A film that has to be seen to be believed. The original Alvin Purple was a pretty dire movie, which became a massive hit because it was exactly the right type of movie that came out at the right time in Australian history, with a perfectly cast Graeme Blundell. It wasn't a bad idea to do a sequel in the 10BA 80s (there were worse ideas, trust me), but I will never understand why, instead of casting a type similar to Blundell (a guy next door, played by an actor who was experienced) they used an inexperienced pretty boy, Gerry Sont. It really robs the piece of its point because you feel that in real life Sont wouldn't have trouble getting women.
That's the biggest mistake of this film but by no means the only one - it's tone varies, from 80s American teen sex comedy (Melvin has two best friends - who never seem to spend that much time with him - fat one and a pretend Fonzie type), to 70s British sex comedy with it's puns and boobs, sketch comedy satire (Melvin goes to see Gandhi Meets Dracula), slapstick farce (the last half hour is one big chase sequence basically) and politically incorrect race comedy (he romances Greek Australian Lenita Psillakis). It takes pot shots at gays (a man on a motorbike in leather, complete with a joke about AIDS), Greeks (Psillakis has a crazy Greek mother who plucks hairs for a living). The film continually stresses that Melvin doesn't like girls - but he's not gay (Psillakis' father was gay, something just kind of thrown in there), but women can't resist him, blah blah blah.
I did like Tina Bursill as an investigating reporter, David Argue as her cameraman, and Graeme Blundell reprising his work as Alvin - it was a good idea to have Alvin working as a lounge singer who had his own cult that worshipped him, and wanting to reconnect with his son. In fact, this could have been an alright movie with a little more care... and as it is, there's something attractive about the sheer grandeur of its crapness. Psillakis can't act but is pretty, and seems like a nice person - I actually enjoyed her relationship with Melvin (she's a stronger female character than we usually find in Alvin films). This is a train wreck but it has dignity.
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