Lady Beware (1987)

This movie is a real gem, and one of reasons I'm glad I started this blog - a movie I otherwise might never have encountered, that turned out to be a sort of cult classic and an experience I really enjoyed. 

Diane Lane, in one of her earlier roles, is Katya, an artist and designer living in Pittsburgh (!), who convinces a local department store to let her redesign the windows facing the sidewalk (think Barney's, Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman's, Macy's, etc. in New York). Her redesigns are all extremely erotic and borderline transgressive and push the public into a lather. The store becomes the talk of the town and her career as an artist really begins to take off. 

There is a catch - she becomes the fixation of an extremely unpleasant doctor whose office overlooks the windows, and who becomes completely obsessed with her. He begins stalking her, invading her space, harassing her with phone calls, and generally making her miserable. He's one of the worst human beings I can remember in a movie, and the movie finds inventive ways to make him more and more unappealing. He's a monster with absolutely no redeeming elements. Eventually, however, he gets his comeuppance ... and when it happens, it's glorious and extremely satisfying. I actually cheered at the TV, a real testament to the movie's ability to evoke sympathy for our heroine. 

The movie has so many interesting things going on. The city of Pittsburgh is showcased and comes across really well - this might be the only movie I've ever seen to be completely set in Pittsburgh. It's full of interesting, quirky areas and spaces, and Katya's loft/art studio is really amazing - full of mannequins, a clawfoot tub, a canopied bed, lights hung around, and a private elevator. It's one of the best movie apartments I can remember. She takes a bus into the city every day, which is another nice touch - I can't think of many movies that feature realistic commutes like that. The bus, of course, becomes another arena for her stalker to approach her and violate a safe space. 

The windows she designs show a lot of imagination, with hints of BDSM and psychological torment all squeezed into normal domestic spaces using props and mannequins, and I am not sure who is responsible. The set designer was Tom Wells (his only credit in that role), who went on to do production design on a handfu of TV movies in the late '80s and early '90s and then seemed to exit the industry. It's too bad, because this movie has visually striking sets from start to finish.

The movie was directed by Karen Arthur, and seems to be her only feature film of the '80s, after directing a couple in the '70s (including the little-known The Mafu Cage with Carol Kane back in 1978!). She has directed many TV shows and TV movies over the years, as recently as 2008.  

Lady Beware's script appears to come from Susan Miller, who has written for several shows over the years, and most recently the webseries Anyone But Me. It's interesting that the film was written and directed by women, because it feels very centered around the fears of a woman being stalked - really gets inside the headspace and makes you feel the fear and anger. It's very effective. 

I can't find any financial data for Lady Beware, but I did find some interesting facts about the production company, the Scotti Brothers. The Scottis are two brothers who played football at my alma mater, the University of Maryland, and then they formed both a film production company as well as a record company. 

They had much more success with the music side of things, as they launched the careers of Weird Al Yankovic (!!), and Survivor (of "Eye of the Tiger" fame). The film side of their company produced and distributed Baywatch (!), and a handful of movies like He's My Girl (1987), The Iron Triangle (1989), and Shatterbrain (1991). Shatterbrain, as I only discovered today, is a telling of my very favorite story by H. P. Lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, from 1927. I am dying to see it. The film side seems to have folded after Baywatch, and the record company was eventually purchased by Sony. Who knew that Lady Beware is a feather in the same cap that was responsible for Weird Al Yankovic??

Sorority House Massacre (1986), Cheerleader Camp (1988), Sweet Sixteen (1983)

 I'm sorry, readers. These three movies are fairly awful. Dreck. Schlock. Unworthy but for my undying interest in the entertainment-mad decade in which they were mercilessly unleashed onto the unready, unsuspecting public.

Let's start with Sweet Sixteen (1983). I actively disliked this movie. This movie is borderline racist towards Native Americans, who are persistently portrayed as murderous scum who barely deserve to live in the same town as the virtuous white characters - only the even-keeled sheriff seems inclined to, you know, actually wait and see how the evidence shakes out. The movie itself does take pains to show you the Native American characters are good people, but it does it in a half-hearted way. 

In one scene, a Native American character tries to get a young girl to leave a seedy part of town, but he does it in a rather aggressive, unpleasant way - he grabs her wrist rather forcefully - and while the audience knows he has the best intentions, it sure doesn't make him very appealing. And despite things like that, it sure doesn't help when they are accused of serial murder at every turn, even by the "good" characters. The whole ham-handed attempt at potraying the Native American characters as Noble, Stoic, But Misunderstood is very poorly written.  

That aside, the plot is almost complete nonsense, with some really crazy situations, like when a drunk teen drives home his date, only to discover her father getting home at the same time. Daddy ain't pleased. 

What does the teen jerkwad do, immediately after learning his date is FIFTEEN YEARS OLD (and he has been predatorily trying to bed her in his filthy truck for the last five or ten minutes of the film)? He proceeds to insult the father, spouting off some lines like "Hey, calm down old man, it's cool, we just had some beers and went for a drive." 

What, now?! 

This takes places in Texas, too. In a more realistic movie the remainder of the film would have been the father's murder trial for taking out that turd of a teenager. 

Alas, this is not a realistic film, or even a passable one. It's a sub-generic, derivative slasher film that voyeuristically insists we gaze at a 15-year-old's breasts at every possible chance. It's really off-putting, and this comes from someone who is usually very enthusiastic about nudity. The only saving grace is that the actress is obvious much older. But still, the film pushes her age ("My birthday is next week!") in our faces, and then undresses her over and over again. 

The "villain" is somewhat predictable, and the murders themselves completely uninspired. If I had seen this in the theater as a young child I would have fallen asleep. The movie inspires no fear, no dread, no apprehension of any kind. It's limp filler of the lowest grade, and I encourage absolutely no one to see this. 

Sorority House Massacre (1986) is a blatant knock-off of Halloween: young girl's disturbed brother breaks out of mental institution, resolved to murder his sister and complete the killing of his family as he intended to do years before. He is superhumanly strong, nearly impossible to stop, and appears to rise from the dead several times. Sound familiar? All that's missing is the white William Shatner mask - and I'm sure they would have done that if they had just a little more budget. There are also a couple dim nods toward Nightmare on Elm Street, since there are lengthy surreal dream sequences. 

This movie also uses every opportunity to show that the main characters are young, nubile co-eds. They try on clothes (in the movie's single most ridiculous scene, these girls are GIDDY about trying on every article in the closet), they take off clothes, they wear tight pajamas, they make out with boyfriends, etc. It's amusing, but far from the erotic thrill the film is hoping for. From what I understand, the sequel has all the bared skin you could wish for and more. This one uses it more for seasoning, on top of the main course of multiple gory murders. 

Sadly, the plot of Halloween being so well known by the time this came out, Sorority House Massacre also fails to provide any real thrills or suspense. You know who the killer is, you watch him methodically assault his way to the sorority house, you watch him pick off improbably vulnerable victims, you watch the killer finally get his bloody comeuppance, you see the "THE END?"-type finale. You yawn, you turn off the TV, you wonder where your life has gone, you glance at the clock, feel depressed, and fall asleep on the couch. 

Cheerleader Camp (1988) is the clear winner of the trio here, which is sort of damning with faint praise. It's also known by the title "Bloody Pom Poms," but I've only ever seen it as Cheerleader Camp. At least this movie has a real sense of humor - a group of cheerleaders go to a camp where they compete with other schools, when slowly campers start getting knocked off one by one. One of the very best things about this movie is the poster - it's incredible! The skeleton cheerleader is just a really nice touch, and quite creepy. 

My favorite character, by far, is the fat voyeur Timmy (played really well by Travis McKenna), who goofs around and films every girl he can see in the hopes of getting a set of jiggling breasts or a suntanning butt on tape. But he's also a cheerleader (!), along with his best friend Brent (Leif Garret!). 

The main plot here goes a little further than the other two movies - our main character is Alison (Betsy Russell, now famous for all the Saw films), who is plagued by nightmares in which very violent things happen. She begins to wonder if she is the killer and just blacking out during the acts. 

One by one, the ENTIRE CAMP is murdered - no one is spared - in increasingly gruesome ways. Only our heroine is left, along with the team mascot. But ... which one is the killer? I won't say here. It's not that I really want anyone to seek out this movie, but it's a cut above the usual '80s teen slashers, and has a legitimate sense of humor that is crossed with a surprisingly effective streak of paranoia that mounts as the teens begin to suspect each other. I wish Timmy had lived. 

As for the production, let's start from the top. Sweet Sixteen was directed by Jim Sotos, who made Hot Moves a year later; I once saw Hot Moves on sale for a dollar at a VHS liquidator. Sweet Sixteen was written by Erwin Goldman, in what appears to be his only writing credit of any kind (I'm not surprised). I can't find money or budget info anywhere, but it's safe to say this didn't make much money. 

Sorority House Massacre was written and directed by Carol Frank, who appears to have been a production assistant on a couple things before this, and never made anything else after it. Again, no budget or money info is available anywhere. This movie is fairly well known, and even earned a sequel made by Roger Corman (!), which is a sort of honor. I would guess this one made a profit. 

Cheerleader Camp was written by David Lee Fein (author of semi-cult classic Demonoid, and longtime foley artist with more credits than I can list here) and R. L. O'Keefe, who doesn't appear to have written anything else. It was directed by John Quinn, who went on to write, direct, and produce a lot of Cinemax-type late night TV shows. Yet again, no money info can be found, but this is another semi-well known slasher of the era, and probably at least broke even. 

I wish someone would write a book about all the many, many teen slashers of the '80s. 

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Escape from New York (1981)

I grew up on these movies, and really love them even now as an adult - unsurprisingly, I get different impressions and takeaways at age 35 than I did at age 10.

Mad Max 2 is known in the USA as The Road Warrior, because the original movie was barely known here and the studios felt the audiences would be confused by the sudden appearance of a second movie. It's a really thrilling action movie that (in the American incarnation) starts with a sequence explaining how the how world structure rapidly and violently decomposed and left behind a wasteland with scarce resources and a real crime problem.

Mad Max the original, sadly, came out before the '80s, and thus is outside this blog. Suffice to say it shows how our hero Max becomes a wounded, dehumanized loner, avoidant and scornful of the rest of humanity.

The Road Warrior opens with Max and his dog scouring the landscape in a supercharged car looking for gasoline and supplies. They get in a running battle with some of the film's signature villains: leather-clad bemohawked future punks. Their outfits are pure S&M - leather and chains - their hairstyles pure late '70s punk style, and their motivation pure greed for gas and lust for violence.

A lot of the story revolves around the detached Max rediscovering his humanity and helping people (however unwillingly at first). His only companion when the film begins is his Australian Cattle Dog, who is perfectly cast and apparently had to be fitted with special ear plugs because he hated the sound of the loud engines.

The vehicle design in The Road Warrior is amazing. Strange hybrids between tanks and dune buggies, and what once might have been a police patrol car but now sports machine guns and spikes and nitrous oxide. Max's own V8 Interceptor is a glory to behold, with all its booby traps and spare fuel tanks and weaponry and the amazing supercharger. The look of the movie, both large and small, is just astonishing - it's no wonder it's influenced basically every post-Apocalyptic movie to come after it.

It's difficult to talk about the plot in any concrete way without spoiling everything - although many would argue this movie isn't really about plot in a traditional, linear sense. It's much more a character study of Mad Max himself - even though he only has about sixteen lines in the whole movie. The supporting cast is also great - 6'7" David Spence radiates intelligence and sly humor as towers above everyone in his gangly way as the Gyro Pilor. And, of course, there is one of the most menacing and unforgettable of movie villains - Lord Humungus.

Lord Humungus is played by Swedish bodybuilder and weight lifter Kjell Nilsson, and he's fantastic. As a kid I was legitimately terrified by him - a giant of pure muscle, who speaks in calm, rational phrases, wearing an iron hockey mask and wielding a scoped pistol that is stored in a special case with a death's head emblem. My only complaint is that he's given such a brief, forgettable death scene. Considering he's basically the Darth Vader of this movie, he deserved more.

It's undeniable that young Mel Gibson has tremendous star power. It's obvious from the first moments that he's destined for bigger things, athough it's debatable whether he ever really made anything that has quite the mojo of The Road Warrior. It was directed by George Miller and produced by his good friend Byron Kennedy. George Miller also directed The Witches of Eastwick, which I reviewed back in August of 2013 - feels like eons ago. Later he would make Lorenzo's Oil and Babe: Pig in the City and both Happy Feet movies, along with - of course, 2015's smash hit Mad Max: Fury Road.

The score to The Road Warrior is by Queen's Brian May (!). It was made for $4.5 million (Australian) and brought in a combined ~$35 million worldwide - a very good showing.

The sequel, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, was released four years later in 1985 and famously features Tina Turner as the mayor of Bartertown, the settlement where Max finds himself fiften years or so after the last movie. He is given a deal by Turner's character (Aunty Entity according to the script, but only referred to as "Aunty" in the film): eliminate "Master Blaster," the pairing of enormous hulk and tiny dwarf that run the energy-producing pig pits that the settlement depends on.

Master Blaster - actually two people who combine their strengths - is an intriguing character and I always feel disappointed that the fantastic Thunderdome battle ends with the two halves being split up. The "Master" half is played by little person Angelo Rossitto, who I remember seeing in Tod Browning's Freaks from 1932 (!!). He's fantastic in this, and deserves accolades. As does Tina Turner! She has as much screen presence as she does stage presence. She steals every scene she is in, and I wish she had made more films. 

Beyond Thunderdome is both more ambitious and more flawed. The plot is "larger" both in set pieces (like the famous Thunderdome itself), and in message (which is awfully muddled and revolves around an oasis of children that Max stumbles across halfway through the movie and who stand in for "renewal" in a rather basic, generic way). This last part is the real letdown for me - the movie hits a brick wall halfway through when Max encounters a large band of naive Peter Pan-like children, survivors of a plane crash who mistake him for this mythical savior. The pace slows to a crawl, the characters are uninteresting in the extreme, and even Mel Gibson seems to flounder playing off these children. I yawned and yawned again. 

The movie picks back up again, slightly, at the end with the return of Aunty and Bartertown - the two plots collide violently - but it never really regains its full momentum, and thus I think The Road Warrior is really the best representation of the Mad Max legacy. If you have to watch one, watch that one. 

Shifting gears, Escape from New York (1981) was an instant favorite of mine, and the kind of movie that embodies "late night television movie" to me. When I was a kid, and Fox was still an upstart fourth network that showed risky shows like Married With Children and The Simpsons - which, believe it or not, were once considered way outside the bounds of normalcy. Both those beloved shows were considered vulgar and low-brow, watched only by outisders and unwashed troglodytes huddled in front of their dirt-smeared screens late at night, hooting like apes at crude jokes they only barely understood. 

But Fox also ran a long series of late-night movies. I caught a ton of films that way, after my mom would go to bed, I'd sneak out and turn on the kitchen TV (which was black and white!) or, if I dared, the louder, closer color TV downstairs. I can't find ANY info on the net about the series of movies Fox ran, but I know Escape from New York was one of them. 

Directed by one of my favorite modern directors, John Carpenter, Escape from New York tells the story of a future in which "crime has risen 400%" and all criminals in the country are sent to Manhattan (!), which has been walled off into an island prison (!!). The movie never explains how the owners of the most expensive real estate on earth are convinced to turn it into a giant prison. Of course, New York in the 1980s wasn't the New York of today - it was more of a grimy crime-sodden hell-hole, where people could probably more easily imagine walling it off. 

Enter our hero, Snake Plissken, played by the great Kurt Russell in a sort of homage to Clint Eastwood. Snake has an eyepatch (for no explained reason), and was a war hero once, now turned bank robber. His turn against authority is only hinted at, especially in the film's closing moments. 

As bad luck would have it, Air Force One is deliberately crashed into Manhattan, and the Preisdent is taken hostage by our villain, The Duke (Isaac Hayes!). It's up to antihero Snake to enter the city undetected, rescue the president, and make it out alive in time to stop WWIII ... or WWIV, it's hard to say. A great running gag involves multiple characters meeting Snake and saying "...I thought you were dead..."

The movie has a truly great musical score, also by John Carpenter, which is energetic and really fits the mood. The movie looks great at well, with lots of blacks, blues, browns, and greens, to showcase the grime and grit of New York City (although all the street scenes were actually shot in St. Louis!). The movie features strong supporting roles by Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine, and Adrienne Barbeau, among others. 

Carpenter is a really great director - besides this, he made The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live all in the 1980s. Made for $6 million, it grossed around $25 million, making this a big success. 

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

I had the poster for this movie on my apartment wall for years. This was a hugely formative movie for me growing up - I would stomp around my house with whatever object I could fashion into a sword (often a tree branch) and slash at cushions, books, errant furniture, anything that seemed in my way, while yelling "CROM!!!"

This is Schwarzenegger's first major film, and the story behind it is pretty interesting. He had appeared as a muscular curiosity in Hollywood films for years, like Hercules in New York (1969, surprisingly entertaining) and The Big Goodbye (1973, brief cameo) and Stay Hungry (1976, a Jeff Bridges/Sally Field Southern romance involving a gym. Yes, you read that right). 

But then in 1977 the documentary Pumping Iron came out, and that elevated Arnold to national attention all on his own; most importantly, it spotlighted his immensely winning personality, full of surprising (and sly) intelligence, good humor, and endless drive to succeed. 

And then came Conan. This movie was written with only Arnold in mind for the main role, and it shows: it plays to his strengths (tremendous physical presence), plays down his weaknesses (long lines of dialog, complex emotive requirements), and does it all in a magnificent sword 'n' sorcery atmosphere that is rich, beautiful, and really well directed. 

It cannot be stated enough what a sensation Conan the Barbarian was when it came out - I recently read that here in Washington DC the lines stretched for blocks. This movie launched Arnold into full profile, and lead directly to the main run of his success: The Terminator, Red Sonja, Commando, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man, etc. etc. etc. 

The plot is pretty simple: it begins with Conan as a child, being lectured by his father about Crom the underground god of war from whom men took steel. Then his family is slaughtered during a raid by the main villain Thulsa Doom, portrayed by the wonderfully charismatic (and creepy as hell) James Earl Jones (!). Jones' hair in this movie has to be seen to be believed, it's just fantastic. 

Conan is sold into slavery, where he grows huge and strong through years of forced labor. Eventually he is freed (for reasons that are never quite clear to me), he finds a sword, and begins his slow journey towards revenge. Along the way he finds friends: the thief/archer Subotai (played by the greatest surfer that ever lived, Gerry Lopez!), the female barbarian Valeria (the fantastic Sandahl Bergman), and The Wizard (played expertly by Mako, and also our narrator). 

Eventually he confronts Thulsa Doom directly, but not before experiencing hardship, loss, and many, many battles. Worth noting are Thulsa Doom's two lieutenants, Rexor and Thorgrim. Rexor is played by NFL star Ben Davidson (who is immense in stature), and Thorgrim played by the Danish strongman Sven-Ole Thorsen, who was Denmark's Strongest Man in 1983. Finally, King Osric, who assigns Conan a quest to rescue a princess, is played (to the hilt) by Max Von Sydow (!). 

The movie is filmed across Europe, but the sets are truly beautiful - giant boulders, endless horizons, towering mountains, falling snow, illuminated caverns, dessicated thrones with the bones of ancient kings, orgy-strewn cult chambers... it has it all. There is fantastic cinematography through, and a really memorable and epic score by the Greek composer Basil Poledouris. The movie was obviously lovingly made and it shows in every corner.

Apparently Oliver Stone was recruited at one point to write the script, and his version took place in a post-nuclear wasteland and would have doubled the budget, so director John Milius took over and massaged the script back into shape. Speaking of, this movie is co-written and directed by Milius, who is a legend in Hollywood and has his own documentary on Netflix.

Milius is well-known for hypermasculine fare like Dirty Harry (screenplay), Jeremiah Johnson (screenplay), The Wind and the Lion (director and writer), Big Wednesday (director and writer), and after Conan went on to make Red Dawn (1984), Farewell to the King (1989), and Flight of the Intruder (1991).

Conan is a real gem. It was made for $16 million and the box office take in 1982 was ~$40 million (17th highest grossing movie of that year, coming right after The Dark Crystal, and just before The Sword and the Sorcerer). The total over the years with rentals and whatnot has made it to ~$130 million - a huge success. There is a sequel made immediately after and released in 1984 that I'll review soon. 

Gimme An F (1984), Sleepaway Camp (1983)

 

I could've sworn I had reviewed Sleepaway Camp (1983) before on this blog, but apparently not. In fact, Sleepaway Camp is one of the movies that inspired me to start this project - I watched it while emailing a friend who was also watching it, and neither of us could believe what we were seeing. It also has the distinction of being the movie that introduced me to the podcast How Did This Get Made, which is truly hilarious and dedicated to those misbegotten movies we love to hate (or hate to love?).

Sleepaway Camp is a cult classic that has a lot of gender identity subtext - so much so that it seems ahead of its time, looking back from 2015. The surface plot is about a horrible water-skiing accident (how many movies can claim that?!) that fractures a family - then we are finally introduced to our protagonists, young Ricky and his cousin Angela. Angela is being sent to summer camp for what seems like the first time, and Ricky is very protective of her; she is shy to the point of simply silently staring at people when they speak to her. This leads to moments of complete exasperation/bullying by the other campers, who scream "WHY ARE YOU SO F*&@ED UP, ANGELA?!" right into her face.

Well, like any teen slasher worth its salt people start dying almost immediately, in quite gruesome ways. One horrible child sex predator is boiled alive; another camper is killed by bees while taking "a wicked dump" (his words). There are plenty of awful deaths. Fun fact: the camp cook (who survives!) is Robert Earl Jones, the father of James Earl Jones. His voice sounds EXACTLY the same - they are dead ringers vocally. 

Sleepaway Camp is notable mostly for the famous (and tremendously shocking) twist ending. I am very very tempted to spoil it here, but it really should be seen at least once without any warning. The movie has been a cult classic for years primarily for that final moment, which really raises more questions than it answers, and makes you question a number of previous events. As mentioned earlier, there is a lot of strange gender commentary going on here; I'm not sure at all what the director is trying to say (and I'm not sure HE knew), but something unusual is being said, that's for sure. 

Sleepaway Camp was the brainchild of Robert Hiltzik, who wrote and directed it. He is a lawyer in New York, apparently, and his only other movie is .... Return to Sleepaway Camp (2008), which I saw, to my infinite regret, and can say with complete confidence that it's a 0/10 (hell, 0/100 or 0/1,000,000) movie that has absolutely no entertainment value of any kind, has an abysmal script, abysmal acting, and is surely being screened in Hell right now. A truly awful movie. There were two others in the series that he didn't have a hand in, and they are really only loosely related - Sleepaway Camp 2 and Sleepaway Camp 3 both star Bruce Springsteen's younger sister Pamela (!!!) as Angela, come back to murder more campers for bizarre and poorly expressed reasons. They aren't the worst, but are best avoided. The fourth movie is truly dreck and you would do well to forget I ever mentioned it. 

It was made in upstate New York for about $350,000. According to IMDB, it pulled it $430,000 during its opening weekend (not bad!) and ultimate claimed $11,000,000 - a very tidy sum for Mr. Hiltzik. It's well worth watching, at least once, and especially if you're interested in the teen slasher genre. 

Gimme an F (1984) is an odd duck. It's a teen dance/sex romp, like so many before it and after it, but it has a surprisingly tender heart to it - it seems to really like its characters, and wish the best for them - unusual for this genre. A group of poor, ill-equipped, undertalented cheerleader misfits attempt to make it big, going up against well-funded, well-trained squads. Also released as "T & A Academy 2" (classy) and "Cheerballs" (in West Germany). 

This is also a camp movie - but a dance camp, and no one is murdered. Instead, a number of people get laid, but the film is surprisingly coy with the sexual tension, and almost everything is implied and hinted at rather than shoved in your gob. It's strange, because on one hand it's nice to have a movie tease you and force you to use your imagination (ah, the good old days) and actually stay relatively tasteful ... but on the other hand, it has a really difficult time keeping up tension compared to its high-octane hyper-lascivious colleagues like Private School or Cheerleader Camp. It's difficult not to be disappointed after you've had cheap and plentiful nudity shoveled at you. 

The plot here is pretty old - camp owner Bucky Berkshire (!) bets his top instructor ten grand that the instructor can't turn the hapless Ducks (the poor squad mentioned above) into a winner. Instructor takes the bet, not knowing that Bucky has an ulterior motive - Japanese businessmen will only invest in Bucky's schemes if the top instructor is on board. Why do so many '80s movies feature Japanese businessmen taking over companies (most notably in Gung Ho (1986))?? I don't remember that actually being a real trend - did the Japanese take over a ton of American companies that I'm not aware of? 

Anyway, the movie features some half-decent dance sequences and some of the usual sex antics found in camp sex comedies - for example, one couple doing the deed is secretly broadcast over the loudspeaker without being aware of it. I'd already seen that joke used in M*A*S*H, and I'm sure it was fairly old even then. But that's about the temperature of things - hijinks, but low-grade hijinks.
There is one really great scene where the top instructor does a solo dance in what looks like a sauna, really high energy and athletic. 

Gimme an F was written by James Hart, his first movie - he went on to write the screenplay for Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Muppet Treasure Island, Contact, Tuck Everlasting, and more. It was directed by Paul Justman, who is mostly known for music documentaries about bands from the '60s and '70s (Deep Purple, Cream, The Doors, Diana Ross, etc.). He also contributed a song to the soundtrack of this movie and to the soundtrack of The Sure Thing (1985), which is pretty interesting. I can't find financial info for this movie anywhere, so I can' report on its success; but I'm going to guess it probably was made fairly cheaply and probably ultimately broke even.