pacmann Review of A Hard Day for Archie

A Hard Day for Archie (1974)

A nice little piece of Americana and the precursor to Porky's

[8/10 · 23 July 2007]

Let's call a spade a spade, "Hot Times" is campy, a bit over the top, with gross jokes, lots of female nudity and bad mid 1970s haircuts. And yet when I watched this on Cinemax back in the 1980s and felt that is was almost hardcore, now I realize it was just a little piece Americana that showed what some kids were really doing in the mid 1970s in the East coast. It can be called a parody of the "Archie" comic book series, but it slightly changes the names, and although the jokes are dated and, only one member of the cast has actually had a decent film career, it is not as pretentious as "Porky's", "H.O.T.S" and "Preppies". Ther plot revolves about the sexual happening of one Archie Anders who, has great looking classmates and screwup best friends in his high school. The home life is not much better with rigid parents, and sleeping in with the older sister, who is a nag,but as we find out later has quite a body. The movie is tongue in cheek and not as over the top as many would have reviewed back in the day.The jokes are actually funny, and those who lived back then could relate. Worth a look, I even got a copy from a local store in its original huge VHS box. Thumbs up!