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Loverboy
A couple of decades before he became an official star playing Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey made the most of an opportunity to carry a surprisingly smart and funny teen comedy from 1989 called Loverboy, which also benefits from some effective directorial touches and a cast full of familiar faces.
Dempsey plays Randy, a college dropout who gets a job as a pizza delivery guy who delivers a pizza to a beautiful wealthy businesswoman (Barbara Carrera) who orders a pizza to get him into bed, pays him for his services, and is never seen again. The woman does, however, start referring all of her beautiful, wealthy, and lonely friends to Randy by telling them to order a pizza with extra anchovies. Before you can say "gigolo", Randy is servicing women all over Beverly Hills and getting $200 a pop for it.
The story has an extra layer, provided mostly by his parents. Due to a misunderstanding, Randy's dad (Robert Ginty) thinks his son is gay and his mom (Kate Jackson) is convinced that her husband is cheating on her so a friend of hers (Kirstie Alley) recommends that she order a pizza with extra anchovies.
This movie is a lot of fun as long as the viewer understands from jump that this movie is a complete fantasy and that what happens to Randy in this movie would NEVER happen in real life. Robin Schiff's screenplay has just enough meat to it that it doesn't become quite as complicated as one might think, even if it is a little overprotective of our young hero, who actually gets away with what he's doing for so long that he actually comes a mere $200 away from earning the $9000 he needs to return to college. Schiff has provided a really likable character in Randy and we are actually pleased when he finds his "special purpose" and equally scared from him when things begin to unravel for him.
Director Joan Micklin Silver provides the story with a lot of effective camera work and elaborate physical comedy that serve the story. There are some subtle touches to the story that can only be the brainchild of Silver. I love in the middle of the story when Randy gets busy, Silver takes a moment to take us back to the pizza parlor where five or six huge boxes of anchovies are being delivered.
Patrick Dempsey is utterly charming in the title role and proves to have an affinity for physical comedy that is Jerry Lewis-level, not to mention strongly hinting at the sex appeal that would later make him a major movie and TV heartthrob. Ginty and Jackson are a lot of fun as his parents and a lot of other familiar faces pop up along the way including Carrie Fisher, Kim Miroyi, Dylan Walsh, Nancy Valen, Robert Picardo, and Vic Tayback. There is also an appearance by a young man named Rob Camilletti, who many years later would get his 15 minutes as a bagel shop employee who became a boy toy for Cher. It's not Merchant/Ivory but it was a lot more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.
A couple of decades before he became an official star playing Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey made the most of an opportunity to carry a surprisingly smart and funny teen comedy from 1989 called Loverboy, which also benefits from some effective directorial touches and a cast full of familiar faces.
Dempsey plays Randy, a college dropout who gets a job as a pizza delivery guy who delivers a pizza to a beautiful wealthy businesswoman (Barbara Carrera) who orders a pizza to get him into bed, pays him for his services, and is never seen again. The woman does, however, start referring all of her beautiful, wealthy, and lonely friends to Randy by telling them to order a pizza with extra anchovies. Before you can say "gigolo", Randy is servicing women all over Beverly Hills and getting $200 a pop for it.
The story has an extra layer, provided mostly by his parents. Due to a misunderstanding, Randy's dad (Robert Ginty) thinks his son is gay and his mom (Kate Jackson) is convinced that her husband is cheating on her so a friend of hers (Kirstie Alley) recommends that she order a pizza with extra anchovies.
This movie is a lot of fun as long as the viewer understands from jump that this movie is a complete fantasy and that what happens to Randy in this movie would NEVER happen in real life. Robin Schiff's screenplay has just enough meat to it that it doesn't become quite as complicated as one might think, even if it is a little overprotective of our young hero, who actually gets away with what he's doing for so long that he actually comes a mere $200 away from earning the $9000 he needs to return to college. Schiff has provided a really likable character in Randy and we are actually pleased when he finds his "special purpose" and equally scared from him when things begin to unravel for him.
Director Joan Micklin Silver provides the story with a lot of effective camera work and elaborate physical comedy that serve the story. There are some subtle touches to the story that can only be the brainchild of Silver. I love in the middle of the story when Randy gets busy, Silver takes a moment to take us back to the pizza parlor where five or six huge boxes of anchovies are being delivered.
Patrick Dempsey is utterly charming in the title role and proves to have an affinity for physical comedy that is Jerry Lewis-level, not to mention strongly hinting at the sex appeal that would later make him a major movie and TV heartthrob. Ginty and Jackson are a lot of fun as his parents and a lot of other familiar faces pop up along the way including Carrie Fisher, Kim Miroyi, Dylan Walsh, Nancy Valen, Robert Picardo, and Vic Tayback. There is also an appearance by a young man named Rob Camilletti, who many years later would get his 15 minutes as a bagel shop employee who became a boy toy for Cher. It's not Merchant/Ivory but it was a lot more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.