Joysticks (1983)

"Eeney... meeney.... miney.... moe...."

After so many clunkers, director Greydon Clark knocks it out of the park with "Joysticks". A prominent business owner (played by veteran tough guy, Joe Don Baker) decides his ditzy daughter has been spending too much time at the local video arcade and enlists the help of his two idiot nephews (one of them played by the blonde Daryl from "Newhart") to have it shut down. When all of their acts of sabotage prove ineffective, things culminate in a video game showdown to decide the arcade's fate.

Joysticks is 80's schlock done right. Exploit a popular teenage fad, add a bunch of exposed breasts, sophomoric comedy and a "B" list star 10 years past his prime and watch the money roll in. It's a shitty movie, but unashamedly so. It delivers everything you'd expect from this sort of thing, and then some. It was fun, cheesy and stupid in all the right ways. Not once did my attention drift while watching this and sometimes that's all I want in a movie. Unfortunately, the picture and sound on this $6.00 DVD are both lousy, but I'm not holding my breath for a Criterion release.

3/5