Spirit of '76 (1990)

[lester1/2jr]

                         Oh brother.  Of all my addictions, the most dangerous by far is obscure comedies.  Watermellon man, Smile Orange,  Frisbee Planet, okay i made that last one up.  As someone who spends many of their waking hours promoting a very dark horse presidential candidate and being called all sorts of names and giving the same rebuttals ad neasuem with a year left to go in the campaign, I need a good laugh more than anything.  So pardon me if I give this movie a little more benfit of the doubt than it likely deserves. 



                                            David Cassidy, Olivia D'Abo and some other guy try to go back to 1776 from the future, but they end up in 1976.  What follows is a lesser but still gleaming light  in the  "California movie" cannon.  Yuo know:  Boogie Nights,  Cheech and Chong's next movie, Desperate Teengage Lovedolls, Back to the Beach,  and maybe Forbidden Zone.  This cannot fairly be put on the level of those masterworks but it does have that California thing and is similarly  enjoyable.   


                           The first problem is obvious:  it stars David Cassidy.  Also, it stars David Cassidy.  Thirdly,  it....no  thirdly  there are a laughable amount of plot holes.   How did they learn how to drive cars?  or disco dance?    Leif Garret has a great cameo and there is a Pee Wee's playhouse type wackiness and some actual humor here and there.  So thumbs up but, again, I am in a charitable disposition towards things like this




the inimitable Leif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBh14NceZWs

[The Burgomaster]

I actually own a copy of this DVD.  Other than a few scenes that are funny if you lived through the 1970s and some cheesy, but memorable, one-hit wonders on the soundtrack (such as the immortal KUNG-FU FIGHTING by Carl Douglas) this movie is pretty bad. 

[CheezeFlixz]

Yep I've got it too and being a teenager in the 1970's, there are references and humor that one might not get if they didn't live during that time. I remember most of the 70's from photographs ... 

[The Burgomaster]

If you watch the original WALKING TALL with Joe Don Baker (I recently bought the long-awaited widescreen, 5.1 surround DVD), you will notice a very young Leif Garrett playing Buford Pusser's son.  That's sort of what I looked like around 1976.

[lester1/2jr]

I know he's had drug problems, but garret seems like a cool guy in the movie if not the above clip.  Cassidy on the other hand has a sour look on his face.  even when he's not doing anything he seems bitter and has clearly had alot of work done.

[Ozzymandias]

Ozzymandias speaks: I love that movie. I don't know what i like the most the "EST" seminar with Rob Reiner, Barbara Bain and Don Novello or the parade at the end.

A colleague of mine said that he was once part of a radio morning show that did a phone interview with David Cassidy. He said Cassidy had a real attitude about being "David Cassidy former teen idol." Something was said they weren't taking him serious as an artist and he ended the interview in the middle.

Ozzymandias has spoken!!!