Joysticks (1983)

User Rating:

2.6/10   

Director:

Greydon Clark

Writers:

Al Gomez (writer) &
Mickey Epps (writer) ...

Release Date:

March 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

More fun than games.

Plot:

When a top local businessman and his two bumbling nephews try to shut down the town's only video arcade, arcade employees and patrons fight back.

Plot Keywords:

Arcade | Video Game | Sex | Valley Girl | Punk

Cast

Joe Don Baker	...	Joseph Rutter
Leif Green	...	Eugene Groebe
Jim Greenleaf	...	Jonathan Andrew McDorfus
Scott McGinnis	...	Jefferson Bailey
Jon Gries	...	King Vidiot (as Jonathan Gries)
Corinne Bohrer	...	Patsy Rutter
John Diehl	...	Arnie
John Voldstad	...	Max
Reid Cruickshanks	...	Coach Straight
Morgan Lofting	...	Mrs. Rutter
Kym Malin	...	Lola
Kim G. Michel	...	Alva
Jacqueline Cole	...	Alexis Wheeler (as Jacqulin Cole)
Logan Ramsey	...	Mayor Neville
Justine Lenore	...	Nurse Tubitt

Also Known As:

Joy Sticks (International: English title) (video box title)
Video Madness

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | USA:R | Canada:AA (Ontario)

Company:

Jensen Farley Pictures

Quotes:

Patsy Rutter: I wish you would be like other dads and stay home and barbeque.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)

Soundtrack:

Down at the Arcade

A misunderstood masterpiece of rancid 80's schlock art

I can't believe all the harsh reviews this movie gets. I think it's a true work of deliciously dreadful 80's trash exploitation movie art that totally nails the rampant hedonism and stupidity of adolescence with uncanny accuracy. All the kids want to do in this film are play video games or make out. They have no ambitions or aspirations towards doing anything meaningful or significant with their lives. They just wanna party and have fun. Come on, people, that's exactly what being a teenager is all about! And boy does "Joysticks" peg this blithely moronic mindset with spot-on incisiveness and authenticity. This movie reaches its true moment of absolute cinematic greatness during the legendary strip video sequence. When the camera pans down to show the hot chick's ample breasts jiggling up and down in extreme eye-popping close-up as she plays the video game those beauteous bouncing boobs perform a majestic ballet that just screams "gleefully mindless sleazy entertainment!" Yeah, the acting stinks, the plot's a paper-thin joke, the humor is crude and sophomoric, the production values are strictly rock bottom, and the 80's slang, clothes, and hairstyles now are hopelessly dated and laughable at this point in time, but "Joysticks" nonetheless reigns supreme as a genuine tacky no-brainer dreck artifact of its era.