Tapeheads

Rating:
Summary: great fun movie
Review: my son and I like this movie alot,we have watched it like a dozen times.we love the music.I really think its a great movie,but then again this family pretty much likes all the stuff the critics don't like..I am big John Cusack fan and he is awesome in this..

Rating:
Summary: Waffles and chicken
Review: See this movie for the Roscoe's Waffles and Chicken restaurant video, if for no other reason. Roscoe was played by King Cotton, a portly, snowy-haired, senior citizen, white guy rapper who appeared (very) briefly in the 80's. You have to see it to believe it. I bought the soundtrack because of this song.

What there is of a storyline doesn't make much sense, but that's half the fun. Josh (Tim Robbins) is an aspiring moviemaker who has talent, but no ambition. His friend, Ivan (John Cusack) has PLENTY of ambition. After they lose their jobs as security guards, they decide to go into business for themselves. Unfortunately, their paying gigs are for funerals, and the only creative work they can find is "on spec."

Josh and Ivan idolize an old, out of work R&B duo, the Swanky Modes. When Josh and Ivan meet the Swanky Modes in a bar, they realize it's their golden opportunity. They just have to get the Swanky Modes back on stage...

One of my favorite scenes is in the bar, when they ask for another drink. The bartender intends to cut them off, and tells them they can't have another unless they can recite the alphabet backwards, with one eye covered, and in sign language. They get their drinks.

Throw in some Menudo jokes (if you don't remember Menudo, think five fourteen-year-old Ricky Martins), a Bruce Lee type catfight, and some truly hilarious videos, and you've got Tapeheads.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT LAUGHS! GREAT MUSIC!
Review: Tapeheads is a little-known gem that I have treasured for some time now.

After Josh and Ivan lose their jobs as security guards, they decide to open up a video production business. They get the standard awful gigs, taping parties, pet seances, etc. until a twist of fate makes them the hottest music video producers around.

This movie is the reason Devo re-recorded their hit "Baby Doll" in Swedish, and it also has a lot of other great music plus great cameos.

Once you watch this, you'll be a Swanky Modes fan for life.

Rating:
Summary: Sort of the Spinal Tap of the 80's MTV crowd
Review: Tapeheads is, at its core a very goofy "buddy" movie about two young guys who want to produce rock videos. The humor tends toward a combination of slapstick (things blowing up, poofy-haired new wave bands getting paint, glitter and feathers dumped all over them) and a lot of "inside" jokes aimed at people who grew up watching the birth of MTV (which will likely be lost on everyone who is not in their 30's right now).

Much like Rob Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap," Tapeheads is a love-it-or-shut-it-off-halfway kind of film. You either get the joke or you don't. While this is one of my favorite movies, virtually every friend I've ever loaned it to despised it (again, just like Tap).

Like Spinal Tap: -- Enjoying it really seems to depend on whether or not you like really silly comedies and whether you were heavily enough into the "scene" the movie parodies (in this case the MTV music scene circa the mid-1980s). --Cameos (and being able to recognize the inside joke of those cameos) play a large part in the humor. For example, Jello Biafra as an FBI agent, Weird Al Yankovic as himself, writer-producer Michael Nesmith -- the original brains behind MTV -- as a bottled water delivery man, King Cotton as a rapping chicken-n-waffles vendor, and a hysterical performance by Soul Train's Don Cornelius as sleazy low-budget record exec Mo Fuzz. --The tongue-in-cheek songs and their related video sequences are most of the fun, but the comedy timing of the actors (Tim Robbins and John Cusack) are what really help make a mediocre script entertaining.

Unlike Spinal Tap: --This is a scripted movie, not a free-form pseudo-documentary where lots of dialogue seemed honestly ad-libbed. The style in that respect is very, very different.

With all that said, are you the sort of person who would enjoy this movie? If you know who Jello Biafra is and why it is funny for him to appear briefly as an FBI agent; if you find humor in a commercial featuring a presidential candidate handing cigarettes to kids or responding to charges that nuclear weapon buildups are a result of penis envy by saying "I'll slap my slab on the ruler against Gorby any day;" if the idea of a sobriety test being to close your eyes and recite the alphabet backwards skipping all the vowels and giving the sign language for each letter as you say it is funny to you or a low-rent security guard saying "Pablo Casals has been dead for years... I'm a huge cello fan!", you might be the type of person to enjoy this film.

Otherwise, you might damage your VCR in an attempt to get the tape out as rapidly as possible after the first 15 minutes.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Different Comedy That Dares To Take Chances
Review: Tapeheads tells the story of two guys looking to make it big in music videos who inadvertantly, and unwittingly get mixed up a greater scandal involving a pornographic video starring a presidential canidate. As another review pointed out, the humor is in no way subtle or clever in the truest sense of the word, but then again it's not sophomoric or dirty either. The fact of the matter is that this movie is really unlike many other comedies I have ever seen. Miniscule comparrisons to films like Better Off Dead are possible I suppose (though maybe its simply John Cusacks appearance in both films which brings the movie to mind) but all in all, you're really not likely to see anything like this again for a very long while.

The performances are of course terrific, as Cusack and Robbins really let loose and go wild on screen, sacrificing almost anything for a joke. Sometimes the jokes work, sometimes they dont, but it doesn't matter because you will be so enamoured with the strangeness of film to complain about those few moments that don't quite turn out right. And the ones that do - well I cant say you'll be rolling on the floor, because again, its bizzare enough so that you'll probably simply be struck with some unsure smile for the duration of the movie, but then you'll watch it again... and again... and again.

Why? Because, it's a film thats genuinely different. And honestly, how many movies can you really say that about? Not many.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant, feel-good comedy with an outstanding soundtrack
Review: The chemistry between Cusack and Robbins is readily apparent in this off-beat comedy. The film is full of clever, yet not-so-obvious sight-gags including the casting of Zander Schloss as both a heavy-metal fan and an R&B concert-goer.

Sam Moore and Junior Walker pair up as the fictitious band "The Swanky Modes" adding a number of very soulful tunes to the soundtrack. To quote Josh & Ivan in the movie "We love the Swanky Modes."

Rating:
Summary: Spoof of MTV goes awry
Review: The first attempted lampooning of the MTV mentality steps wrong pretty quickly, but isn't bad for the first half an hour. Cusack is always fun to watch; Robbins is also highly amusing. But film seems to owe more to the Sixties and Seventies than the Eighties and consequently founders in its own ersatz hipness.

Rating:
Summary: Swanky Modes!
Review: This is one of my personal favorites. This humorous film wanders a bit, but somehow always manages to tie off its loose ends. It is visually pleasing, the soundtrack is excellent and John Cusack and Tim Robbins let you truly believe that two underachieving losers can make it big in the video music industry.

The comical scenes are so numerous that they can't all be mentioned. Tapeheads takes potshots at rent-a-cops, heavy metal groupies, oversexed (and corrupt) politicians and Mexican boy bands just to name a few. The scenes with the rappin' grandfather named "Roscoe" (who is a cross between "the Colonel" and "Waffle House") are the icing on the cake.

It's a rags to riches story. It's an epic music video. It's a portrayal of America's inept youth. And throughout the film's myriad scenes, you're repeatedly bombarded with great comedy.

This one's really a gem.

Rating:
Summary: It made it to DVD
Review: This is one of those movies I'm surprised made it to DVD. If Tim Robbins and John Cusack still didn't have careers, it probably wouldn't have. It is a great and funny movie...that, like some other reviewers have mentioned, it seems no one outside of my quirky circle of friends ever saw. Some of the humor is dated...it's an older movie...but a lot of it is funny almost 20 years later. It's not for everyone...some of it is pretty silly...but I still laugh seeing it for the umpteenth time. If you have any knowledge of or interest in the music industry, you should buy or rent this one. You will enjoy it (and the Rosco's Chicken and Waffles video will embed itself in your head whether you resist it or not).

Rating:
Summary: A MUST FOR JOHN CUSAK AND TIM ROBBINS FANS
Review: This movie has it all! Comedy, satire, star power and it is just down right fun. It has become a cult classic in our house. We recommend it to friends, family and anyone who will listen to us. It has something for everyone and the soundtrack will just blow you away!