at all).

So, being as this is a tribute to the spirit of Russ Meyer there's obviously a whole lotta gratuitous nudity, but there's also (mainly in the second half) a generous splattering of gore. From arterial blood sprays to ol' Hezekiah tearing his own heart out for one of his meat sculptures, Pervert! can be rather bloody at times. Also, to its credit, Pervert! never reveals its low-budget origins - it has excellent camera-work, razor sharp editing and its cartoonish colours are extra bright and bold.

Overall, for a low-budget modern-day attempt at a Sexploitation flick, Pervert! is pretty decent. Sure, some of the jokes fall flat, the acting ain't too hot, and its all been done better before but if you're lookin' for some mindless nudity and laughs, check it out.