I remember seeing this film back in the "Fonzie" craze of the mid 70s , when it was in heavy rotation on TV, due to the fact it stars a fledgling Henry Winkler. I decided to give it another look , and it sure didn't stand up to the test of time very well. I really wanted to like this movie ....being a big fan of other seventies era "flashback" movies like American Graffiti, The Wanderers, etc.
The quality of the film itself, and the sound, is lousy. The camera is often out of focus , and the dialog is unintelligible much of the time.
They did manage to nail the greaser look pretty well, with the pegged jeans and pompadours , but the dialog shows little in the way of period correctness. Throw in a shmaltzy , bad soundtrack of meaningless 70s sounding pop ballads (which drown out the dialog,in many scenes),and any attempt to transport the viewer back to 1958 falls flat on it's face. The few lame attempts to throw a little Doo-Wop into the mix are just that : lame.
The characters are universally shallow , and never do develop or capture the viewer. Unfortunate,because the film is rife with brooding silences which are supposed to be meaningful but are just plain awkward. We don't know these people, we don't FEEL these people, so the empathy and emotional hook we should feel during these dialog-free moments just isn't there.
If you are looking for a plot , storyline, climax, or conclusion ....keep lookin', because this film has none of the above.
So we have no compelling characters , no story , and bad music. Hmmm.
One scene stands out to spotlight the mediocrity of this film : The Drive-In scene :
Chico : "What's wrong?"
(30 seconds of awkward silence)
Jane : "Nothing."
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
Chico : "What's wrong ?"
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
Jane : "Nothing !"
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
I could hardly bear to watch.Really. This movie isn't even bad enough to be funny and entertaining for it's badness , it's just tedious and boring. I watched it through , more from morbid curiosity than anything,just to see if they could muster a meaningful ending.
Nope. Just a horrible rooftop scene that has Sly rambling on about Tokyo then rasslin' around with Chico. Oh, then there was the wedding. Pfft.
Let's face it : By virtue of having both "The Fonz" AND "Rocky" as co- stars, this movie should be a cult classic by default. But it isn't ,mostly due to the fact that it is almost unwatchable. It has gotten more attention than it deserves, due to the presence of those names on the marquee , for sure....
I'm glad I caught this for free on Crackle,but I kind of want my bandwidth back.
The quality of the film itself, and the sound, is lousy. The camera is often out of focus , and the dialog is unintelligible much of the time.
They did manage to nail the greaser look pretty well, with the pegged jeans and pompadours , but the dialog shows little in the way of period correctness. Throw in a shmaltzy , bad soundtrack of meaningless 70s sounding pop ballads (which drown out the dialog,in many scenes),and any attempt to transport the viewer back to 1958 falls flat on it's face. The few lame attempts to throw a little Doo-Wop into the mix are just that : lame.
The characters are universally shallow , and never do develop or capture the viewer. Unfortunate,because the film is rife with brooding silences which are supposed to be meaningful but are just plain awkward. We don't know these people, we don't FEEL these people, so the empathy and emotional hook we should feel during these dialog-free moments just isn't there.
If you are looking for a plot , storyline, climax, or conclusion ....keep lookin', because this film has none of the above.
So we have no compelling characters , no story , and bad music. Hmmm.
One scene stands out to spotlight the mediocrity of this film : The Drive-In scene :
Chico : "What's wrong?"
(30 seconds of awkward silence)
Jane : "Nothing."
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
Chico : "What's wrong ?"
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
Jane : "Nothing !"
(30 more seconds of awkward silence)
I could hardly bear to watch.Really. This movie isn't even bad enough to be funny and entertaining for it's badness , it's just tedious and boring. I watched it through , more from morbid curiosity than anything,just to see if they could muster a meaningful ending.
Nope. Just a horrible rooftop scene that has Sly rambling on about Tokyo then rasslin' around with Chico. Oh, then there was the wedding. Pfft.
Let's face it : By virtue of having both "The Fonz" AND "Rocky" as co- stars, this movie should be a cult classic by default. But it isn't ,mostly due to the fact that it is almost unwatchable. It has gotten more attention than it deserves, due to the presence of those names on the marquee , for sure....
I'm glad I caught this for free on Crackle,but I kind of want my bandwidth back.