If you loved films like “Porky’s,” or “Hot Resort,” then Michael G Leonard’s indie exploitation comedy is right up your alley. It’s as if someone took a script from 1983 and fitted it for modern times, without trimming any of what made eighties films so much damn fun. The gratuitous nudity, shameless innuendo, busty babes running around and frolicking, and the plot of the underdogs battling an evil corporation for control of a community, it all here and then some. You know where the director’s head is when the prologue of the film begins on a racquet ball match between a gym owner’s son and a gorgeous woman and ends on her topless and smashing her chest in to a glass window.
When Gus Bazooka, owner of the popular exercise gym dies from a heart attack, he leaves the property in ownership of his sons Angus and Judah. Angus wants to keep the business open for him and his friends while re-building the business. But Judah wants to buy the place to build an office on it. If Angus can make a profit within a few weeks, he garners complete ownership. The sad thing is Judah isn’t playing fair, and begins rigging the bet in his favor. Director Leonard takes a cue from all of the eighties sex comedies and fills nearly every scene with some kind of innuendo or double entendre. It also helps that he casts all of the female roles with busty gorgeous women willing to go topless or in the buff at the drop of a hat. Or Bra. Whatever analogy works for you. Like most of the eighties sexploitation films, “Bazookas” is obviously very low budget, thus it works around a very limited array of settings, prompting director Leonard to get creative.
Almost all of the story is filmed in small sets, while the more prominent scenes seem to have been conducted in an actual gym after hours. The editing is so sharp that it’s an almost seamless storyline that’s simple but very effective. One flaw of “Bazookas” is that the performances are occasionally shaky, especially when some of the cast plays for laughs. Certain gags went on way too long, and I was never sure if it was intentional or just bad acting. In either case, that flaw is very minimal in “Bazookas,” a film that’s meant to be pure eighties hilarity first, and shameless sexploitation second. “Bazookas” is at risk of feeling like glorified porn, but director Leonard knows how to balance out the nudity and comedy perfectly, and is smart to work the sexual antics in a very suggestive manner.
Vinny Duwe is likable and entertaining as underdog hero Angus who fights to keep the business open and does whatever it takes. He even manages to hire a staff of gorgeous women willing to flash their bare skin to keep the customers attentive at all times. Angela Cohen is also very sexy and charming as club trainer Christine who schemes to keep the gym open with Angus, and becomes an accidental pawn in the battle between Angus and Judah. “Bazookas” definitely has its heart in the right place, and works as a hilarious, and very entertaining love letter to the goofy sex comedies of the eighties. On its own context, it’s a perfectly good and well directed comedy, but if you’re an eighties geek well educated in this kind of comic fare, “Bazookas” will especially entertain you. I had a lot of fun with “Bazookas,” and I hope we get a sequel down the line. Maybe “Bazooka Babe Car Wash”?