Back in 1983 some of the leading Comedy releases of the year included National Lampoon’s Vacation, Trading Places, and A Christmas Story. Films which are considered classics all these years later, there were also other Comedies to emerge throughout that year with more mainstream appeal like Valley Girl, Easy Money, The Man with Two Brains, and Mr. Mom. Then if you dig a little deeper there were your more lude, crude flicks from the same time such as Screwballs, Private School, and Joysticks. These, the type of films that may make a more prude individual blush, the main ingredient was overt sexuality mixed with a lowbrow sense of humor. Truly from a different era, to today’s standard, they are completely offensive in a social climate where you can cut the tension with a knife.
Nonetheless, it would be intellectually dishonest to act as if we are culture above such wild humor 40 or so years later. We are human, and there is still laughter to be found in such films as all those mentioned in the ‘lower tier’ of Comedy… especially Joysticks. Joysticks, written and directed by Greydon Clark (who had a list of films prior, such as 1977’s Satan’s Cheerleaders and 1980’s Without Warning), was a bit different from other Sex Comedies in the respect that it had one other big theme surrounding it all, video games. In retrospect, this medium of entertainment was relatively new at the time as video arcades began to gain momentum in the late ‘70s, before reaching peak popularity in the ‘80s.
Keen to this pop culture shift, Clark’s Joysticks revolves around a video arcade which is all the rage with teenagers. Here you have all types of personalities that seem to co-exist just fine, no matter their background; this includes the preppy young arcade owner Jefferson Bailey (Scott McGinnis: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1984, Secret Admirer 1985), a nerdy new employee named Eugene Groebe (Leif Green: Grease 2 1982), and sloppy just out of high school slacker known simply as McDorfus (Jim Greenleaf: High Hero series, Toy Soldiers 1984). However, an overbearing local businessman by the name of Joseph Rutter (Joe Don Baker: Walking Tall 1983, Fletch 1985) will stop at nothing to get the video arcade shutdown.
A simple enough concept, in-between it all there is your share of nudity, a lude sense of humor, but plenty of momentum that keeps you watching. Adding even more intrigue to it all, Joysticks cast also included a young, up and coming cast who would become quite successful in the years to follow; including Jon Gries (who went on to a slew of memorable roles such as in 1987’s Monster Squad), Corinne Bohrer (known for roles in such films including 1987’s Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol), and John Diehl (who went on to big things with Miami Vice and beyond). Not too bad, right?
Furthermore, if you are a video game geek, Joysticks was the first place anyone saw Super Pac-Man… because at the time the game had yet to be released, but is featured in the film’s final video game showdown. Kind of cool when you think about it, some are probably wondering – where can I catch Joysticks all these years later considering its relative obscurity? Well, beyond the initial release to VHS and Betamax through Vestron Video in 1984, it made the jump to DVD in 2006, before being released for an extremely limited run of 1,000 pressings to Blu-ray back in 2015. At this point you can catch it on several streaming services, but if you were looking for a Blu-ray edition, you more than likely will have an insane price via sites like eBay. However, on May 7, 2024 MVD Visual will release Joysticks once again as a part of their MVD Rewind Collection.
Offered as a 2K scan restoration transfer, and presented in 1080p HD widescreen format, it is apples to apples the same as the Scorpion Releasing limited edition print from 2015. Beyond this, you get an insightful interview with Greydon Clark talking about Joysticks and his other projects, plus some other cool bonus features such as a fan commentary. Relatively simple in terms of supplement material, another big selling point here is a really nice reversible artwork, a 2-sided mini-poster, plus if you get the first pressing, an awesome slipcase. Looking at this for the moment, the slipcase is modeled after a retro Atari cover… so it is really something you may want to try to get your hands on if at all possible.
Overall, Joysticks is one of those films which exemplifies the ‘80s yet still holds up today because it reminds us of the early beginnings of video game culture. Furthermore, even though it may be obscure to many in today’s world, it cannot be denied that Joysticks was indeed known back in the day; being one of the highest grossing films at the box office in its opening week before going on to gross just under 4 million dollars in US sales alone. Not too bad at all, Cryptic Rock commend this latest edition to the MVD Rewind Collection, giving the Joysticks release 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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