Joy of Sex (1984)

Brilliant and touching

Absolutely amazing

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's Leslie Hindenberg (Michelle Meyrink)'s senior year. Melanie (Lisa Langlois) is her best friend. Her dad (Christopher Lloyd) is a coach at school and he threatens anyone who touches his daughter. Liz Sampson (Colleen Camp) is the weird new girl. Mr. Porter (Ernie Hudson) is the new principal. Alan Holt (Cameron Dye) is obsessed with sex and Liz seems to be obsessed with him. Leslie is afraid her mole is cancerous and mistakes her doctor's overheard comment. She thinks she has 3 months to live and vows to try sex.There are no laughs. It's high on the cheese factor. This is weak work from director Martha Coolidge. The production is bad and this suffers when compared to the start of a string of great John Hughes teen movies. I love Meyrink but her character doesn't have much to offer. The boys are even worst with Cameron Dye offering even less. I'm willing to live with twentysomethings passing themselves off as teenagers but they are horrible at it. It's 'Animal House' transfered to high school. It's almost bad enough to be camp. It's possible to watch this in that way.

This film's low rating is not surprising, exactly, but it deserves better. Granted, it has suffered on several levels, from being tied to a title of a book that it had nothing to do with, to John Belushi's death prior to filming. All of this is unfortunate, as a lot of people go into this film expecting something that it was never meant to be. Plus, as someone noted, the poor editing certainly doesn't help.All that aside, what we're left with is a pretty decent 80's teen comedy along the lines of Better Off Dead, Weird Science and The Last American Virgin. Though not as classic as the above titles, it shares a lot of the same elements, and has plenty to offer to fans of the genre: some great lines, some genuinely funny scenes, a flashback to that 80's American high school experience that's embarrassingly perceptive enough to still ring true, and the great underrated Michelle Meyrink.It is seriously overdue for DVD release.

If one sat down to watch a movie called "The Joy of Sex", you'd at least think there were some steamy sex sequences therein. Surprisingly, that is the main thing that's missing from the film. Look quick and you may catch one topless girl in a mob running by toward the end of the picture, the film's sole nude sequence. The sex scenes we do see are obscured from view half the time and most of which is left up to imagination. And surprisingly the film still bares an "R" rating, primarily for language and content. But what would be considered as the naughty sexual content in this film is no more risque that what I've seen in other PG and PG-13 rated films currently in the theater and in new release at the video store. Boy the times have changed. Suddenly in the late 90's and the new millennium we can almost get away with just about any innuendos these days.Not too many highlights in the film. The laughs are few and far between. The film features the attractive Colleen Camp who is squandered in this opportunity. She receives far little film time as an undercover cop masquerading as the new hot girl in class at the high school where the film is based. Robert Prescott ("Bachelor Party" and "Real Genius") has a few humorous moments as a class clown, but not enough. The only real bright spot of the film is Christopher Lloyd as Coach Hindenberg. Lloyd's deadpan delivery never fails to win a laugh or two, but Lloyd can't support what is an unremarkable cast and a less than average teen sex comedy. The film is also known as "National Lampoon's: The Joy of Sex." Save you money and time. Rent "Animal House" instead.

I found this film enjoyable and pretty funny. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and it's pretty good for the genre of 80's teen flicks.