Totally Awesome (2006)

A spoof of typical 1980's teen movies. The idea is that VH1 found a "long-lost", never-released teen film made in the 1980's and decided to air it now in 2006; thus it is loaded with the ... See full summary »

Director:

Neal Brennan

Writers:

Neal Brennan, Michael Schur

Stars:

Mikey Day, Dominique Swain, Chris Kattan

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mikey Day	...	Charlie
Dominique Swain	...	Lori
Chris Kattan	...	Gabriel
Trevor Heins	...	Max
Nicki Clyne	...	Billie
Brittany Daniel	...	Kimberly
James Hong	...	Mr. Yamagashi
Teryl Rothery	...	Mrs. Gunderson
Greg Kean	...	Mr. Gunderson
Joey Kern	...	Kipp
Tracy Morgan	...	Darnell
Tone Loc	...	Tone Loc
Adam Thomas	...	Kipp's Boy #1
Marc Menard	...	Kipp's Boy #2
Richard de Klerk	...	Werewolf / Nick (as Richard DeKlerk)

Storyline

A spoof of typical 1980's teen movies. The idea is that VH1 found a "long-lost", never-released teen film made in the 1980's and decided to air it now in 2006; thus it is loaded with the typical formula, clichés, bad fashions, and stereotypical characters found in those movies and makes fun of them.

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Plot Keywords:

1980s | spoof | sexual attraction | mini skirt | blue panties | 

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Taglines:

Where the dancing is dirty, the pink is pretty, and the foot runs loose.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 December 2008 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Totalmente Demais

Filming Locations:

Tsawwassen, Delta, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

3 Arts Entertainment, Awesome Productions Inc., Awesome Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dominique Swain plays a young girl who has a physical relationship with a much older man. Swain's breakout role was in the controversial movie Lolita in which she played the title character who is a girl who has a physical relationship with a much older man.

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Goofs

During the scene where Lori is in the principal's office, you can see modern vehicles through the window. At the decathlon, a modern minivan is in the parking lot.

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Quotes

Darnell: You need some new gear, with that shirt on we might get jumped by 8 Decepticons or somethin'

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Connections

Spoofs The Karate Kid (1984)

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Soundtracks

Take On Me
Written by Magne Furuholmen (as M. Furuholmen) / Morten Harket (as M. Harket) / Pål Waaktaar
Performed by A-Ha
Published by Sony/ATV Songs LLC
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & Television Licensing

User Reviews

I made it all the way to the end....

I watched the entire movie without stopping and deleting it from the DVR. That's about the best thing I can say about "Totally Awesome".

The thing about spoofs is that they only work if they consistently satirize their targets. They need to find humor in parts of the original films that weren't "funny" and find humor in them. This is the biggest flaw of "Totally Awesome". The movie is just lame setups, horrendous overacting and a few interesting ideas that never quite hit the mark. There is very little actual satire. Mr. Miyagi got more laughs in the original Karate Kid than his "spoof" counterpart did during this entire train wreck of a movie. Dominique Swain is another big offender here. I'm sure she was directed to completely overact, but she completely blew past the line separating funny from downright annoying. With maybe one or two exceptions, I found her performance almost unbearable.

It's not all doom and gloom, after all I did get through the whole thing without deleting it. I'm not normally a huge Tracy Morgan fan, but he completely stole the show with the brief role he was given. Even by spoof standards Joey Kern might have been a bit too over-the-top as the nemesis, but he did get me to laugh more than once. There were also some laughs to be found in some of the dancing scenes and the lead actor looked eerily like C.Thomas Howell from "Soul Man" when in black-face.

I guess it's not a complete waste of 100 minutes, but it's not hard to realize why this script wound up as 'made for VH1' filler either. I have a sneaking suspicion that this was shot for theatrical release or possibly direct-to-DVD. The transfer is clearly cropped from some widescreen film format. It's pretty easy to see why it never made it that far. (Altho from what I hear, this is being released on DVD. Oh boy.) Anyways, this one misses far more than it hits. When you are constantly reminded how much superior the original 80's movies are instead of being inspired to laugh at their silliness, the makers of the spoof have dropped the ball.

Who thought the movie "Soul Man" was a good idea? Apparently the same folks that thought "Totally Awesome" was a good idea.