Sexmission (1984) User Reviews (43)

Accidental discovery of a comic gem, plot outline, slight spoiler warning.

[agentx2zero · 9/10 · 8 November 2001]

I happened to watch this movie completely by accident, whilst flicking between channels, the title gripping my weak young mind!

The version I watched was subtitled, and I can't often be bothered with all that, but this didn't stop any of the fun. The film operates on several levels, appearing to be just an excuse for a sexist pile of nonsense, but in reality it's a very funny film with quite a bit of socio-political comment, but not too much to spoil it.

The basic plot is of two regular guys who get the cryogenic treatment, having sneaked cigarettes and a hip flask into their sleeping tubes. They are awakened many years later to find that they are the last two men on earth, an "M-bomb" having killed all the men in the world! The existing women all live in underground complexes and have discovered how to make babies without men, somehow. Our two fellas are allowed to live just so long as they have the offending items (between their legs) removed. They promptly escape, and run amok in the bunker, with the final result not quite what you might have imagined!

An example of a typical scene; they happen across this room which has an apple tree in it. Growing there is a solitary apple, which they pluck and bite into, and immediately spit out as it's sour. This turns out to be the last apple on the last tree in the world, and does not go down too well with the lady president.

There is some quite bizarre incidental music which did start to grate, but this is the best of all those films you trip over late at night when you really ought to have gone to bed (Moon 44 anyone?)

you'll laugh, you'll wince, you'll not hurl, but you might think.

Good sci-fi comedy

[Lebech · 9/10 · 21 October 2000]

I saw this movie with Danish subtitles a long time ago, and I found it very funny. It was a little difficult to find it because of its title.

There are at roughly two types of science fiction. One type focuses on the fascination with science and tries to depict the future. Another type seeks to satirize or criticize contemporary society by simplifying the problems in futuristic settings.

This movie is of the second kind. Two men are frozen down and wake up 50 years later in a society populated only by women. Not a very credible story, but that's not the point of the movie. The movie is full of funny dialogues as well as satire of questions of sexuality and the meaning of equality in contemporary society.

The movie is highly recommended. It also gets away with the special effects quite well despite a low budget.

Sexmission

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 10 February 2013]

It's a rare gem which doesn't weather away for nearly 30 years, from Polish director Juliusz Machulski, it's a Sci-Fi satire, two men awake in 2044 from their prolonged hibernation (two guinea pigs for science devotion or other reasons whatsoever) find out they dwell in a girls- run-the-world civilization with an utter male-extinction premise, which sounds instinctively should prompt great source work for heterosexual porn movies, although the female sexual exploitation may not be dodged (for the audience's sake), the film's novelty lies in its satisfying and unexpected device of an utter revelry which defies genre savvy with whimsical set pieces and twists-and-turns, a parthenogenesis propagation laboratory, the neutralization or liquidation verdict (with the history-twisted gender-switch for Copernicus and Einstein, even more farcical to satirize Ms. Curie), the father-daughter "reunion", the ludicrous password " Fxxx" gag, not to mention the final anti-climate unveiling of "the third man", it is a rudimentary success in conveying its apolitical farce above all the presumably controversial bearings among the gender-sensitive, hegemony-wary, surveillance omnipresent, rebellion-quelling and eroticism-awakening nitpicking.

Two leading actors, Olgierd Lukaszewicz and Jerzy Stuhr, one prim, another more secular (at the beginning, their characteristics are manifestly reflected by the different knee-jerking responses towards a glass-cracking accident, an internal pressure or a bad omen) comprise an amiable pair, the now-ubiquitous neologism "bromance" can effortlessly find its own mirror here; various sleek and sensual women delineated here are mostly warrior-like outside, wooden and brainwashed inside, but eventually there will be two lucky ones who will fall prey as the rewards for the last two men standing. It's a mainstream smart move yet overall convincingly played out.

Decorated with a Sci-Fi milieu, the claustrophobic settings and synthesizer-produced electronic score can easily betray the film's 80s trappings, but Juliusz Machulski has a sober sense not to be too lenient in its thematically pie-in-the-sky orgy, when the film ends with an overlong close-up at a new-born baby's penis, it is a truly satisfactory culmination.

PS: if my memory serves me well, it is actually the second Polish film I've ever watched, heralds an auspicious starting point for me to perambulate this strange land.

Cultic Polish sci-fi satire

[varberg · 22 August 2004]

I must admit that I haven't seen many movies made in Poland (shame, but not many are played here...), but this one is a real gem, which achieved cult status in this region.

The story is about two men who are hibernated for 3 years for showing "the victory of mankind over time", but wake up 53 years later in society ruled by women. Men are extinct, all living men were killed by a bomb and the surviving women have to leave under the Earth's surface in complexes. One of the women says: "Encounter with men are areal". Our heroes don't panic however... they have only one goal: re-establishing somehow the old regime. Not an easy task, considering they are the only men alive, surrounded by man-hating ("man-eating"), fanatic women whose goal is either to naturalize or to kill them.

One can't forget that this movie was made in 1984 when communism was in its place and didn't seem to melt yet. Nowadays I wonder a bit that it was allowed to show in the cinemas, because this movie is a perfect satire of any totaliarist regime (including communism) and blind fanaticism. There is very subtle humor between the lines and this humor is what makes this movie a cult movie. However serious the theme, the movie catches the mood and the movements so easily and with such wit that you can't help but laugh. Making fun of something is the best way to criticize it and Seksmisja is a perfect example.

This movie is highly recommended for anyone in the world. Seeing it only once isn't enough... to get the whole idea and the subtler humor, you have to watch it several times. If you want to enjoy it fully, get the original Polish version with subtitles.

"Someone hurts you? You're in trouble? You can count on Women's Council!"

Not very laughable if you put your mind to work

[AndreiPavlov · 10/10 · 18 February 2008]

Female society devoid of any representatives of the opposite sex (but is it really so?) is running the anti-male underground world with the help of science. Two men are going to change it forever.

Being a post-apocalyptic feature, the movie delivers tons of jokes. It is not a feast of low-quality vulgar sexual innuendoes so frequent in the modern movies, though, judging by the title one can make such assumption. "Sexmission" is full of light-hearted humour interwoven with deep psychological insight and even prophesy. If it is not enough, there are beautiful sets and costumes. The quality of the production amazes me. I expected it to be a low-budget childish comedy shot on a paper set but it turns out to be a high-tech thought-provoking sci-fi with an artistic concept and a wonderful hand-made background.

While it is a Polish movie, I think that during its translation into English lots of slight "shadow" meanings of the genuine cutting remarks will be lost, while Russian as an example does a perfect job. Such phrases as "babskiy tribunal" are perfect translations.

This movie reminded me of the following cult dramas: "Underground", "Road Warrior", and "Planet of the Apes". But as to this one, I don't remember last time laughing throughout the whole picture. This movie turned my usual evening into amazing experience.

I've got four films by this director in my home DVD collection already and they all are outstanding comedies.

10 out of 10. Thank you for attention.

A Polish movie I can enjoy again and again...

[Mr Dread · 10/10 · 31 March 2000]

(A) Very, very impressive. Low budget, but still sooo good! Very funny (in its original language) and creative. And if you thought that Truman Show's ending was weird, you should see this movie.. Wow. Good stuff. And the last scene ends the movie perfectly.

Not bad for 1984

[deloudelouvain · 6/10 · 12 February 2020]

I wasn't expecting much from this movie, considering its age and subject matter, but I have to say I was entertained. It was funny to see what they thought the future would be like back then. The two guys I found quite funny, yes its a bit of stupid comedy, but if you like that kind of stuff, its a laugh. And the whole idea they had about what happens in the future , where there are not men anymore and only women, of course its ridiculous, but an entertaining plot.

No doubt the best Polish Sci-Fi movie...

[javah · 10/10 · 11 July 2001]

If not even best polish movie? And it is one of the best sci-fi movies ever... Especially story line goes way ahead than many other movies out there nowadays... I saw this movie on art group, where it is compared with classics like Godfather (I), Citizen Kane etc. This one is one movie which stands out from the crowd.

For sci-fi fans, it is must... But the story is so different from mainstream science fiction, that I believe "non sci-fi fans" can get something out of this, so don't miss!

The real Matrix?

[cody-63 · 10/10 · 29 December 2006]

I recently saw this brilliant Polish film with English subtitles and I must say that I am becoming quite a fan of this director. After seeing this, I realize that the Wachowski Brothers are obviously Polish, hailing from Chicago - a Polish epicenter and obviously fans of this film. If you liked the philosophy, the 'what is real' twists running in the Matrix then you best check this film and witness the obvious inspiration for that stunning trilogy.

This film is seriously clever, gratuitous and the obvious forerunner to what we praise the Wachowski Brothers for so cleverly revealing to the American audience; the decadence of totalitarian regimes, propaganda and fascist idiosyncrasies. Mind you this film is funny, even with subtitles.

'Sex Mission' is a Polish classic. It is an obvious reaction to Communism and quite brilliant as a humanist science fiction. Quite a few scenes seem to be properly praised throughout the Matrix Trilogy and its fun to witness the clever inspiration for such blockbuster features.

a "light and smooth" comedy, will make you laugh when tired after work for example.

[raskolnikov-11 · 10/10 · 23 January 2006]

I am Polish and my comment might be perceived as subjective. I watched "Seksmisja" when I was a kid and I loved it. When I watched it after 10 years, I loved it, too. You know very well that does not happen with most of the movies that you had seen... Seksmisja is fantastic, very well played and let its Polish origin not deceive you. The movie was filmed in the communistic times and was supposed to be an allegory of the system i.e. 2 guys become hibernated in order to be awaken some years later. They do get awaken but .... by women who turn up to be the only inhabitants of the "new" world (sounds lovely for a guy, huh?). I am not going to tell you more as I would deprive you of the most interesting part, but this movie is a MUST. I recommend it for those moments when you are angry with someone or when you are tired after work ... or want to have another enjoyable hours with your girl / man.

Unbelievably bad, banal, and not funny

[denis888 · 4/10 · 1 August 2006]

I saw this film first in the Soviet Union and many erotic scenes were simply edited out by the censorship committee. But then, in Poland in 2000, I watched it in a complete form. And so what? The plot is incredibly unwise - 2 men survive the genetic catastrophe and find themselves on the planet full of feminist strong, straight and fundamentally severe ladies. The men now try to fight it and then the whole bunch of extremely silly clichés follow - sex-drive, constant masculine desire for sex, feminists who are shown like complete idiots (you may agree with them or not, but idiots certainly they are not), and so on. The performance even of the stellar Jerzy Stuhr is here wooden and strangely bad - he just pulls unfunny faces and repeats on saying phrases like "I am in the elevator with a nude chick and I haven't done anything to her!". This was intended to be a comedy, instead, it turned out to be a vapid farce, full of predictable jokes and below-the-waist innuendos. Do not waste your time on it - this is just bad.

Very fresh

[kalia1705 · 19 May 2004]

I was so much into french comedies as a good chauvinistic stupid guy but when I saw "Seksmisja" I knew there's something's happen somewhere else. Now I'm completely into polish movies. This one is fantastic, I love it. I laughed every 2 minutes. Characters are so funny. Little things like when at the beginning somebody said to the hero who was looking so proud and strong "it can be dangerous" when he was thinking there is no danger traveling in the future :-) and he was like "oh my God !! it can be dangerous???" and suddenly he was afraid, I laughed my ass out !!! And when beautiful girls are coming to them in their jail and they are talking to them like real macho men "Dzzzzien Doooobrrreeee" :-)) Now I know we have to learn a lot from polish movies. I also saw "Rejs" and "Wniebowzieci" who was for me pure moments of pleasure. Wow ! I love Poland !! Will go to see that great country one day.

surprise

[bentojensen · 10/10 · 5 November 2005]

Making fun of the relation between men (more less male chauvinist) and women (who rules this new world) are well made. The end of the story took me by surprise more than once because I expected the movie to end at several times where, if the of movie had been removed, I would not have known. But it goes some step further. I am not in favor of censoring political movies, but this one had to go around the political censors and did it very good. Therefore, it is not easy to see that are making a satire about the regimes in Eastern Europe during the Cold War (1945-1989).

I enjoyed it very much and will see again the next time I get a chance.

Intelligent and excellent

[jacek_malek · 10/10 · 30 January 2015]

There are barely few Polish comedies which are worth watching all the time. This is one of them. Actually this is the best of them. The description of the main plot you can read in many other reviews posted here. However this movie despite what you can directly see or hear has a second bottom. This second bottom can be understood only by the people which were living in communistic regime: Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Lithuania and others but as far as I can tell that list excludes strangely Russia, which can be told by the reviews posted here. Anyhow how this movie came through our censorship in the 80s (Poland was still communistic at that time) remains a mystery to me. That shows only the the censors were idiots and the director with the producer did outstanding job (impossible job) to convince the censors. Unbelievable. I was 6 when this movie was shown in the cinemas around. However my mum told me that everyone clapped their hands in the cinema after the show. And that was just a regular show with no celebrities invited. That shows the genius of the movie: to tell the story without actually telling the story. Showing something and describing by the way something completely different. Outstanding and worth seeing. Even if you do not understand this second bottom the movie is worth seeing because it is one of the best example of how the real polish comedy shall look like.

Visionary ....real anticipation movie

[simonasidorin · 9/10 · 11 May 2008]

This movie did not played in Romanian cinemas before 1990 , and this is not for a few female nudes here and there is because our censorship was more rabid more attentive to every tiny detail , after all they were people who red Kant,Dante,Kierkegard,Camus,Ovid.....but on the other side they were applying torturing methods that made marquis de Sade looks like an diletttante . Don't expect to laugh like crazy .... Those two scientists they found themselves in a totally different era there MISSINFORMATION rules as it did very well in other decades of history , whatever you call it communism,dictatorship,democracy,feudalism THE MOB does not have to know too much , not to think , they are other people who are doing .....THE THINKING. The mob is got one big responsibility : to obey the ruling class , not to criticize even if is an insignificant thing .I said that maybe is not much to laugh about it in the first half , after all the two scientists are terrorized , beaten up by a bunch of brain-washed , insensitive , cruel women.They were educated that man is a mistake of nature , entire history was changed (even Bible) to fit NEW AGE ERA ...as somebody said is not BIG BROTHER now is BIG SISTER and the year this movie was released is 1984!!!!!!!! Too much of a coincidence ! Why I said is visionary is that is applying to modern days , there people are monitored , telephone calls tapped and so on....in the name of national security you can do whatever , it does not matter that they are thrashing the human rights . Anyway they were never been respected , same as Geneva Convention . But this movie is got a happy-end unlike 1984 , I am still amazed that they were able to run that movie into cinemas in the eighties.They were so many hints towards totalitarian regimes , after all. It is worth watching , definitely.

One-hell of a movie

[HiMoO2 · 10/10 · 23 December 2019]

This is incredibly one of the best Polish comedy there is!!

Well made and well thought out

[Groverdox · 8/10 · 20 February 2016]

Sexmission was a huge surprise to me. It's funny, intelligent, well made, thought provoking, and entertaining up until the end. It never reveals its small budget, and it keeps you guessing. It is science fiction that would have done Stanislaw Lem proud for its innovation and twists.

The movie involves two men - one a scientist, the other a nobody - who volunteer for an experiment in which they are to be put into deep sleep for a period of three years. They wake up sixty years later and find that they are the only men on Earth and that humanity lives underground in fear of "radiation" up above.

The resultant female-only society has rewritten history and now claims all invention to be female-produced. Einstein and Newton were female, according to the law.

I went into this one expecting a dopey sex comedy, judging by the title, and something depressingly cheap and moronic, judging by the genre. I got neither. While it's true that there is some incidental nudity in this movie, and also some humour, it's not a sex comedy at all, but a convincing, well-made science fiction film.

An extremely sexist movie

[gugsgunny · 2/10 · 17 February 2020]

This was a popular movie when I was young and I watched it again only to find it extremely sexist. It doesn't work at all for the modern day. Its treatment of women as a bunch of out of touch misandrists just seems like male whininess more than anything else. It is a good example of a time capsule of how out of touch the previous generations were.

Hilarious gender comedy brings along a brilliant satire on totalitarian society.

[thislizard · 25 April 2010]

"Sexmission" has everything that a good movie needs - a plot, memorable characters, well written dialog and a bigger concept underlying the story. In fact there are two concept that meet at several points: the gender stereotypes seen from different perspectives and the totalitarian dystopia.

If I had to advertise the movie to non-Polish viewers (especially the English-speaking ones) perhaps I would give it a tag line "Orwell meets Benny Hill".

The beginning of the plot is well known - two hibernated men, Max and Albert, wake up after a great war in the hands of all-female totalitarian state. The women are brainwashed (a strong mockery of radical feminism) so they perceive males as a threat to the society. Our heroes realize that the ways they have dealt with women before - cheap compliments (Max) and appearing vulnerable (Albert) - will just not work here. The two men have to rely on their better features: wit, courage, honest male friendship and strong faith in humanity in their pursuit for freedom and restoring the laws of nature.

The political satire is very well constructed, since the women's society as presented in the movie has all the features of the totalitarian regime. The loyalty to the League (equivalent of the Party) is superior to all interpersonal relationships and what is the most significant, the League's propaganda purposely misrepresents reality as well as history.

The gender stereotypes are explored with rather positive attitude, showing that there's no use of denying our own nature and that the differences between the genders, even with their weaknesses, is what we are attracted to.

The outcome of these ideas is that you definitely become a better man and a better woman when you are allowed the freedom of thought.

I believe you don't have to "know Poland" to understand the movie, but in fact any experience with political (science) fiction is enough. Enjoy!

Good serious sci-fi, good comedy, perfect blend of the two

[johannesaquila · 9/10 · 6 November 2021]

As a serious science fiction, I would rate this film about 7 stars. It starts with a routine premise of someone being frozen and woken up later than expected. To this it adds the apocalyptic premises of an underground society and of a world in which all male human genes have been exterminated and society relies on test tubes and parthenogenesis (virgin birth) for procreation. These ideas have often been treated in short stories, novels and films, but the treatment they are getting in this film has no trouble holding up against the competition.

As a comedy, ignoring the science fiction dimension, I would also rate this film about 7 stars. It's a comedy about two men who suddenly find themselves in a society of Amazons who don't know men, don't want them, and wouldn't know what to do with them. But it doesn't overplay this aspect. There is obvious potential for a sex comedy here - and again the film neither shies away from this nor uses it excessively.

What makes this film unique and truly fantastic is how these two dimensions are combined. In a typical science fiction comedy, the laughs come primarily from spoofing the science fiction genre, which is easy to do. That is not how it is done here. This is a regular comedy that just happens to be set in a science fiction setting.

I am not a good judge of actors' abilities, even in languages that I understand, but it seems to me that there is a lot of good character acting here. Only sometimes the guards behave more like comic book characters because that's required by the comedy.

In terms of plot and pacing, this film is also almost exemplary. A kind of trial marks the beginning of the second half, which has a long series of surprises in store for us. Many of them I felt I could have anticipated due to earlier clues - but I didn't. It's always nice when that happens, and here it happened a lot. Towards the end, realism seems to get less important, so that the happy ending has aspects of a dream-like or allegorical ending without really being of this type.

How wonderful the movie is

[Sexzguy · 9/10 · 3 November 2001]

I have always wanted to see this movie for quite some time. It is Logan's Run in the next century with a few twists here and there. I wanted to see the movie because of the topless scenes in it. I never thought that men could be eradicated from an underground city. My only mistake is buying it from the wrong source, which was more expensive.

Just brilliant!

[merelanayla · 9/10 · 25 April 2005]

As I'm Polish I've got the possibility of enjoying every single word and dialog in this outstanding movie and somehow relating it to Polish stereotypes and history... but I really do think that 'Sexmission' will be just as hilarious to everyone... =) The plot, the action, the characters played by unrivaled actors make this movie definitely worth watching - and it makes you die with laughter =). It's number one of all the comedies I've seen, even though I've seen it hundreds of times =). Watching the poor men being woken up in the world of women and trying to catch on the situation...well it's something to see, really =)))!

Good acting, funny movie!

[guga-4 · 10/10 · 29 January 1999]

I've seen this movie in polish language for about 10 times and I know it very well, even the dialogs. I've seen it once in german and it wasn't as funny and good as in polish. I think that often the original versions are the best and if the translation isn't really very exact, all films, which base on the dialogues, will be much worse. Of course I know that it's very difficult to translate such films, but people who do this should try harder!

Mission Accomplished

[Tweetienator · 8/10 · 23 September 2021]

Sexmission beats easy most of today's woked to death works - and got more depth (veiled behind the curtain of pure comedy). Whereas a "modern" show like Y: The Last Man (with a similar premise) totally fails to entertain the audience and to create interesting characters or an interesting story line, Sexmission does all this with ease and got us laughing and smiling while teaching us something about human nature. Sexmission: a fine comedy and far closer to the nature of human beings, than those modern puristic prayers.

Bad Polish Joke

[kenjha · 1/10 · 15 October 2010]

A couple of Polish guys are put into deep freeze for three years as an experiment, but things don't go quite as planned and they are thawed decades later when men have become extinct and women rule the world. The premise shows some promise for hilarity, a la Woody Allen's "Sleeper," but this one is completely devoid of laughs and it goes on forever. The comedy is so sophomoric that it makes The Three Stooges look like sophisticated Shakespearean actors. The sets and cinematography are so cheesy that it looks like a home movie made on a budget of about $1.98. Movies like this make one appreciate the fast forward button on the remote.