Malibu High (1979)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I enjoy strange movies as much as the next person, and if a movie is solvable, I like to try and solve it, but this is a movie that's strange in a different way. It's a movie trying to be sexy, but in no way does it ever succeed, not that it should matter, but it does. This flick is more creepy and stupid than anything else.Kim Bentley (Jill Lansing) is failing out of school, and her peers begin to give her pressure to do better. She decides she can't, so instead becomes a prostitute to earn money, and then begins having sex with all her teachers in exchange for good grades. This horrible path she takes later turns her into a murderer, and she begins to randomly go crazy and shoot people. When the very abrupt ending comes, it shouldn't be surprising if the audience is to burst into laughter questioning what it is that they just saw.The fact that this girl in the movie sleeps with all of her old male teachers is just creepy. The scenes where it shows her making out with the old men on screen is not something that's fun to watch. It's actually rather disgusting. To go along with that, this story is just so weird, and the progression that the main character makes from a prostitute, to a blackmailer to a serial killer is so sudden, anyone who sees this will find it forced. It's not thrilling, it's not scary, the main character isn't a good guy, and there is no one and nothing to root for, except the end credits which don't come soon enough.This is a weird movie, and certainly not fun to watch. But if a flick about a 17 year old girl sleeping with old men is your thing, then maybe this will appeal to that minority.My rating: * out of ****. 90 mins. R for nudity/sexuality, violence and language.

This is without a doubt one of the worst movies I've ever forced myself to sit through. The story is boring and makes no sense. Why would she go from a good girl to a hooker in 5 minutes? Then why make that jump to hired killer? Oh and not only is the movie badly written, but the dialogue is just as bad. The acting is terrible and wooden. The production values and editing aren't much better.I watch a lot of bad movies. In fact I make a habit of searching them out. Many really bad movies are so cheesy and unintentionally funny that they become enjoyable. This isn't one of those movies. I have no clue how anyone could recommend this. Do yourself a favor and skip it.

It's definitely the best story I've ever seen about a girl who wants better grades and then becomes a prostitute and then becomes an assassin. Part of the excellent "Welcome to the Grindhouse" series complete with trailers for other good trash. This movie also contains the ODDEST music cues ever; one was used on the old SCTV and they also use the song that became "The People's Court" theme. Bad acting, unbelievable plotting make this is a "MUST OWN" for connoisseurs of bad cinema. The DVD is paired with "Trip with the Teacher" another grade Z champion seemingly "inspired" by "Last House on the Left." The entire "Welcome to the Grindhouse" is essential DVD.

Bitchy, surly, calculating high school senior Kim Bentley (a marvelously venomous performance by tasty hot brunette Jill Lansing) ain't having a good time of it. She's been dumped by her jerky boyfriend Kevin (stolid Stuart Taylor), lives with her shrewish, overbearing mother (shrill Phyllis Benson), is still traumatized by the suicide death of her father, and is flunking all of her classes. Kim immediately starts to improve her miserable lot in life by seducing all of her male teachers and earning extra cash by servicing numerous guys in back of a van for scuzzy no-count pimp Tony (a nicely slimy Alex Mann). Things get even better for the seriously ruthless and amoral sociopath Kim when she leaves Tony and hooks up with smooth crime kingpin Lance (the ingratiating Garth Howard). Next thing you know Kim is bumping off folks for Lance as a deadly assassin (!). Crudely directed by Irvin Berwick (who also gave us the wonderfully wretched psycho riot "Hitch Hike to Hell"), with a spectacularly lurid, sordid and torrid melodramatic script by John Buckley and Tom Singer, rough, grainy cinematography by William De Diego, plenty of scrumptious gratuitous female nudity, ragged editing, a hilariously horrendous stock film library score (the "People's Court" theme plays in its entirety during a lengthy chase sequence!), terrible acting from a game no-name cast, a tacky theme song, a sizable smattering of leering soft-core sex, crummy dialogue, a mean, hard, sleazy tone, and one dilly of a surprise bummer ending, this gloriously gaga over-the-top schlock mini-epic makes for a whole lot of entertainingly trashy fun. One especially great scene has Kim give elderly high school principal Mr. Elmhurst (doddery John Harmon) a fatal massive heart attack by exposing her breasts in front of him. A simply astonishing disco dance party set piece rates as another uproariously campy highlight. A shamefully overlooked and under-appreciated exploitation crime drama gem.