JUST ONE OF THE GUYS
The Preshow Entertainment was cartoons from THE POWERPUFF GIRLS. It's a great show, TPG. It's cute and funny, but seems to run out of air after awhile, as we discussed while viewing. By the 3rd one, we were ready to move on. This was the problem I had with THE POWERPUFF GIRLS movie as well...it was nothing. All it had going for it was "cute," and you can only ride on cute for so long (like a WB starlet). But there we were, watching evil monkey Mojo Jojo trying to take over the world by turning the population into dogs in an episode smartly named MONKEY SEE, DOGGIE DO.
The movie randomly selected was:
JUST ONE OF THE GUYS
You can't get much more ‘80s than this. In fact, on VH1's I LOVE THE '80s, they did a whole section on JOOTG. We had a lot of fun laughing at the styles, attitudes, and even dialogue (someone responds to an unbelievable claim with "yeah, and I'm Cyndi Lauper!").
Probably pitched as TEEN TOOTSIE (they did the smart thing of actually mentioning TOOTSIE) JOOTG is the story of high school girl Terri, whose journalistic integrity is compromised by the evil judges who only give prizes to guys, of which we know she is not one. Fourteen minutes and thirty-five seconds in (see Screenwriting 101), she realizes that "I bet if I was a guy I would have won," and we're on our way.
If you had this premise and had to write the movie yourself, you'd most likely include stuff like Terri falling in love with a guy but can't do anything about it, since she is a "guy" herself. And a bully. And a new kid. And a prom. And lots of predicaments involving mens rooms, locker rooms, etc. (It was co-written by a BOSOM BUDDIES staff writer). But I'm not sure you would have one of the kids have a pet alligator and critters on him all the time, and a guy who loves James Brown so much, he has to dance when he hears a song (although we never see this). But even with all the predictable moments and cliches, I still find this '80s gem works, although much of it is a time capsule. It's not over the top (too much). It's almost gentle. And lead Joyce Hyser is pretty good. And I'm convinced that her scene stealing brother Buddy was ripped off from Bud (the same name!) on MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN. Other actors you may or may not recognize- Sherilyn Fenn and Arye Gross.
IMPORTANT: JUST ONE OF THE GUYS is no CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, which was, by the way, remade as LOVE DON'T COST A THING. I'm skeptical of a film named after a Beatles song being remade under a J. Lo title.
We had a few good laughs, which were sorely called for after last month's THE BUMBLEBEE FLIES AWAY. Some of the students in the movie looked 10, and others 35. The best line came from RMCer Steven- When one of the older looking "students" is asked "How many proms have you gone to?", meaning "this is our only prom," Steven said 14. That killed us.
JUST ONE OF THE GUYS is a story of how one person can take on the system, and find love along the way. It's heartwarming, true to itself, warm, and funny.
Plus the girl shows her tits.
Tags: random movie club, just one of the guys, the powerpuff girls
