National Lampoon Presents Barely Legal (2003) from Tuna |
This is yet another High School gross-out comedy. It was originally called After School Special in the final shooting script, and premiered at Cannes in 2003. Two years later, it went straight to vid in Germany, and had a minimal US theatrical release (20 screens) in October of 2005 before heading to Region 1 DVD in January of 2006. It is about three nearly-cool High School nerds, still virgins, who make a good living duping and selling porn to freshmen. Deacon Lewis (Erik von Detten) shit his pants in 5th grade, and nobody will ever let him forget it. Fred (Tony Denman) is painfully shy around girls, and masturbates six or seven times a day. Matt (Daniel Farber), the nerdiest of the three, is a wannabe film maker. The porn profits are set aside for their dream of getting a car and becoming babe magnets. When Deacon doesn't get the car he expected for his 17th birthday, and Fred loses his job at the video store, thus killing their source of free porn, they decide to make their own porn film slanted towards people like themselves, namely virgin nerds. Their main problem is finding performers. Creating a phony ID on their computer, the three go to a strip club looking for a female lead. My guess is that the Pretty Kitty was an actual strip club, and a very fancy one at that, where they find their leading lady in the person of Ashley (Sarah Jane Potts). Ashley is "19, but tells everyone she is 18" and wants a career in porn. She sees this film as a way to produce a demo reel which she can show to real porn studios. Of course, there are various obstacles to success. The local Stifler character (of course we need a Stifler character) forces the nerds to make him the leading man, but he does not prove up to the task. One of the nerds stops being a virgin, and his new girlfriend nearly breaks up the film company. The local porn maker, clearly meant to represent Ron Jeremy, is after their hides for cutting into his business. Finally, their enterprise is also in constant danger of discovery by their parents. The film completely escaped the notice of critics in its brief theatrical run, and IMDb comments are split between "worst film ever made," and "funnier than American Pie." As you might guess, the truth lies between those extremes. It's not without flaws. The whole thing ends rather predictably, and nothing particularly surprising happens in the entire film, but I found much to like.
I have been highly critical of many recent National Lampoon offerings, but I found this one acceptable |
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