Customer Reviews

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I really can't recommend this film enough to those of you who enjoy beautifully written, meticulously acted and stunningly visual films. The animatronics took my breath away as did the rewarding and at times challenging script. Valerie Vomit's own sub-plot is heart wrenching to say the least, as she struggles with her nauseous disposition only to overcome her weakness in the penultimate scene which was a real bittersweet moment of elation and regret. We follow these characters as they progress from prisoners to free citizens and I think this is the most satisfying of heroic transformations I have ever witnessed on film. Buy this movie.

Films can come from many inspirations and sources. There are novels, plays, true stories, comic-books, video games and...trading cards? The woefully mis-handled Mars Attacks was based on a brilliant trading card series and it was hardly high art. A lower-lever trading card such as the Garbage Pail Kids is hardly likely to make great cinema. If this sort of thing cannot appeal to you (I have broad tastes and I'm a bit too understanding of flawed films) then don't even bother watching.

I wanted to rent this movie when I was a kid but my grandmother (who always evaluated the videos first) thought it looked quite inappropriate (I subsequently went for Rambo: First Blood Part II, which she thought was more fitting for a 7-year-old). Since it's one and only incarnation on video tape in the late-80s (theatrical prints promptly vanished) this film has been totally non-existant. Luckily (if you like this sort of thing) MGM bought the rights, found a dusty print and spruced it up to give us a brand new digital incarnation of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. With erm...garbage like this getting a DVD release I must ask where the hell is Bigfoot and Howard the Duck?

Direcor Rodney Amateau (a rather fitting-sounding surname) could have made this an animated movie (eg Care Bears) but no, he actually had the audacity and nerve to attempt it in live action. Note how I said 'attempt' and not 'succeed'.

The animatronics are just horrible. Where is Jim Henson when you need him? So bad is the puppetry that the kids cannot even close their mouths and no one even bothered to lip-sync the dialogue. They are also disgusting beyond reason (as one who is familiar with the trading cards would expect). But after while they tend to grow on you (like an ulcer) and if you switch your brain off you might find that the film is alright.

There's nothing magical here. Even for a film packed with horrendously 80s fashion and production design there isn't even much nostalgic appeal. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie is certainly nothing like The Dark Crystal or even Ewoks: Caravan of Courage. Hell, it's even many leagues beneath Masters of the Universe. But, if curiousity takes control of you and you simply MUST own the film then go ahead. Just remember what I said about switching your brain off.

The DVD is in not bad-looking 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (considering most prints were probably left abandoned in an old mine somewhere) with Dolby Mono sound. Extras are limited to a single trailer.

If I hadn't seen the movie as a kid I wouldn't have bought it now. The quality is good for a movie most people would like to forget. I enjoyed watching it again but I only wish there was some extras like commentary track explaining why this movie was made. The movie is a true cult classic that no one will admit to watching or even liking. :D

I recently rented this movie from a non-franchised video rental place that specialised in hard to find films. Movies like this are often unintentionally funny. While this movie made me laugh, it also left me thinking "This was a really weird movie to market at little kids."
From one of the early shots of a kid's wiggling toes that are about to be eaten by a dwarf alligator, you know your in for a weird ride.
The plot is this: Theres a kid who hangs around an antique shop. The shop is owned by a magician who keeps the Garbage Pail Kids in his store in a garbage pail. The kid is always getting chased and beaten up by these bullies. One of the bullies is actually named "Juice." THATS HIS REAL NAME! Anyways, this kid ends up falling for this marginally attractive girl with poodle-frizz hair who is sort of Juice's kept woman. The kid uses the Garbage Pail Kids to create clothes for this girl who's also a fashion designer. Then when the clothes take off she tries to swindle him out of his rights to the clothes. With the help of the Garbage Pail Kids and a motorcycle gang, the kid wins in the end. Tangerine (the girl) apologizes but boy tells her "I just don't find you pretty anymore." Maybe its the big hair or the unitard, but it's rather hard to see her as attractive in the first place.
The weird thing is that this movie's just too out there for some 8 year old kid to watch - its not that theres any R-Rated stuff in there, but theres just this really, really creepy vibe between the lines of the story.
Not surprisingly, this movie was a colossal failure. It came out in 1987, and if my memory serves me correctly the GPK fad peaked around '86, which already sets this movie out on a bad foot.
Almost the entire movie is filmed at night or in dimly lit buildings, giving it a sort of unintended sinister vibe that goes along great with the scary looking Garbage Pail Kids.
The music is horrible - horrible in the way that some of the 80's pop music was horribly, only its a very poorly done amateur version of really bad 80's pop. Theres even an obvious bad Madonna rip-off song on the sound track.
I have to admit that some of the toilet humor was very, very funny. But after about 15 minutes of that you're just stuck with this AWFUL movie, with a really SLOW plot (the whole 3 Stooges scene is painfully slow and pointless) and you have to fight to stay seated and not turn the VCR off.

All of us born in the mid to late 70's will remember the characters from the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards because we were all buying them and trading them in our elementary and middle school years. This film is a must-have for all you former collectors. No, it's no great piece of film history, but it is one of the best cult films of our childhood era. This film is also becoming very hard to find and most new copies can only be obtained in PAL format from Australia. Go out and buy a copy today!!

This movie is an american classic for any kid who grew up in the 1980's. It helped pave the way for every vulger crude act of humanity in a humerous manner. Without this movie where would we be?

This movie is quite good considering what is; A low budget gross-out kid's movie from the eighties. Iv'e heard a lot of talk that the movie isn't that good. Also, judging by how short it was in the theatre it wasnt that popular either. Desipite this criticism it's a unique movie. This is a plus in this age of cookie-cutter holywood filtered/politically correct movies.

A movie based on trading cards that spoofed Cabbage Patch Kids... only in the 80s would something like this get the green light. While one might expect the production value to be on an Axe'm level (Axe'm is probably the worst film ever distributed) Garbage Pail Kids manages to elevate itself just above an episode of Monsters, but not quite as memorable as some other utterly forgotten films such as Dead Heat, Return to Oz, and The Monster Squad. However, there's 3 reasons to watch this film. They are:

1. When Windy farts off a man's mustache.

2. When Valerie Vomit... vomits.

3. The 'Too' asylum... as in the shameless politically incorrect prison for the too old and crippled who apparently get thrown into a giant trash compactor.

The concept alone of this actually being a film is so absurd, it actually has merit. As I watched this film in total confusion by its sheer existence, the only conclusion I could come to is that it should be remade with more money, better animatronics, and be more fearless with an R rating. It's just too ridiculous to ignore.

The only reason it even gets 3 stars is because it's the freakin' Garbage Pail Kids. Any "diehard fans" (whatever you take that to mean) of the cards that have never seen the movie would probably be sorely disappointed. A bunch of kids or midgets in bad looking costumes (especially by today's standards) run around singing inspirational songs (huh??) trying to help some kid impress an older chick. Rats and thunder, wind and hail...send this disc back in the pail. Tasty lookin' toes, too.

This movie was made back in the 80's but the special effects continue to leave me mystified. The cinematography is spectacular and is only second to the brilliant acting and directing. If you haven't seen this movie, you don't know how good movies can be. Buy this now because they just don't make movies like this anymore and you'll never see anything like it again.

By the way, if you're a fan of Garbage Pail Kids, you definately won't be dissapointed by this portrayal. They're as cool, if not cooler than you could imagine them yourself!