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Malibu High
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| Year: |
1979
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Director: |
Irwin Berwick
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| Stars: |
Jill Lansing, Stuart Taylor, Katie Johnson, Phyllis Benson, Alex Mann, Tammy Taylor, Garth Howard, John Harmon, John Grant, James Devney, Ken Layton, William Cohen
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| Genre: |
Drama, Thriller, Trash |
| Rating: |
  4 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Kim Bentley (Jill Lansing) is going to graduate from high school in a few short months but she is doing very badly. Although she isn't willing to study hard she does want to pass her classes, but life is tough at the moment, so what can she do? She is a girl who walked in on her father's body after he hanged himself, an event which has left her more disturbed than she cares to admit, and now she has to put up with the nagging of her overbearing mother (Phyllis Benson) and the stern words from her teachers. To top it all, her boyfriend Kevin (Stuart Taylor) has left her for rich girl Annette (Tammy Taylor). But Kim will get even...
Of all the bad girls to grace the big screen, one of the unsung is the lead character of Malibu High, as essayed by Miss Lansing in what turned out to be her only movie role. Resembling a John Waters movie if Waters had been deadly serious, this film has its anti-heroine graduating from shagging teachers to better her grades to the more alarming charge of murder. Scripted by producer Tom Singer from John Buckley's story, this is notable for utterly failing to get inside the head of Kim, and indeed her motivations seem purely intended to get her from one sleazy situation to another.
Say it ain't so! Surely they put plenty of thought into the story? Well, maybe not, as Kim decides to take up the offer from local marijuana supplier Tony (ex-porn actor Alex Mann) to become a whore for him, as long as she gets a decent cut of the money. She doesn't actually get a decent percentage, but still goes ahead anyway, entertaining construction workers and middle aged businessmen in the back of Tony's van during lunch breaks. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, this is one classy film, right? What? You aren't thinking that?
Well it gets worse. For some bizarre reason (other than the entire enterprise being shoddy and amateurish, naturally) Kim agrees to become a higher paid prostitute for a gangster (who apparently works all alone, as we never see him with anyone but Kim) called Lance (Garth Howard) who helpfully sets her up with a bondage enthusiast who Kim ends up killing when he comes on a little too strong. Realising he has hitwoman potential on his hands, Kim is then drafted into killing off anyone who has crossed Lance; she's unenthusiastic but takes to the work easily enough, anything as long as she can buy that new Jag she has her eye on.
Ridiculous is a good description of Malibu High, with its elevator muzak soundtrack (including the electronic sting recognisable from SCTV played at inappropriate moments) and sex scenes which consist of the actors holding onto one another and rolling around for a couple of minutes. Padding? Why certainly, why not have one of our lengthy disco dancing sequences in a nightclub that looks more like an Italian restaurant. Yet although it's poor quality the film is entertaining for its sheer determination to shock, a determination that merely results in laughter. If you can believe Kim with her surly attitude and tan lines could really set male hearts a-flutter then you might be able to take it seriously, but the rest of us will be chortling from the opening bitchy arguments to the final scene where Kim attempts to escape by running the length of a beach. And that's not to mention where she "toplesses" a victim to death. People would actually leave their homes to see this kind of thing, you know.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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