Episode 42 - Jocks (1986)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EPISODE 42 - JOCKS (1986)
Here we are again friends, back in the trash heap of Crown International Pictures just digging through their pile of cinematic filth they spewed out in the 1970’s and 80’s and boy have we found a real hidden gem here.
Jocks is notorious for a couple of reasons, the first being that it was shelved by Crown International for a few years (yes, this movie was so bad even Crown didn’t want to release it) and the second being that it was one of the biggest box office bombs of 1986.
While we don’t have the budget numbers for Jocks (and I’m sure nobody does; not even Crown) the movie only made $120,808. Let me put this into perspective for you: in 1986 the top grossing movie was Top Gun and it made over $176,000,000. The Hitcher (a small movie starring Rutger Hauer) ranked 100 out of the 208 movies released theatrically that year and made almost $6,000,000. Where does Jocks rank? 198 out of 208. This is one of the movies that sunk Crown International Pictures.
Despite all the failure that surrounds this movie it’s an incredible enjoyable entry from Crown. Don’t get me wrong, this is a bad movie, a really really bad movie but it posses that distinct Crown quality that puts a smile on your face no matter how bad the movie is.
The movie is basically just a rip off of more successful teen comedies of the early 80’s - they even hired Donald Gibb (Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds) to basically play the same character. So where did Nerds go right and Jocks go wrong? Was it a case of bad marketing? Wrong place, wrong time?
Jocks is one of the laziest movies you’ll ever see. It’s almost as if they viewed the plot as something they HAD to include and a burden to the endless stream of jokes. Scenes literally start in the middle of conversations and major events either happen offscreen or in vague exposition. It makes for a very confusing experience but if you simply shut your brain off for an hour and a half it actually becomes enjoyable.
The highlights of the film include Christopher Lee and Richard Roundtree making appearances, A young Mariska Hargitay before her Law and Order days, and a view of Las Vegas before it became the Disneyland it is today.
Next Week’s Film
TerrorVision (1986)
Director: Ted Nicolaou
Writer: Ted Nicolaou
Stars: Diane Franklin, Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham
