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Reviled by critics and embraced by the public during its initial run (1981),
Porky's is interesting to watch after all these years. What holds up about this horny coming-of-age tale is remarkable. Writer/director Bob Clark has little more than sex and practical joking on his mind, and his high school seniors from Angel Beach, Florida, rapidly move from one to the other. Clark displays a sense of timing and, perhaps rarer still, a sense of male friendship--its brutalities and its bonds--that feels right, not artificial. Surprisingly, the showcase practical jokes are still funny: the Everglades encounter with Cherry Forever, the hole in the girls' shower, and Beulah Balbricker, the humongous gym teacher. The comedic set-ups and payoffs surprisingly still work. Clark's insistence on a subplot about anti-Semitism, however, still sticks out as A MESSAGE. Kim Cattrall really got her start here (although almost no one else did) as Ms. Honeywell, a.k.a. "Lassie." Clark later distanced himself from the irritating
Porky's sequels and went on to make the wonderful
Christmas Story, the tale of a little boy who wants a BB gun for Christmas.
--Keith Simanton
Review
Porky's opened the floodgates for a multitude of cheap, obnoxious teen sex comedies in the early '80s, adding untold hours of mirth and playground whisperings to the lives of preteens and the chronically immature. Unlike its imitators, Porky's benefits from genuine laughs and a fond sense of nostalgia courtesy of director and screenwriter Bob Clark (who imbued his family-oriented classic A Christmas Story with the same qualities). While the movie is aimed at the funnybone of the adolescent male, it accurately captures the frenetic, desperate energy of this age, its obsession with sex and one-upmanship intact. Indeed, the constant practical joking that fills Porky's is part of the charm, and though tentative steps towards character development are made with an anti-prejudice subplot, the boys remain steadfastly immature to the end. The easily offended should steer clear, but Porky's is the best of a deservedly maligned breed. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
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