Joy of Sex (1984)

Wonderful character development!

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Most people would probably say that the "National Lampoon" franchise jumped the shark in later years, but it was bad as early as this time. They just happened to be making better movies featuring the Griswold family. This isn't quite one of the worst comedies I've ever seen. That's probably only because modern bad comedies are worse and constantly use fart and poop jokes. Much of the humor in this film comes from making jokes about animal genitalia. The funniest bit is when the teacher says she wishes she could teach in kindergarten where sex was a word no one understood.The basic plot is that a girl thinks she's going to die soon and tries to lose her virginity. They use the old out of context eavesdropping trope. The fact that there's a bunch of misbehaving young adults makes it seem like they were trying to cash in on the success of "Animal House". Then again, this was based on a book...loosely apparently. It's weird how this could even be considered a National Lampoon movie if it was based on something else. The story is mostly pointless and the characters are bland. *1/2

I remember checking out this movie because I remember Martha Coolidge's first film ("Valley Girl") and the recruits that she brought in for this film and this time having Cameron Dye and Michelle Meyrink (who were supporting players in "Valley Girl") really worked out well as leads (post "Valley Girl"). But the one that was really great was Colleen Camp in her role going undercover as a narc. I was glad Martha had casted Heidi Holicker (as you really couldn't say she was a spoiler as Candy as she was as Stacey in "Valley Girl") but I wish her role was bigger as well as the girl who played her best friend (Allison played by future ER star Connie Marie Brazelton). But it was cool for the 80's dealing with Reaganomics and something I liked as a teen back then.

Great teenage 80's flick. Very funny!! The title of the movie doesn't describe the movie. The movie has nothing to do with the book "The Joy Of Sex". I love those teenage 80's movies. I hadn't ever heard of this movie for the longest time. Before I saw it I wasn't expecting it to be that good. Once I saw it I thought it was fabulous and wondered why it was so underrated. It is now one of my most favorite 80's movies. I highly recommend that you see it!!

This movie pulled out none of the stops. 80s High School movies aren't usually this painful to watch. The story had potential to be a fun High School movie, but fell far short of the mark. If it weren't for the fact that I couldn't sleep and it's the only thing on TV, I wouldn't have seen it -- and right now I wish I could have gone with my first impulse and given those sleeping pills a shot.