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Released by: MGM
Released on: 8/5/2003
Director: Boaz Davidson
Cast: Lawrence Monoson, Diane Franklin, Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo, Louisa Moritz, Brian Peck
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
Despite the recent success of films like American Pie, as far as I'm concerned the eighties was the 'be all - end all' decade for the teen sex comedy. The political climate has changed way too much in the last ten or fifteen years for Hollywood to ever make another film like The Last American Virgin. The world is too politically correct nowadays and things aren't as carefree as they were in those pre-HIV times.
Gary (Lawrence Monoson) is a virgin. He's an average guy as far as his social status goes. Not exactly the most popular guy around town, but he's pretty far from being the king of the dorks either. He spends most of his free spare time hanging out with his two best friends, Rick (Steve Antin) and David (Joe Rubbo). Rick is considerably more of a ladies man than the other two, and the new girl in town, Karen (the lovely Diane Franklin, who really should have gone on to bigger things), shows up on the scene, it's him that she falls for, despite the fact that Gary has an obvious crush on her and that Rick only has one thing on his mind. Obviously, things get complicated and everyone's relationship with each other becomes stressed as the movie takes us along for the ride while everyone sorts things out.
Filled with plenty of crass humor, lots of gratuitous nudity, and every stereotypical eighties comedy character you can think of, The Last American Virgin is an odd film that tries to be mostly a comedy but throw some serious dramatic twists at the audience that kind of come out of left field.
Despite some odd inconsistencies and a whole lot of eighties cheese, there are enough laughs (albeit, most of them are pretty crass, but that's ok) to make the film worth a look, and if you're particularly found of the music from the decade in which it was made, you're sure to groove on the soundtrack as well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Except for some fine grain and a couple of spots where the fleshtones are a wee bit too pink, MGM's 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks pretty nice. There are a few scenes where the grain is more prevalent than others but for the most part colors are nice and strong, blacks are pretty deep and don't pixelate or exhibit and compression artifacts, and overall, things look pretty good. MGM has also included a fullframe transfer of the film on the other side of the disc, but really, who cares.
Presented with it's eighties score completely intact, The Last American Virgin is given a serviceable Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Channel separation isn't particularly noticeable and most of the action comes at you from the center speaker but things do brighten up a bit when the music hits, which is nice. It's nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done.
MGM has included the films original theatrical trailer.
The Final Word:
The Last American Virgin is, for better or worse, very much a product of it's time and MGM has done a decent job on this release, even if it is almost barebones.
For source material, check out some of the original Israeli LEMON POPSICLE films.
BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE!