Too many fans seem to be blown away

How sad is this?

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Tapeheads", a scrappy, intermittently funny spoof of the music video business, might have been the perfect comedic short, and stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins are effortlessly in the swing of the nonsensical chaos involved. They play two semi-savvy security guards in Los Angeles who start their own company, Video Aces, making hilarious videos for groups, parties, and one deathbed star. It's too bad the filmmakers had to invent a dim side-plot to pad the running time (shenanigans involving a crooked politician and his henchmen which doesn't do much except take away from the movie's primary strength, sending-up the music culture of the late-'80s). Still, Cusack and Robbins create a couple of originals here: nerdy but loose, street-smart without being hipsters or posers, these guys are on the same nutty wavelength, and they never put each other down. They're the real thing in buddy-comedies. *1/2 from ****

My bestest memory of this film, that I love dearly, is (to me) a great story (bear with me). I live in a suburb of Chicago. This film was playing at the late, lamented Oakbrook Theatre. I saw it on the night that the Chicago Bears were playing the season opening game on Monday Night Football, the first game after the won the Super Bowl a couple months back. The Chicago area was very (to say the very least...) of their home team... ...and I don't like sportsConsequently, I was the only person in the theatre. And as I mentioned, I loved the film. I felt very elitist as I left the show, feeling that I had done a better job of spending 90 minutes than everyone else That I knew. Of course, when I tried recommending the film to anyone else, it was meant with indifference.This film, besides being really good, will always be in my book of cool for this reason (my "private screening" if you will...) if nothing else. Should I ever be lucky enough to meet Mr. Cusack, or Mr. Robbins, I would be proud to personally thank them for this experience.

...oh, yeah, most people are braying morons who wouldn't know a whip tight 80's comedy if it came out on DVD 15 years later with jokes that could still bite a chunk out of Adam Sandler's/Ben Stiller's/even Will Ferrell's ass. I saw this in the theater when it came out and couldn't fathom how the rest of the country wasn't chanting "Let's get into trouble, baby!" Then I remembered the country's median IQ and dismal reading levels and it was clear that this flick just moved too quickly for cinema dwellers who were looking for something a little less challenging than "Mannequin". "Teach me to read." "Sign my butt." "Don't bulls--- me! I'm a big cello fan! Casales died years ago!" "Josh is a visual visionary he communicates in images not antiquated verbosity, maybe that's why he's been so hard to understand recently." RENT-A-FACADE. "The Blender Children are mulch!" "Waffles' just pancakes with little squares on 'em." Not to mention the fact that the whole shebang is a slap in the face to Mtv produced by the creator of the network, Mike Nesmith. If that ain't subversive enough for you then go rank "Mannequin 2: On the Move" a ten and leave the real comedy to those that get it.

Tapeheads is not a subtle film. It is not brilliant film. What it is is one of the most unique and funny American comedies in a long time. What allows this movie to rise above the stupidity in which it revels in is two-fold. Its quirky sense of humor is so unique and refreshing, that you're not only willing but looking forward to the plot which can politely described as asinine. Secondly, it has the Swankey Modes, who are actually soul legends Sam Moore and Junior Walker. They bring a delightful energy and great music to the movie.It would be pointless to bring up specific scenes, except to say that this movie has approximately ten or fifteen of the funniest vignettes of the year. There are also plenty of misses, but the joy in seeing them make the effort allows you to forgive all the misses.John Cusack and Tim Robbins, both exceptional actors capable of great subtlety, exhibit none of it here. What they replace it with is a great comic energy and a willingness to do almost anything for a joke. Cusack is especially endearing as a total sleazeball who will do anything for a buck. Michael Nesmith (yes, That one!) produces this farce and demonstrates what we already knew- He was really the talented one, and the funniest one.I imagine that there will be people who hate this movie. People who hate its lack of subtlety, who hate the implausible plot, and who just don't get a humor that most can most aptly described as off kilter. What they don't understand is that the humor in this movie is a complete original, and the lengths this movie takes to see it through are admirable and at times breathtaking. And it is for those reasons that Tapeheads is one of the great American comedies of the 1980's, and one of the most underrated movies ever made.