Earth Girls are Easy

Every once in a while a movie comes along that I can enjoy much like an infant in a crib does, just for all the bright shiny colors. One that springs to mind is Speed Racer, which is not a very good movie but so goddam colorful that I enjoyed it in spite of that.

This one is actually a pretty good movie, satirical without being arch at all. It sets us down somewhere in the Valley, where a spaceship manned by one smart guy named Mac (Jeff Goldblum) and two idiots named Whiploc and Zeebo (Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans) crash-lands in the backyard pool of Geena Davis, who is a manicurist and not very smart, either. She quickly adjusts to these critters, who are bright red, yellow, and blue, and completely covered in fur. She lets her friend Julie Davis in on it, who promptly gives them a full-body shave and total makeover. There is a whiff of the Coneheads here, as no one seems to really mind their bizarre behavior. They go to a very colorful disco (actually the Griffith Observatory) and there is a crazy dance-off. There really isn’t much of a plot, just a lot of sight gags and such, and it’s clear pretty early on that Geena is going to fall in love with Mac over her philandering boyfriend. But I had a lot of fun.

The real genius behind this movie is Julie Brown, who wrote the wonderfully wacky music and co-wrote the script. Then when it was all done, the people who had financed it seemed to have said … “What the fuck?” They cut it up several times and finally released it, and it didn’t do well, but it has developed a cult following. The DVD contains one of the cut songs, a really great number called “I Like ‘em Big and Stupid. Which shows you how big and stupid the execs were.

There is also a cameo from Angelyne. Have you ever heard of her? If you haven’t it’s not because she didn’t try hard enough to get your attention. Though she sings and paints she is not very good at either. What she is a genius at is self-promotion. With nothing really going for her but enormous boobs and driving around town in a pink Corvette, she started renting billboards on Sunset Boulevard in 1984. They just had her huge, huge picture in a sexy pose, and the name Angelyne. Since then she has bought over 200 billboards. Like the Gabors, she is famous for being famous. My hat is off to her.