Customer Reviews

Anarchy TV: The Movie

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Director Blanks brings Frank Zappa's children onboard in a decadent ninety minute comedy that entertains.

Channel 69 is the local public access station that plays shows like "Political Jeopardy" and "Eat Me." The shows lambast the establishment, and push free speech and individualism. It is run by cute couple Jerry (Jonathan Penner) and Natalie (Jessica Hecht), hilarious paranoid Frank (Matt Winston), Katie (Moon Zappa), and Sid (Dweezil Zappa). Natalie is also a teacher, working her political agenda into subversive elementary school plays, much to the principal's (Mink Stole) chagrin.

Natalie's dad is Reverend Wright (Alan Thicke), who buys the television station, disowns his daughter, and throws the group out onto the street. They try to protest their plight, but no one seems to care as no one was watching them in the first place. They hold a couple of disastrous rallies, where all their friends butt heads about their personal beliefs. They are thrown in jail, and eventually bailed out by Oriental prostitute/fan Tiffany (Tamayo Otsuki).

As the Christian station broadcasts on their station, the group hatches a new plan. They take the station by force and begin broadcasting their stuff again, much to the yawns and indifference of the viewing public. Even the police and press do not care. Frank discovers a safe in the station that holds the key to all his off-the-wall beliefs, and sets about breaking the combination.

Tiffany suddenly gets a great idea, and viewers begin tuning in- nude aerobics will do that. Soon, the little station terrorists find themselves to be media darlings, and people tune in, shedding their inhibitions and clothes as well. Eventually the film ends in Frank's shooting, as he discovers proof that the government executed radical Abbey Archer (George Wendt) with microwaves.

The film plays like a goofball version of "UHF." The film makers wisely lampoon conservatives as well as liberals, but usually spends way too much time beating it into their audience. The final few minutes, featuring the shooting, brings down all the silly fun of the film, and really ends on a sour note. The entire government-as-assassins angle absolutely fails.

Moon and Dweezil Zappa are very funny in supporting roles, as is Ahmet as an abusive cop. Matt Winston is a riot as paranoid Frank, questioning everyone's motives. The sketches in the film run hot and cold, but it helps that a middle ground is found. If you are offended by a joke one minute, Blanks finds something for you to laugh at the next. Actually, with free speech and personal freedom being preached, the political group who come off best in the film are the libertarians, not anarchists.

"Anarchy TV" is not great, but it has more laughs than some big screen successes, and contains off color humor that works better than any "American Pie" film. I recommend it, unless full frontal nudity (both sexes) and anti-establishment humor really bothers you...

This is unrated, and contains mild physical violence, mild gun violence, strong profanity, very strong female nudity, strong male nudity, strong sexual references, drug abuse, drug references, and adult situations.

The film is a quite funny and refreshingly affirmative counter-culture take on religious hypocracy, police brutality and racism. It contains an amusing send up of so-called family values. I took my 14 year old son to see it. It is a healthful antedote to the banal and unimaginative twaddle on TV and in the movies.

AChannel 69 is a religious cable channel which is suddenly taken over by a group of young social anarchists, whose aim is to jump-start the social revolution by means of televising nude aerobics. Sound strange?
Well, this is the premise, in a nutshell, of ANARCHY TV. In this sometimes achingly funny little movie, the satire is equally aimed at all fronts-the Religious Right, Social Conservatives, Politicians, Televangelists,Law Enforcement, as well as politically correct, bleeding heart pseudo-liberal protest marchers in search of any cause about which to raise a placard and march in the streets. By focusing on the manipulative tactics of both sides of the political spectrum, ANARCHY TV successfully exposes the folly within each of these camps. While most of the cast seems wooden (Dweezil Zappa sleep walks through most of this film, and Alan Thicke never breaks out of his one note characterization of the Uber-Conservative), there are some very fine turns here too, most notably by Jonathan Penner, whose blend of the serious and the absurd help to keep the story from disintegrtaing into slapstick.
Although much of the movie is a wild comic ride with lots of unexpected turns around each corner, the story falls apart in the last 10 minutes, leaving this reviewer to wonder why such a biting satirical gem as ANARCHY TV lost its bite in the end.

There are movies that are so bad they're good, and then there are movies that are so bad they're crap. This would be one of the latter. Utterly devoid of a single redeeming quality (unless you count non-celebrity nudity), Anarchy TV is the unfunniest comedy ever made. And considering that cable access TV is such a haven for oddballs that this thing should write itself, that's almost something of an achievement. This atrocity aims for the broadest targets imaginable (Are ya ready? How about...televangelism!) in the most unimaginative way possible (the Fundamentalist Christian TV network is called Christian Unity Network Television; one scan of those initials will give you a taste of the level of comedy genius at work here). It is populated mainly by unknowns, or has-beens (and even they seem like they're slumming). In a characteristically brilliant scene, an assassination attempt on a main character, broadcast on the station, infuriates the viewing public so much they, in a show of solidarity, smash their TVs. Right on.

The film is a quite funny and refreshingly affirmative counter-culture take on religious hypocracy, police brutality and racism. It contains an amusing send up of so-called family values. I took my 14 year old son to see it. It is a healthful antedote to the banal and unimaginative twaddle on TV and in the movies.

I loved this movie, but the gratuitous nudity was a bit of a turn-off. It had nothing to do with the story and seemed like the director's way of jacking up the rating. I'm a big musical fan of the various Zappas and was happy to see Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva in a film together. Dweezil Zappa's character is refreshingly sarcastic and the entire cast of Anarchy TV is very funny. This spoofish movie is a definite fave. The public access show "Eat Me" is my favorite, with some foul-mouthed kiddies that make the movie complete.

Funny stuff.