We first meet the gang, a likeable bunch of teenaged rogues reaching graduation year at Angel Beach High in 1955, as they're listening to Pee-Wee (Dan Monahan) describe a wet dream he'd had the previous evening. This segues nicely into fellow chums Billy (Mark Herrier) and Tommy (Wyatt Knight) announcing that they've managed to get their hands on an 8mm stag film. Tommy is the president of the school's audio-visual committee, and so suggests the gang - which also consists of Brian (Scott Colomby), Meat (Tony Ganios) and Wendy (Kaki Hunter) - use these facilities to watch something with "more beaver in it than the entire state of Wisconsin" at lunchtime.
However, they're caught in the act by hardcore school deputy Mrs Balbricker (Nancy Parsons). She encourages Principal Carter (Eric Christmas) to suspend the group, but he's more interested with checking out the contents of their "art film" for himself: happily, they're off the hook.
This means the lads can take part in the school's imminent basketball match, and Wendy can fulfil her duties in the cheerleading team. Prior to the match, the lads negotiate a deal with their cheerleader supporters - if they win the game, the girls must agree to an orgy. Well, the girls do agree to such ... but predictably play a prank on their horny male classmates.
All of which leads to the lads leaving their thwarted attempts at getting laid and looking for a fresh party to crash. While cruising the streets they bump into Brian, who'd had other things to do. He hooks up with them and says he's going to Porky's (a bar ran by an oversized gambling brute of the same name [Chuck Mitchell], with whom the boys have had several run-ins in the past). The word is, their school's coach (Bill Hindman) is getting a hard time off bully Porky and Brian has a plan to take photos of Porky's illegal backroom casino shenanigans, thus getting the oversized hector behind bars for good. The rest of the gang agree to help him in his quest.
En route, they stop to help a hot-looking woman who's pulled up on the side of the road with engine trouble. Meat approaches her but when she turns round the others are repulsed by what they see - a flame-nostrilled girl with braces - and speed off. This leaves Meat with Blossom (Wendy Feign) who, of course, ends up being really sweet.
When the rest of the lads arrive at Porky's pad, they're alarmed to find the building has been demolished. But you can't keep a good bastard down ... Porky has simply relocated his business onto a boat. Upon discovering this, the boys follow the boat to see where it docks.
The lads find the boat docked, just in time for Meat and Blossom to catch up with them in her car. It turns out that Blossom is Porky's daughter. She's hot for Meat, which of course means the boys have a way of getting on to the boat and taking photos of the casino ...
Once on the boat, Meat occupies Blossom by showing the insatiable gal how he earned his nickname, while his pals busy themselves looking for evidence of illicit gambling. They inevitably fall foul of Porky himself, who plans to shoot them on the spot ... until Brian suggests he could make a fortune by betting on them to lose at the upcoming basketball state championships match. That is, if they agree to throw the match ...
This promise prevents the guys from getting slaughtered there and then, but does present them with a fresh dilemma. Can they really live with themselves if they go against their nature and lose the game - one that they were a certainty to win?
Of course, the guys hatch a plan designed to get them out of their contract with Porky. And, naturally, things don't go to well in that regard. In the meantime, Meat and Blossom grow more and more attached ...
Arriving in 1985, PORKY'S REVENGE was the third and final instalment in the short-lived series which began in 1981 with Bob Clark's PORKY'S, and continued with 1983's PORKY'S 2: THE NEXT DAY. The original film remains one of the most fondly-remembered titles in the glut of bawdy teen comedies which surfaced at the time (see also BACHELOR PARTY, REVENGE OF THE NERDS, SCREWBALLS etc).
This third entry in the film series is the only one to not benefit from Clark in the director's chair (he was busy making RHINESTONE). The loss is felt, despite James Komack's best efforts. It's good to see most of the cast returning, and in terms of pacing there's little to quibble about here.
But a lot of the jokes fall flat, albeit in the most amiable of ways. I mean, PORKY'S REVENGE is as likeable as its protagonists - and they truly are agreeable, unlike smug contemporaries such as the AMERICAN PIE franchise's horrible Herberts - and there's a definite charm to proceedings as a result. I enjoyed the film: perhaps this was due to the cast; the peculiarly innocent aura felt in this current climate of a film which deals with sex in a relatively coy, reserved manner; the general POLICE ACADEMY-esque stupidity of it all. But it never made me laugh out loud, not even once. In fact, I don't think it did on 80s VHS either.
Still, if you're of a similar age to me, you'll hold a certain nostalgia for films like this - video rentals from your misspent youth - and I have to say PORKY'S REVENGE retains a lot of allure in this regard. There's even a bit of drama emergent in the film's final half. And being set in the 50s definitely works in the film's favour.
88 Films bring PORKY'S REVENGE to UK blu-ray in a nice special edition which presents the film as an MPEG4-AVC file, benefitting from full 1080p HD resolution.
Correctly presented in its original 16x9 widescreen form, the film looks clean, colourful and sharp here. Detail is pronounced, contrasts are acutely rendered and flesh tones are natural throughout. There is a certain softness to some scenes, which is very typical of films of this ilk from the 1980s - a stylistic choice at the time, rather than any flaw in the transfer.
English audio is proffered in an evenly balanced, consistent and clear 2.0 DTS-HD Master mix. Optional English subtitles are well-written and easy to read at all times.
The disc opens to a static main menu page. There isn't a scene selection menu but the film does contain chapter stops.
Extras commence with "High School Nights". This is an enjoyable new 16-minute featurette, named after the film's annoyingly catchy, cheesy theme song. In this, critic and author Kim Newman contextualises the PORKY'S trilogy among other titles of the time such as SPRING BREAK and SCREWBALLS, and reasons that Bob Clark's influence imbued these films with a more "left-leaning" stance akin to the Roger Corman sex comedies of the 1970s. Newman also takes time to cover some of the big names that started in sex comedies and went on to bigger things (Tom Cruise; Kim Cattrall), and muses over how the trilogy's unusual number of strong female characters foreshadowed later works.
"Porky's Daughter" provides a 26-minute interview with Feign, who looks good here and speaks with enthusiasm as she recollects how she got the PORKY'S REVENGE gig and which cast members were the sweetest. Amazingly, her audition for the part of Blossom was Feign's first ever audition - and involved undressing her casting director in a seduction scene. She obviously did it well! Feign reveals that she'd never seen a PORKY'S film at this point but went in to the shoot with gusto regardless. Her biggest reservation seemed to be cursing on camera ... There are some great stories to be had here (how Komack got the bulk of the male cast to disrobe; the tribulations of transforming into Blossom, which led to her director thinking Feign had a cocaine problem), making this a very welcome addition to the disc.
We also get the film's original trailer, which serves as a wonderful 90-second time capsule.
The first run of this release also comes with a colourful 4-page booklet containing liner notes, and a limited edition slipcase cover. As ever, the keepcase itself houses a double-sided sleeve.
PORKY'S REVENGE is a relic, a reminder of the (engagingly) terrible comedies we endured on video in the 1980s. It's a blast of pure nostalgia, and can perhaps best be described as a frat take on POLICE ACADEMY, with added breasts. It looks good here, and the extras are most welcome.
Review by Stuart Willis
| Released by 88 Films |