HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Thank God It's Friday Boogie Nights
Year: 1978
Director: Robert Klane
Stars: Valerie Landsburg, Terri Nunn, Chick Vennera, Donna Summer, Ray Vitte, Mark Lonow, Andrea Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Robin Menken, Debra Winger, John Friedrich, Paul Jabara, Mews Small, Chuck Sacci, Hilary Beane, Otis Day, The Commodores, Al Fann
Genre: Comedy, MusicBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: The Zoo discotheque is enjoying a busy Friday night, as is the case with every Friday night, but not everyone can get in. As the owner, Tony (Jeff Goldblum), arrives in his Porsche and parks it in his spot, a selection of would-be patrons are showing up hoping to forget their troubles for a few hours' dancing, but teenage Frannie (Valerie Landsburg) and Jeannie (Terri Nunn) are turned away for being too young. Meanwhile married couple Dave (Mark Lonow) and Susan (Andrea Howard) argue about going in, but Ken (John Friedrich) and Carl (Paul Jabara) are so eager they nearly crash their car...

With an ensemble cast including Goldblum, if you were charitable you may have thought that Thank God It's Friday was attempting to be the disco equivalent of a Robert Altman movie, but most identified this was following in the footsteps of a hit from a few years before, American Graffiti, though not with the same amount of enduring success. That would be down to its choice of disco music which ran throughout the film, which fell out of fashion in a way that hits from the early sixties did not; granted, this was not as good an effort as the George Lucas favourite, but if you were willing to admit that disco did not in fact suck then there was much to appreciate.

The purpose of this was to sell a load of records on the Casablanca label, and there was a double album released which you could buy at the time, but if the grit and uncomfortable moments of Saturday Night Fever left you rather cold, then this was a warmer prodcution and would likely bring back memories of clubbing more than the dramatics of the John Travolta movie. This was shot in a real disco, Osko's, an establishment long gone by the late eighties which offers it a historical value should you happen to wonder what it ever looked like on the inside as well as the outside. Most likely that eclectic cast would be a draw as well, with soon to be famous performers rubbing shoulders with those who never quite were.

The DJ, for example was Ray Vitte, a talented chap who was also in Car Wash and generating a few laughs from his character looking for his big break as the show is being broadcast live on the radio, but Floyd (singer Otis Day) who is delivering the instruments for the band has gotten lost. Vitte was tragically killed in an altercation with the police a short while after making this, but the band the DJ is hoping to announce were The Commodores, with Lionel Richie still part of the line-up, more points of interest in a film packed with them. That's not to mention the other character hoping for a break is the Queen of Disco herself, Donna Summer, here in a character role and trilling the Oscar-winning title track.

Meanwhile as the teens Landsburg went onto fame in, well, Fame on TV (she sang pop favourite High Fidelity) and Nunn became singer of another Oscar-winning song, Take My Breath Away from Top Gun as the frontwoman of Berlin. Then there was Debra Winger, about to be a face of the eighties in Hollywood as a klutzy square tagging along with more worldly friend Robin Menken, and disco songwriting legend Paul Jabara as the shortsighted optimist who gets locked in a stairwell; he was another who died too young a few years later. If the sense of humour here rests too heavily on the people involved behaving obnoxiously, then every so often there would be reason to chuckle, and the very ephemeral nature of the entertainment on offer gave it an attraction of an artefact not intended to last beyond the end of the seventies. Besides, no film which included a big chunk of Giorgio Moroder's From Here to Eternity could be considered a dead loss.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 3445 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: