Review of Homework

Homework (1982)
4/10
Humorless comedy
6 May 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those teen sex comedies that seems to possess all the same ingredients as others in the genre but when it was over I can honestly say that I never found even one scene the least bit funny. Story is about a high school senior named Tommy (Michael Morgan) who thinks about sex so much that his grades start to suffer and he's forced to go to a psychologist (Carrie Snodgress) but he is also having trouble with his girlfriend Sheila (Erin Donovan) who spends her time swimming in the family pool to try and make the swim team.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** One day Tommy and his best friend Ralph (Lanny Horn) decide to put a band together for the talent show and this seems to occupy his time but he's still hopelessly horny and dreams of girls throwing themselves at him. Sheila's mother Diana (Joan Collins) starts to remember the good old days when she was a teenager messing around with boys in the front seat of cars and one day she takes a good look at Tommy which results in her taking his virginity.

This was directed by James Beshears who never did direct another film although he did go on to a very successful career working behind the scenes. His lack of directorial skills is painfully evident as scenes are edited together in the most amateurish way and the use of flashbacks are downright clumsy looking. This was released into theaters in 1982 but it was actually filmed in 1979 and it's very easy to see how the times had changed in those years because characters talk about disco music and wear Jim Morrison t-shirts with bell bottoms. As I stated this film really has no humor and one can't help but think that everyone connected with the making of this had no idea of what comedy is. In one truly uncomfortable scene the characters Sheila and Lisa start picking on the black chick Cookie (Renee Harris) about her not knowing how to swim and being a virgin. If that wasn't bad enough than how funny is it when Lisa visits her rock star idol and ends up catching gonorrhea? Yeah, that's always a knee slapper! To be honest I did (almost) grin when one of Tommy's teachers starts yelling at him about his grades slipping and shouting "continue like this and you'll be a garbage man!" The main point of the film is of course to watch the sexy Joan Collins bed a young man but the scenes have a body double and it's (once again) horribly edited. There is one question that I hope readers of this can help me with and it's with the identity of the actress who played the blond buxom nurse in the fantasy sequence. If anyone knows her name I would greatly appreciate it. This film sat in moth balls for a few years until the television show "Dynasty" became a hit and Collins suddenly erupted as a hot commodity which prompted the studios to dust this off and shoved it into theaters, but lets be real, compared to the rest of the horny teenager flicks this is a very cheap and badly made effort that offers very little to viewers.
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