Whenever this movie is on, I simply cannot turn the channel, so wretched it is! I think the thing that I love about it the most is the fact that the "band's"(and I use that term VERY loosely,) target audience seems to be lonely, middle aged women. All throughout the movie, those are the people that are helping them along the way and they are the ones who are joining them onstage for their dance numbers. Now I realize that the disco movement in music was a very safe form of artistic expression. I mean, you wouldn't find women such as this helping out the Dead Boys or Ramones. I am also sure that since the director, Nancy walker, was a middle aged woman herself, she probably reasoned that she was "hip" and therefore all women of this age were just as much into the disco scene as she was.
The other thing that I found just astounding was the totally unrealistic portrayal of the music industry. One moment these guys are "practicing" in a makeshift, backyard set-up with car speakers for a PA system, the next they are in the recording studio. Not only are they in said studio but, wow, there just happens to be pre-recorded music for them to sing to for these original compositions. I know that lightening does occasionally strike and a smalltime band is discovered and launched into their careers very quickly. But for this to happen to the Village Persons after practicing a total number of...hmmmm...how many times according to the movie? Oh yea.....ONCE? Well, all I can say is realism must not have been a priority for Ms. Walker.
There are also a few things that are just downright irritating about this movie though...the first being the fact that Steve Gutenberg has a smile that NEVER leaves his face! OK, a person that is THAT happy ALL the time was just, well, annoying. The 2nd is the fact that there is a man that dresses in a Native American headdress wherever he goes...and this is before the Village Persons came together as a "band." As a Native American myself I was a little put off by that...and I am not the type to get upset over such trivialities either. For instance, I don't get upset about the Cleveland Indians logo or the Washington Redskins name. But a man who wears that garb as a meaningless costume is a bit much. Finally, Bruce Jenner's acting is well beyond bad. I got a chill every time he appeared on the screen because I knew that I was going to feel embarrassed FOR him, on his behalf! Where as other people yell at their televisions when their sports team is doing badly, I was screaming for him to EMOTE, REACT, or merely LOOSTEN UP! It was simply painful!
For pure, unadulterated and wide-eyed terrible movie watching pleasure, you simply cant beat this film! It has everything required for such label: simplistic and unconvincing plot, acting so bad that wood and ham are embarrassed to be compared to the cast, atrocious dialog - both in writing and in it's delivery, and, sadly, direction that has no ambitions of being the least bit complex or challenging. It is like watching a movie through a very long, very fast viewmaster, but without the 3-D stereo vision!
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