source: Not for Publication

Not for Publication

This jaw-droppingly unfunny, embarrassing "satire" on tabloid publications and political corruption has no pacing, no timing, no humor, no brains, no nothing. Paul Bartel has always been--for the most part, anyway--a good director with a wicked sense of humor, as the black comedy "Eating Raoul" and the hilarious parody "Death Race 2000" have shown, so God only knows what happened here, but this disjointed mess is virtually unwatchable. It makes Sylvester Stallone's hideous so-called comedy "Oscar" look like a sophisticated drawing-room farce by Noel Coward. An embarrassment for all concerned. You'll lose brain cells just reading the video box cover. You've been warned!

Starring Nancy Allen as a reporter for a sleazy tabloid and David Naughton as a photographer, this movie attempts to be a satire , with very little success. Both the script and the acting are really cheesy and the soundtrack is awful. Not a great movie, good for a bad 80's movie night.

In this media saturated age, it's hard to remember a time when seeing an oddball film was hard to do. As I dare to share my age I was 17 or 18 when this film first popped up on Cinemax. Growing up in Iowa I read more about cult or pyschotronic movies than I had the chance to see them, so when a Paul Bartel movie showed up on cable it was something to see. I can't say it's a great movie, but it's odd mix of strange and sweet still makes it endearing to me. And hey, any movie that starts out with showgirls packing heat hunting down a sexist producer wins points with me. Plus Nancy Allen (a shame she doesn't get the respect she deserves for the brave work she did in the eighties) and a lot of oddball character actors makes this a fun film to watch for anyone who grew up loving the cult movies, actors, and directors of the seventies and eighties like I did.