Monday, May 6, 2013

Michief (1985)


As far as cheesy 80s "coming of age" films go, this one is pretty good. This plays like a tamer, less funny version of "Porky's". Both are set in the 50s and center around a nerdy teen losing his virginity. Compared to "Porky's", the pacing is a lot slower and the laughs happen less often, but unlike a lot of movies from this era, it holds up fairly well.

Jonathan is a square teenager in Ohio with no friends to speak of and zero experience with girls. His luck changes when Gene and his father move into a house on their block. Gene is a sexually experienced greaser with a motorcycle and a big city attitude. They form an unlikely friendship and Gene makes it his project to get Jonathan laid. Meanwhile, Gene has eyes for a girl, but has to woo her away from Kenny, the spoiled town asshole, while not getting into any trouble that would get him kicked out of school again.

This movie has less to do with Jonathan's pursuit of sex and more with Gene's troubles fitting in with the locals. He's a fish out of water and people don't like him because of his confidence and bad attitude. Chris Nash isn't very believable in his role of Gene, but delivers an okay performance. It's not his fault if he doesn't look hard enough for this role. The rest of the casting seems okay. Wardrobe and set design seems fairly accurate, I guess, and the music director did a nice job of using songs from this period to punctuate what was happening on screen.

Let's face it, though. The real reason to watch this is Kelly Preston's stunning nude scene. She's beauty personified and her body was perfect when this was shot. Not only do we get to see her perfect breasts *with* erect nipples, we see her lovely backside and full bush, too. Just lovely...

Even without the nude scene, this is pretty good. If you haven't seen it in a while, it's worth revisiting. 


3.5/5