kimballtron

If this is the short I remember with Philip McKeon, I thought it was originally billed as "The Bet"... basically he's a rich kid riding in a car with his friends through downtown LA (complete with opening song from Missing Persons "Walking in LA", as in "nobody walks in LA"), and they bet him he can't last a weekend on Skid Row. He takes the challenge and meets some interesting people while learning things about himself. Some obvious socioeconomic drama there as well. I haven't seen the short in decades, and can't find it on YT to give a proper review. But since the info on this IMDb page is pretty sparse at the moment, I wanted to add a little something. I enjoyed it a lot and it was a typical 80s arc about having some human compassion.

This movie is rather dear to me mostly because of its atmosphere, I love how much of it is somewhat solitary nighttime at a fairly slow pace that isn't fashionable these days. The jazz music also adds to the mood, as well as her apartment which has that feeling of being part museum, part department store display (I mean that as a compliment). It's a plus that Ms. Nielsen did this while carrying a more matronly figure that did a nice job of smoothing out her curves, which I find infinitely more attractive than a slim figure with conspicuously fake bazongas. The style is fairly polarizing, some might think it too "arty" or even "pretentious", but to me almost every scene is beautiful, and you see a lot of sexuality from a woman's point of view. It gets overdone in places but overall I find it very enjoyable. It leaves a lot to the imagination plot-wise, in a way that few movies do. It's dream-like.

Unfortunately all I have is a US copy of the release on VHS - the DVD I have is the Italian release, which has fairly poor dubbing that kind of loses the mood (although it does contain a lot of extra footage). I wish this would get released on DVD!

The opening montage shows pretty clearly that this is about Al getting humiliated in a game of tennis... but there are plenty of good gags and an awesome punchline for the ending. There's another short that follows The Good Life as well, but since I only caught it on VHS as a young teenager I still don't know its official title... but the short continues on Al's really bad day with a lot more side-splitting country club humor as he gets pranked by his "buddies" in the locker room, and basically one thing after another keeps going wrong for him until he finally figures out a way to manage his misfortune toward the end. These are both great examples of the cool little short films HBO used to show as part of their Short Take feature in between the full-length movies.

I'm rating this from memory because it's been years since I saw it, but I found it to be an enjoyable show and I hope it will be made available in some format. I believe Murray Sayle was the clever actor who narrated and hosted the visits to all the interesting places, customs, festivals, and fascinating and occasionally odd practices of Japanese daily life as experienced by a British Pleasure Hunter. From bathing habits (you want public, aerial on a tramway, warm milk, or volcanic sand?), to an outfitter of custom made swords, to nightlife (including geisha parties and host clubs), there is plenty of interest in the unique combination of modern and traditional elements of Japan's society. Definitely a mature-oriented documentary that touches on subjects that have since been covered by the likes of the History Channel and so forth. Ah, the good old days of HBO!

The last time I saw this movie before getting the newly-released DVD was back in my childhood, let's say 6th or 7th grade. Back then, the naughty scenes were quite exciting and the plot was good for a giggle. And of course young, awkward boys enjoy some small hope that one day they will become more suave through kind experiences of female beauty. On general principal I thought I should add the DVD to my collection. Overall, I was not disappointed.

One major detraction I didn't remember seeing before was the crude white-paint censor blots in the two full-frontal nude scenes (boooooo!). This film has a few details on refused-classification.com which suggest that it might have been doctored in this way in order to gain its R rating, even back in 1982. I wonder why it was not offered with a "director's cut" as a special feature of the DVD (e.g. "Dressed to Kill") - artistically speaking, I would rather have a scene cut than done up with something so cheesy and distracting as a censor box (shame!).

This movie is what it is - for me it represents just a little piece of my childhood, and contains a few moments that were interesting to revisit. If the features of the DVD had been more complete I would have given it about an 8. I'm hoping I will be amused by the commentary when I hear it.