3.0 out of 5 stars
Get it on the Drive-In Cult Classics DVD Set Instead, December 20, 2010
This review is from: Malibu High [VHS] (VHS Tape)
**NOTE: This review may contain spoilers**
"Malibu High" is kind of a bland title for this low-budget trashfest "introducing" Jill Lansing as foul-mouthed, underachieving high school senior Kim Bentley. The film should have kept one of its other working titles, preferably "High School Hit Girl", being that's what our heroine ultimately graduates to after a stint of prostitution.
Too lazy to study for better grades, broke and recently dumped by her blond surfer boyfriend Kevin, Kim quickly takes local pimp/drug dealer Tony (Al Mannino) up on his offer to become a "working girl". Mannino is no stranger to grindhouse cinema as he has appeared in everything from the classick 1971 rabies-fest "I Drink Your Blood" as a human sacrifice to a gay construction worker billed as "Le Fruit" in 1983's "Microwave Massacre", possibly one of the stupidist horror movies ever made. Here Mannino (aka Alex Mann) sports a pencil thin moustache that makes him resemble John Waters on steroids.
When Kim gets fed-up with Tony taking a bigger cut of her profits than she appreciates, she begins working for a higher-class pimp named Lance (Garth Howard). They ultimately become lovers and when one of her tricks freaks her out by setting up an S&M scene, she murders him with an ice pick, later revealing to Lance that she kind of got off on it. This event causes a light bulb to go off as Lance realizes Kim's lack of conscience will make her a perfect hit-girl to off his enemies.
Our heroine also begins coming on to her teachers and then blackmailing them after she seduces them. When the principal calls her on her behaviour, she straddles him topless causing the old coot to have a heart attack!
Of course, things escalate to the boiling point until Kim commits a murder that hits close to home and a big showdown ensues (complete with the theme music from the "People's Court").
This is cheaply made, mindless entertainment, but it's good for a few laughs. There is a cheesy disco sequence, and it's a little unbelievable that an average (by Hollywood standards) looking girl like Kim would quickly become known as the hottest piece of tail in town. The barbed exchanges between Kim and her hapless mother are a highlight as is the moment when Kevin's new squeeze repeatedly refers to Kim as "just a piece of sh**".
Not since Dawn Davenport in "Female Trouble" has there been a leading lady so unsympathetic and hell-bent on destroying herself. Like Dawn, Kim gets her just desserts in the end.
Worth viewing at least once for the cheese factor and several laugh-out-loud lines.
This movie is available on the budget-priced "Drive-In Cult Classics" DVD set that routinely sells for around five bucks on Amazon. Buy that instead--even though the other movies are rather dull and this is definitely the best of the bunch, you can't beat the price.
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