Reviews & Ratings for
Impure Thoughts More at IMDbPro »

4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Impure Thoughts Was A Great Idea That Really Didn't Hold Up, 21 October 1999

Author: steve-214 (sfwr@earthlink.net) from Brea, Ca. USA

Some might like this film more than I, especially if you have attended a catholic middle school. It is about four men who have attended the same catholic school in 1960 and now find themselves in Purgatory. After some bantering back and forth, they begin to seriously compare experiences at the school. Impure Thoughts means well and actually held my interest for about 45 minutes. It does explore the coming of age and how the church views going through those difficult years.But I found myself not caring enough for the main characters, as children or as adults. Not a bad film, but could have been so much better.

0 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Alyson Hannigan's first, a bit part in a minority interest story, version 1.02, 1 December 2008
Author: annevejb from UK

Impure Thoughts is copyright listed as 1985 and IMDb listed as 1986. I assume something like completion date versus release date. Not knowing the filming dates, oh so nice to know in features like this, that puts AH at around age 11.

This story might not make much sense to anyone who was not in Catholic education in the 1950's and 1960's. Me, I was in the UK so I can relate to this even though my schools were very different with different syllabuses. I am not in tune with modern Catholic culture, Christianity now feels not my way, but I found this very easy to follow and like. Frost In May no, by now I find that to be too disaster, this yes.

The idea of Purgatory, generally interesting. The examples, to me Scapula is from the middle ages only, Sex Ed we just got no, many examples might not be appreciated without an inside view.

Four boys, from the same school, one that caters to the full school age range. St Jude means something, is the patron saint for what?

Four boys, not friends but shown to be friends, but not all looking to be in the same age group.

This is not a comedy, they sit at a table in a purgatory waiting room and look back on their lives, but it does have a light tone. It is optimistic about purgatory.

My DVD cover gives a misleading idea about any sex parts in Impure Thoughts. It covers a fantasy that one of them had about a teacher, but as if by someone who was effective with fantasy rather than someone who understood fantasy to be taboo. The actual fantasy is amazing for its lack of appeal, to me, first viewing.

My DVD is 4x3 and I do not know the original image format. It is blatantly low production budget. To me this is a real historic feature but I also happen to be someone who can relate to it and also enjoy it.

*

Modern world can feel like it makes males who do not feel to pass the test hunger to follow female ways, that females who do not feel to pass the test are liable to hunger for cuddlier ways. All done by way of back to front ways. An obvious over-simplification.

Those going to a school that takes religion seriously would be on better ground re facing the ways of the world? Unless the religion had been made to feel a need for back to front ways?

That scapula can be an interesting symbol for this, was that really part of Catholic 60's USA? Most would prefer symbols from the way that they had grown up in instead? Those who did not go through a Catholic education system will not be liable to appreciate this feature.

*

Alyson Hannigan. She plays the younger sister of the younger male.

Most of the school action shows the older ones so she is not there.

40 minutes in she is blatantly AH, preparing for the school dance, less blatantly when arriving at the dance. It is the chapter that the DVD calls Sister Joan, the teacher Danny thought of as Sister Joan of Arc. I assume that AH is likely to have experienced her role as comedy, played with pride.

She could be in a few other scenes. I do not think so, other than maybe the start of Sister Joan chapter.

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