Framed to Perfection XXXIII

STAR GAMES (1997)

Director: Greydon Clark

Cinematographer: Nicholas Josef von Sternberg

Strangely enough, this is not a horror film.

Well, depending on your point of view.

Essentially an overblown home movie, in that most of the cast is related in some way to the director, Star Games is a so-bad-it’s-good movie in the truest sense of the, erm, phrase. I discovered it through the fine folk over at Rifftrax, a satirical commentary troupe comprised of ex-MST3K members, and I urge you to watch their version.

And donate to their website, even though what they do can now be done by any bored 8-year-old in between school and their evening meal.

Yikes, I guess I’m in one of those moods. I apologise, Rifftrax! I’m still leaving my offhand bitchiness in though, since it’s lovingly in the spirit of what you also do.

To say the acting in Star Games is bad is an insult to bad acting in general. The two teenage leads can barely be understood, leaving you wondering whether they’d actually communicated with another human being before. Saying that, I’m sure my acting would have been just as bad at that age. Or the age I am now. Still, the amateurish acting is at the very heart of what is so joyful about this movie. And the cheesy 90s special effects, which would have been considered poor even at the time.

Who knows whether or not Tony Curtis knew where he was or why during the shoot, but he puts the effort in like a fucking pro.

An absolute delight that had me laughing and laughing and laughing. Except when the creepy clown was onscreen. Despite the low budget running-around-in-the-woods antics, there’s enough strangeness from scene to scene to keep you engaged and highly amused.

I took the above screenshot not knowing what to do with it. I just knew it had to be taken. Then I remembered I did this blog series. Hey, give me a break, alcoholism has it’s downsides too, you know!

Do stay in touch, darlings.

Toodles!