A Guilty Pleasure: THE PIRATE MOVIE

Back in the 1980′s, I had one guilty pleasure: THE PIRATE MOVIE. (Ok, so I actually had many guilty pleasures, but this is one that I’ll admit to…even if it isn’t book related.) It’s playing on Comcast’s ON DEMAND, and with nothing really on regular tv (especially at 2:00am) while I work on my computer, putting up book ads, I decided to watch it again to see if it still held up.

It’s sooooo bad as to be good. I love the music mix of Gilbert and Sullivan’s PIRATES OF PENZANCE with the up-to-date (for its time and even now) songs. The acting, if you could call it that, is hilarious in more ways than one. The writing has some truly clever innuendo mixed some quite ridiculous, yet pertinent, asides. The references aren’t too badly dated or too topical, so they still work. This is definitely one of the first, best spoofs.

What bothers me is how old I feel watching a young Kristy MacNichol make out with a baby-faced Christopher Atkins – especially when I realize she’s only 1 year older than I am in real life. (Ooops – I mean 10, no 15, no 20 years older…) It feels a bit voyeuristic now that I’m 25 years older than I was the first time I saw it (back when I was -2? Hummm-rats–the math just won’t work…) The movie Kristy is still just 20, but looks about 15. Not to mention that when I was that young I found the Pirate King more attractive, mature and sexy than Atkins to begin with – especially during the ‘flexing’ scene… and continue to do so even today. LOL

So after viewing it again, I still give it an 8 out of 10 after all these years – a few things could have made it better, but probably not without ruining the truly bad goodness (or is that the truly good badness? Hummm.)

Guess I’ll have to watch PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN next while I put up eBay ads – it, too, enjoys some pretty ridiculous turns of phrase and massive scene-stealing so it will fit right in with tonight’s (today’s) viewing theme…