REVIEWED
"Kids play with their joysticks day in day out. Jerking it back and fourth... sweating on them, they don't even clean them off when they're through... Joysticks are an hotbed of germs, germMMSSSS"
Nurse Tubitt (Justine Lenore)
Jefferson is in charge of his families arcade, only a local do-gooder is out to close the steaming cesspool of teenage debauchery. In order to keep it open they arange a video game-off but can Jefferson raise his game and put his dark back-story of none gaming behind him.
Basically its the old 'Footloose'/'Dodgeball' like format of having to fight the man to keep their hobbies alive. Age hasn't been so kind to 'Joysticks, the recent 30th anniversary DVD makes the film look shoddy. While its gags fail to create any genuine belly laughs, not in the same way as that era's National Lampoon movies do. But on its original release back in the early 80's 'Joysticks' was a real blast, and one of the few movies of the period to really capture the thrills of video gaming. Guess pure arcade nostalgia played the biggest part in my enjoyment of re-watching it again all these years later. Was sorta heartwarming seeing games like Pac Man & Space Invaders again, being played in cabinets like intended.
[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Standout moments come from Jonathan Gries as the mini biking punk gamer King Videot, and his sprite-like female groupies the Videots. And the arcade heaven & hell courtroom dream sequences, complete with mud wrestling titties.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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