Joysticks

More fun with tits!

Before video game movies were somewhat based upon characters and original stories, there were other films were these electronic devices played a role from a more realistic perspective, like a scene filmed inside an Arcade center, or a kid playing in a national Nintendo contest. The very first one being Tron (1982), were an arcade game designer gets sucked into the video game world he created.  The film was a big hit and to this day is still seen as a "classic from the Arcade years", thus paving the way for several films including these coin craving electronic entertainment time wasters. 

1983 saw the release of Nightmares, Wargames & Joysticks (today's film in review). 1984 had Cloak & Dagger (officially based upon an Atari videogame), and The Last Starfighter (another classic). The Dungeonmaster followed in 1985, then Hollywood Zap the next year, Kung Fu Master (1988) and the Nintendo product placement film that introduced Super Mario Bros. 3 to the world: The Wizard (1989) .Obviosly, more films were made in the coming decades. However, our interest lays in these 80s films because we will be reviewing each of these starting today. 

Arcade nostalgia.

A bunch of misfits from the video arcade.

Background

Joysticks is the most different out of the 80s bunch of films, essentially because it's  a classic 80s sex comedy! T & A!.

Directed by Greydon Clark the film was theatrically released on March 4, 1983 in the United States by Jensen Farley Pictures and was the fifth highest grossing in its first week. It grossed $3,952,448 in the United States.

The film was released on VHS by Vestron Video. Liberation Entertainment released the film on DVD in 2006. It was released on Blu-ray by Scorpion in 2013 as a 30th anniversary edition.

The production took 13 days and allowed the image of Pac-Man by video game developer Midway Games to be used in the film. Also, they allowed the filmmakers to showcase Satan's Hollow and the then-unreleased Super Pac-Man during the film's climactic video game showdown.

Plot

Jefferson Bailey (Scott McGinnis) runs the most popular video arcade in town, much to the chagrin of local businessman Joseph Rutter (Joe Don Baker). With his two bumbling nephews, Rutter aims to frame Bailey and have his business shut down. Bailey, however, is wise to Rutter's plan and teams with best friends Eugene Grobit (Leif Green) and McDorfus (Jim Greenleaf) to stop this scheme, which also involves a video game duel with punker King Vidiot (Jon Gries). 

 

My baby girl can't hang around with suchlewd people.

Green Day can suck my punk balls!

Review
 

The story mode from Joysticks is that there’s a popular video arcade, and a rich man wants it shut down because he’s sick of his daughter hanging around the awful people who patronize it. Among this clientele are every single ’80s movie stereotype: the cool kids, the valley girls, the nerd, the slob, and the punks.

The rich guy — played by Joe Don Baker, also has two bumbling nephews who act as his goons to try to sabotage the arcade to win their uncle’s favor.

You know how, sometimes, people will try to do some sort of modern homage to the ’80s, and they put all these obvious tropes in it, like bad acting, bad hair, bad clothes, a synth soundtrack, a predictable and hackneyed plot — and you see it and think, “well, they didn’t really make movies like that in the ’80s, this is just an idealized stereotype.”

Nope. It was true. And Joysticks is that movie.

I never saw such fine ladies at the video arcade back in my day.

You're on TV smile!

Everything the movie tries to accomplish, it does fairly. The cool kids aren’t that cool. The punks are not that punk and the trouble they cause is inconsequential. The pranks that the kids pull on each other are lame. The naughty scenes are unsexy excuses to show topless girls. The rich guy isn’t even that rich, he’s like barely upper middle class.

Of course, there are plenty of video games in the movie. It’s always cool to see original arcade cabinets back in the day. There are tons of popular titles, like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, Defender, Pole Position, and Centipede, but you can also spot lots of lesser-known games, like Space Dungeon and Star Castle.

Interestingly, there’s a scene featuring a game you may not have seen before. It’s referred to in the film and credits as “Stripper Game,” but a quick bit of research turned up that it was a 1981 game called Streaking by Shoei. Already a bawdy game featuring nudity — which is probably why we never really saw it outside Japan — it apparently was retooled a bit for this movie. So at least there’s a bit of obscure game esoterica here that’s worth a look — if you can get past the fact that the scene showing this game is also full of welcomed boobs.

 

Gamer tits.

The rare Streaking arcade game.

The arcade also has what’s called The Arena, which is two oversized screens side-by-side with two gigantic, floor-mounted joysticks in front of them, which they use for competitions. There are two major contests in the movie, one pitting punk King Vidiot against the slovenly Dorfus in a game of Satan’s Hollow, and another featuring Vidiot versus the arcade’s owner, Jeff Bailey, in a Super Pac-Man faceoff. It’s ridiculous, but actually could be seen as a bit forward-thinking, in today’s era of gigantic arcade machines from Raw Thrills. It also looks an awful lot like the climactic scene in The Wizard.

All things considered, Bailey’s Arcade actually looks like a pretty cool place. I’d totally hang out there. They have hot dogs!

Joysticks was only released on VHS back in the day — never on laser-disc or CED — and copies go for quite a bit in today’s collector market. There were a few DVD releases in the past several years, which are also now out-of-print and expensive (the only one available on Amazon that’s inexpensive is a region 2 version). However, if you have Amazon Prime, Joysticks is available to stream for free!

 

Sexy gamer ladies.

Talk about product placement!

It should also be noted that Ship to Shore Phono Co., the record label responsible for many great video game soundtrack LPs, did put out the Joysticks sountrack on vinyl, but the limited pressing of 1000 units is also sold out.

Now, before we go, here's our trivia section  for this 80s gem:

1.When Greydon Clark approached game company Midway about using the image of Pac-Man in the film, he also requested that they allow him to feature a yet-to-be-released game in order to increase the film's appeal. The game Midway chose to feature was Satan's Hollow, which is played in the face-off between King Vidiot and McDorfus. Strangely enough, games that were allegedly made for kids, ended up being promoted in an adult T&A comedy.

2.Director Greydon Clark has stated that he developed the idea for the film after seeing teenagers waiting in line to enter an arcade. He decided that an arcade-themed film could tap into that market. He wasn't wrong, was he?

 

3.Exterior of the arcade is the actual exterior of the warehouse in which the arcade set was built. 

 

You'll get the girl at the arcade.

You'll get two girls at the arcade!

4.The opening scene with Eugene (Leif Green) was shot without permits in less than an hour.
 

5. Shot in three weeks.
 

6.This film was made under the title "Video Madness."
 

7.All the video games were rented from a local wholesaler.
 

8.The house used as Joseph Rutter's home had once belonged to Nat 'King' Cole, at a time when Cole was the only African-American in the neighborhood.
 

9.Jon Gries came up with the idea to sit on top of a chair instead of in said chair during the town council trial sequence.
 
10.The town council trial sequence was filmed in a rented VFW facility. 

 

 

Whatcha got there stud?

You've unlocked the nude level!

So yeah, Joysticks is awful. And yet, if you’re the type of movie fan who actually loves watching terrible movies (and there are plenty of those folks out there — I admit, I can be one myself), I gotta say, Joysticks is also watchable enough to be that Friday night session you might be looking for. It’s really a pretty solid package of ’80s bad teen movie cliches that you might actually enjoy.

 

Here's the movie trailer:

 

 

The opening credits: