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Released by: MVD Rewind Collection
Released on: January 24th, 2023.
Director: Boaz Davidson
Cast: Lawrence Monoson, Diane Franklin, Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo, Louisa Moritz, Brian Peck
Year: 1982
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The Last American Virgin – Movie Review:
Despite the kindaa-sorta recent success of films like American Pie and the wave of imitations that followed in its wake, as far as most of us of a certain age are concerned the eighties was the ‘be all – end all’ decade for the teen sex comedy. Exhibit A? 1982’s The Last American Virgin, a Cannon Films effort written and directed by Boaz Davidson, the same man who, a year prior, gave us X-Ray.
As far as the story goes, teenaged pizza delivery guy Gary (Lawrence Monoson) is a virgin. He’s an average guy as far as his social status goes. Not exactly the most popular guy around town, but he’s pretty far from being the king of the dorks either. He spends most of his free spare time hanging out with his two best friends, Rick (Steve Antin) and David (Joe Rubbo). Rick is considerably more of a ladies man than the other two, and when the new girl in town, Karen (the lovely Diane Franklin, of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and who really should have gone on to bigger things), shows up on the scene, it’s him that she falls for, despite the fact that Gary has an obvious crush on her and that Rick only has one thing on his mind.
Obviously, things get complicated and everyone’s relationship with each other becomes stressed as the movie takes us along for the ride while everyone sorts things out, hitting most of the standard eighties teen sex comedy clichés at all the right times along the way.
Filled with plenty of crass, juvenile humor, lots of gratuitous nudity, and every stereotypical eighties comedy character you can think of, The Last American Virgin is an odd film that tries to be mostly a comedic film for the vast majority of its running time, but when then throws some serious and unexpected dramatic twists at the audience that kind of come out of left field. This changes the entire tone of the movie in a pretty drastic way and while it’s admirable that the filmmakers did something a little different here, no matter how many times you see the movie it’s pretty jarring!
Performances are pretty decent here. Lawrence Monsoon is likeable enough to work as the lead and we feel for the guy at times. He has a fun chemistry with Antin and Rubbo, who aren’t quite as likeable but who play their goofball characters well. Diane Franklin is really solid as the love interest here. Also look out for Kimmy Robertson of Twin Peaks fame in an early role
Despite (or maybe because of) some odd inconsistencies and a whole lot of eighties fashions and décor on display, there are enough laughs (albeit, most of them are pretty crass, but that’s okay, we’re not here to judge – and funny is funny!) to make the film worth a look, and if you’re particularly fond of the music from the decade in which it was made, you’re sure to groove on the soundtrack as well. For better or worse, the political climate has changed way too much in the last few decades for Hollywood to ever make another film like The Last American Virgin – they really don’t make them like this anymore.
The Last American Virgin – Blu-ray Review:
The Last American Virgin arrives on Blu-ray on a 50GB disc in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen with the transfer using 23.7GBs of space on the disc. Minor print damage is present throughout but minor is the key word, there's nothing too major here, certainly nothing all that distracting. Detail advances over DVD for sure, but it never reaches the upper echelon of what the format can provide here. Colors look good, the film's very eighties color scheme is reproduced well enough, and black levels are decent if a step away from reference quality. Compression artifacts aren't a problem and the image is free of obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement. It's clear that this wasn't given any sort of fancy restoration, but it's nice transfer.
Audio options are offered in English language 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Stereo with optional subtitles offered in English only. The audio here is fine, handling everything that the movie throws at the mix without any trouble. Dialogue is clean, clear and easy to understand and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion to complain about. The score sounds quite solid, which is a definite plus.
The extras are basically ported over from the Arrow Blu-ray edition from a few years back, starting with a thirty-six minute interview with Boaz Davidson where he talks quite candidly about how the project started, how he came to direct, what it was like working with Golan and Globus, specific memories from the shoot and thoughts on the film looking back on it a few decades after directing it.
A twenty-six minute interview with Lawrence Monoson sees the film's leading man talk about how he got the part in the production, what it was like in Los Angeles when the movie was being made, getting along with his co-stars and what Davidson was like to work with as a director.
Diane Franklin shows up for a twenty-one minute interview where she covers how she got into acting, some of the career highlights she had in the eighties, landing the role in The Last American Virgin, thoughts on the film and her co-stars and the infamous shift in tone that the movie takes towards the end.
The last of the interviews is a twenty-one minute piece with cinematographer Adam Greenberg who talks about his career, about what it was like working with Boaz Davidson. Along the way he shares some amusing anecdotes and memories from the time that he spent working on the movie.
Rounding out the extras on the disc is a still gallery, a theatrical trailer, a TV spot and bonus trailers for a few other MVD properties (The Gogo Boys: The Inside Story Of Cannon Films/Golan-Globus, Ski Patrol, Men At Work, At Close Range). Menus and chapter selection are also included on the disc.
As far as the packaging goes, this release also comes bundled with a DVD version of the movie inside the clear keepcase that also holds a collectible mini-poster and some keen reversible cover sleeve art.
The Last American Virgin - The Final Word:
The Last American Virgin is generally a pretty funny eighties teen sex comedy. It won’t likely win over those who don’t already have an affinity for the genre, but you have to give Davidson and company credit for trying something different in the final reel. The Blu-ray release from the MVD Rewind Collection presents the movie in decent shape and it offers up some interesting extra features as well. Recommended.