Joy Sticks Reviews

Crude, stupid, and utterly pointless, Joysticks does serve one small, yet important purpose. It is a perfect cinematic time capsule of the point in the early '80s when Porky's rip-offs ruled the theaters and there was nothing more awesome to do than spend a couple hours at a video arcade with a game of Pac Man. All the requirements for an '80s teen sex comedy are in place in Joysticks. There's the nerd named Eugene (Leif Green), the good looking hero named Jefferson Bailey (Scott McGinnis), a punk rocker named King Vidiot (Jon Gries), and even the mighty Joe Don Baker himself shows up as the grumpy grown-up who, naturally, wants to shut that darn arcade down. As far as being an '80s teen sex comedy goes, Joysticks really delivers by including tons of needless shots of naked girls and close-ups of girls' behinds and wisely leaving out all signs of a plot. Though Joysticks is not a well-made film by any standard, it is such a relic (and so self-knowingly stupid) that it is actually a delight to watch. Besides, who can honestly hate a film where the scene transitions are done by having a giant yellow Pac Man munch across the screen?