Meatballs Part II

Meatballs Part II
July 27, 1984
TriStar Pictures
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C-

What can I say?  I saw this on an early date with my then-new-boyfriend-and-future-ex-husband.  We were 16 and 17 and we knew the movie was crap, but the alien plotline was sort of funny.  (There's also a Belmont Steaks pun that I got this time.)  This is only vaguely a sequel to the Bill Murray movie of five years earlier, although it is about two rival camps and their leaders: Richard Mulligan as Coach Giddy of Camp Sasquatch, and the aptly named Hamilton Camp, who has probably his biggest role in my movies, as Col. Bat Jack Hershey of Camp Patton.  The movie is only very marginally recommended if a) you want a better sense of what Wet Hot American Summer (2001) would go on to parody (the song played over both opening and closing credits manages to cram in every "summer" cliche it can), and/or b) you want to see the random cast.

Nine years and a Hello, Larry after Escape to Witch Mountain, 19-year-old Kim Richards does what she can with the role of virginal Cheryl, who has a Little Darlings lite plot of having to see a "pinky" by the end of the summer.  Rising slightly above the material are 36-year-old John Larroquette, right before he became a star on Night Court, and 31-year-old Paul Reubens, a year before Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (which I've seen but don't own), playing respectively a very stereotypical homosexual and a geek like you've never quite seen before.

This movie is sort of a reunion for Scavenger Hunters Mulligan and David Hollander, who was 14 at this point but lumped in with 12-year-old Jason Hervey and 10-year-old Scott Nemes, later of The Wonder Years and It's Garry Shandling's Show respectively.

Archie Hahn plays both horny counselor Jamie and the voice of Meathead the Alien.  Felix Silla (best known as Cousin Itt, but also appearing in Pufnstuf among other things) is the one in the alien costume.  Vic Dunlop tries to convince us he's a French chef; he was Ralph in Lunch Wagon.  Donald Gibb, who plays Mad Dog, would be Wolfman in Transylvania 6-5000.  Thirty-one-year-old Elayne Boosler, who's thanked in the credits, definitely does not look old enough to be playing the mother of a teenager, but she does have some almost-funny lines.

The Friday the 13th reference made by the Jive-Talking Black Girl Tula Washington (played by an actress who has absolutely no other credits) is an in-joke, as co-writers Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson also did a couple movies in that series.

Don't let the poster fool you.

Lunch Wagon

Lunch Wagon
September 1981
Seymour Borde & Associates
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B-

Unless you're bothered by fat jokes, this is a surprisingly amiable sex comedy.  Since my copy is off TV, I haven't actually seen any of the nudity, although it's very clear that the four main women are bra-less most of the time.  And yet, I'd sort of describe the movie as feminist.  I mean, it does pass the Bechdel Test, and it does show the power of female friendship, as well as show two young women recovering from being fired by their under-paying sexually harassing boss and starting a successful business with another friend.  Yes, they dress skimpily with their "Love Bites" wagon, which was given to them by Dick Van Patten.  (His character inherits a fortune and disappears from the movie, although sons Nels and particularly James show up to keep the Van-Pattenness flowing.)  But considering the genre, the plot is actually progressive.

That fourth main woman is the cheerful bimbo girlfriend of the main villain, and even her character isn't what you'd normally expect.  Nor is her boyfriend Al Schmeckler (Rick Podell), who talks like a stand-up comic all the time, answering the phone with greetings like "Roy Rogers Home for Unwed Boys."  The actual stand-up comic character, host of a talent week, is named Danny Death and he adds to the offbeat wisecracks.  And then there's Missing Persons as a popular local New Wave band, playing "Mental Hopscotch" three times.  And Chuck McCann as the unaffiliated-with-Schmeckler crook called The Turtle.  His sidekick Ralph is played by Vic Dunlop, who would be Rene in Meatballs Part II.  As in Super Fuzz, the criminals dress like it's still the '30s.  (At least Johnny Dangerously would actually be set in the '30s.)  This movie is very much a time capsule of the early '80s, cocaine jokes and all, but it also feels like a throwback in some ways.

Rose Marie breaks the longevity record of her International House (1933) co-star George Burns by appearing here as Mrs. Schmeckler.  (And since she's still alive at 91, it's not impossible she may show up in another of my movies.)  Michael Tucci (Sonny in Grease) is cast as a "little guy in glasses" that the body-building Wagoneer likes.  George Memmoli, who plays fat, harrassing ex-boss Andy, was Pinky Fun in Americathon.  Missing's Terry Bozzio would perform "Wipe Out" in Back to the Beach.  Peter Marc (Jacobson), who has a small role, is Fran Drescher's ex-husband and still creative partner.

Fun, friendship, and fashion.