Blu-ray Review – Porkys (1981)

Set during the 1950s, Porky’s follows a group of high schoolers who band together to get their wimpy mate laid. After a couple of failed attempts they discover that there’s a strip club out of town known as Porky’s, where it’s the place to “get it”. The lads find themselves royally screwed over and embarrassed by the sleazy club owner and his brother, the local law enforcer. When the crew at Porky’s take it too far with the lads, they devise a plan of revenge on old Porky and his redneck crew.

Who knew that famous shower scene from the eighties actually had another 90 minutes tied onto it?! Written and directed by A Christmas Story director Bob Clark, I’m surprised to see that this is actually quite a nice little comedy. It’s not overly crude or demeaning to women and there’s genuinely fun scenes in the film.

The aftermath of the shower scene where Coach Balbricker gets her hands on one of the “lads”, she’s begging the principal to have the students line up and drop their drawers, the stifled laughter from the male coaches and the principal himself is hilarious.

When watching the Special Features it highlights several positive messages behind the film, as they tackle racism and anti-Semitism! Doesn’t sound like the same film where Kim Cattrall gets turned into Lassie, does it?

The Special Features also include a full audio commentary with the film’s director Bob Clark. They also keep him around for a 15 minute interview where he dishes out the gossip on his production woes. Nudie website tycoon “Mr. Skin” hosts a feature titled Skin Classics where he laments on his fondness for Porky’s and delves into the details about raunchy teen flicks from the eighties onwards.

Arrow has even paid particular attention to the trailers; 9/10 trailers on your standard DVD/Blu-ray release usually include the main feature’s trailer and several other trailers from their current catalogue. Arrow included the original trailers for Porky’s as well as the original trailers for the sequels; Porky’s II: The Next Day and Porky’s Revenge! Nice touch!

4/5