March 24, 1989
Fries Entertainment
Comedy
VHS
C+
While there are things to like about this movie-- Betty Thomas's performance as the villainess, the redheaded-in-this Shelley Long's wardrobe, and the Beach Boys song "Make It Big," which plays over the opening and closing credits-- I must admit I find it a bit toothless and forgettable. One big flaw is that while Long's character and the pack of not-Girl-Scouts are likable enough, I didn't find myself at all drawn in by their problems, because everything is so cliched and formulaic. (Even Long's character's estrangement from Craig T. Nelson is blah.) Mary Gross is the most conflicted character, as a nice person caught up Thomas's schemes, but her problem is also easily resolved. The other major flaw is that there are a whole bunch of cameos and it's on a sub-Scooby-Doo level, e.g. "Look, it's Pia Zadora," and then she's given little to do, unlike in Hairspray. (The one exception is Ted McGinley, who boasts-- boasts!-- about being Ace the photographer on The Love Boat, as if he knows that someday they'll name a "Jump the Shark" webpage after him.)
The script was written by two female Saturday Night Live writers from the first half of the '80s, so it's not unreasonable to expect a sharper satire. Even the jokes about the Marcos-like dictator couple are pretty bland. Not only Clueless, but this movie's peer Earth Girls Are Easy would more intelligently and more amusingly mock the Southern Californian lifestyle.
Mary Gregory, who plays the judge, was Dr. Melik in Sleeper. Willie Garson, who plays Bruce, would be Phil's Assistant Kenny in Groundhog Day. Betty Thomas and Shelley Long must've gotten along a lot better than their characters did, since Thomas would direct Long in the first big-screen Brady Bunch movie.
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| The battle for Mary Gross's soul begins! |
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