"Losin' It" is a better-than-average coming of age / teen sex comedy. I keep comparing things to "Porky's", but it truly is the measuring stick for these sort of movies. The similarities are there, characters and situations interchangeable, but not enough to make anyone cry "rip-off". People talk about this movie because it features Tom Cruise's first staring role, but, seriously, fuck Tom Cruise. Fuck him and his one front tooth. Jackie Earle Haley is the reason to see this movie as he steals every scene. He's the Pee-Wee Morris of this film; hyperactive, and sex-starved, too gullible for his own good, his eagerness putting him in situations he has to weasel his way out of. Nearly as good as Haley is John P. Navin Jr. as Dave's little brother, Wendell. There's lots of silly, slapstick comedy, a fair amount of coarse language and a smattering of nudity. The sheriff serves well as the antagonist and the ending was decent. The supporting actors (cab drivers, barkers, pimps, etc) were good in their roles, too.
The 70s and 80s were a strange time for film. Someone decided that in a teen comedy it was acceptable for an older woman to prey on Cruise's character and take his virginity. The same thing happened in "American Pie", but it was Finch who pursued Stiffler's mom in that instance, not the other way around. Had the genders been reversed, people would have been up in arms about it.
There are heaps of movies like this, all covering the same territory. This one is good, not great. Jackie Earle Haley, however, is great in this, so it stinks less than a lot of these movies do. See it for him.
3/5
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