1980 Directed by Floyd Mutrux
Led by their comedic and pranking leader, Newbomb Turk, the Hollywood Knights car gang raise hell throughout Beverly Hills on Halloween Night, 1965. Everything from drag racing to Vietnam to high school love.
Die Hollywood Gang
Underdogs and coming of age Crude humor and satire Song and dance Relationship comedy teenager, school, friendship, funny or nerds musical, songs, singing, comedy or funny funny, comedy, humor, jokes or hilarious comedy, funny, hilarious, humor or jokes comedy, funny, humor, hilarious or jokes Show All…
A fantastic movie about some 60’s hot-rodding teenagers cruising the drag, racing cars and pulling crazy pranks, featuring a hip nostalgic soundtrack and early performances by several future stars came out in 1973 and was called American Graffiti.
….Oh, and seven years later, came this lame ass rip-off.
It feels too obvious an effort to point out that this is an American Graffiti ripoff, but it's hard to describe this without doing so. Endlessly dull cruelties disguised as pranks, misogyny and racism and homophobia and all the other awful things about our world presented as light-hearted comedy, and disgusting displays of privilege masquerading as sticking it to The Man, most of this film is desperately trying to capture the spirit of a raucous sex comedy while simultaneously clinging to some sort of pathos in one or two of the subplots. Instead, those feel cliched and watered-down (though there is a moment of genuine feeling in there when they put on the car stereo), and we're overwhelmed by antics that wouldn't be funny by talented comedians, much less this hack best known for Arliss (okay, admittedly, I've never seen that--just being a jerk here). Anyway, the soundtrack is great, except the part where Robert Wuhl butches "Volare."
January 2019
Scavenger Hunt #46
TASK #3: A film you borrowed from a friend, relative, or library!
An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Animal House and grab some of that sweet American Graffiti dough as well, The Hollywood Knights suffers from a needlessly jumpy script with certain characters and subplots that feel entirely unnecessary (i.e. anything having to do with Tony Danza, Michelle Pfeiffer, and the Vietnam War), but it definitely has its hilarious set-pieces (including one of the rare great fart jokes in cinema) and its cast and soundtrack are also fantastic.
Great coming-of-age movie that came out in 1980. Although it has a similar format and was probably inspired by American Graffiti, it has an irreverance and comedy charm all it's own, especially for gearheads, lovers of 1960's music, and for people that like to see basically good kids "Stickin' it to the Man". Tony Danza was somewhat established by this point but Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Wuhl, Fran Drescher and even Stuart Pankin were pretty much getting their big-screen starts with this movie, at least with roles that anyone can remember. The musclecars and soundtrack are phenomenal, and the story line is hilarious and entertaining too. If you've never seen it, put this movie on your must-see list.
Not once, but twice now, Friday movie night has been a Taco Bell Party Pack paired with a forgotten Tony Danza movie. I’m kind of worried this will be a thing-but I think there is a movie with Danza and a monkey, so that should go well with a ridiculous amount of quality Tacos.
As for Hollywood Knights. My Dad takes comedic glee in sharing unwelcomed stories about ‘stringing nerds by their underpants’ with his Shop Class buddies back in the day. I wouldn’t think there was much room for questioning the inappropriateness of harassment if the shenanigans of Newbomb Turk (Whul) and the like are setting the tone.
Lucky for Danza and Pfeiffer, they were in a completely different movie filmed far off from whatever embarrassing career making dignity deprived movie Robert Whul was in.
This love child of American Graffiti and Animal House is not as good as the former but holds up better than the latter. It's silly fun. Highlights include Michele Pfeiffer's first onscreen appearance and a weapons-grade oldies soundtrack.
It's also an early entry (May 1980) in list of '80s movies where Vietnam was on the mind of Hollywood.
At Home - PLEX
In the vein of American Graffiti, on the heels of the success of Animal House and a pre cursor to Porky's Floyd Mutrux and William Fraker make a hilarious and raunchy teen comedy about a car club in Beverly Hills spending Halloween night pulling pranks, initiating pledges, trying to pick up chicks, relationship woes and even a members pending deployment into the not yet out of control Vietnam War. All of these things are familiar territory in the final 3 films by Mutrux, who mind you was at one point considered the future of Hollywood filmmaking alongside Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas and Terry Mallick. In the Hollywood Knights Mutrux is able to show the side of teenagers…
Happy Fathers Day Dad, I let you pick a movie that reminded you of your teenage years, but Holy Jesus fucking Christ. I mean, don't you just love when a movie's only comedic moments rely on immature sexism and homophobia?
This movie tries to do so many things and tell so many stories, and it ends up doing none of them right. There isn't a single character that is memorable, a single storyline that is engaging. I mean, sure, there are a few laughs here and there, but then again I do have the mind of a twelve year old. Even with my juvenile sense of humor, this movie just fucking blows. It's a shame, because buried beneath all this stupid, pointless shit there is a pretty good story of two best friends dealing with one friend being drafted into the Vietnam War. I mean, did I stay for the homoerotic tension between the two of them? Abso-fucking-lutely.
I really want to like a Floyd Mutrux, R-rated rip off of American Graffiti set on Halloween but this isn't very good and its theme song is one of the worst things.
this is MY dazed and confused (even though the characters in this were nowhere near as likeable as the ones in d&c) !!!!! might be overrating this but idgaf it was SO fun and michelle pfeiffer looked SO gorgeous (as per usual) this movie was kinda perfect…
Lordy, Lordy. 😓
As a Pfeiffer completist, it had to be done.
The best part was Fran Drescher yelling “TURK DID YOU CUM?!” from the backseat.
Dreadfully mean-spirited, obnoxious and wholly unpleasant AMERICAN GRAFFITI rip-job. A very young Michelle Pfeiffer shows some early promise, but the always-unfunny Robert Wuhl deserves a good punch in the face.
