WWII Meets the 80's | THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT (1984)

"Jimmy, she's gonna blow!"

dir. Stewart Raffill

THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT is an example of cheesy eighties aesthetics at its best, from the title credit's font down to the de rigueur presence of arcade games--even the parts that take place during WWII are not immune from its all-encompassing touch. The story follows the fictionalized account of the infamous Philadelphia Experiment held in the Philly naval ship yard in 1943, where the destroyer escort Eldridge is subject to a radar-cloaking invisibility test that goes horribly wrong.  On the ship are affable buddies David Herdeg (Michael Paré) and sidekick Jimmy Parker (Bobby Di Cicco) who jump overboard as things get wonky, billows of smoke and neon glow surrounding them, inadvertently catapulting headlong into a time warp and landing in the Nevada desert, year 1984. As David and Jimmy start cluing in to what's transpired, they're hand is forced into kidnapping innocent bystander Allison Hayes (Nancy Allen) at a middle-of-nowhere roadside diner where she is filling up with gas. The police soon catch up and land them in jail and hospital, where Jimmy suddenly vanishes into the ether and Allison begins exhibiting a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome.  Hilarity at the hospital ensues when the Keystone cop MPs get on the case, causing the young couple to go on a cross country help-seeking spree while the military scientists responsible track David down in the hopes of fixing the "wrinkle in the continuum" they've created (which has disappeared an entire town in the process). 

Master of horror John Carpenter executive produces, a good pairing with director Stewart Raffill.  They turn out a well-paced, fun-to-watch movie where the the story just flows.  The mostly-cute B-movie denizen Michael Paré gives a good turn with a Joey-from-'Friends' performance while the lovable, quintessential 80s-girl Nancy Allen (Robocop I, II, & III) provides ample lightheartedness for a role in which her character believes so much in her man one questions her sanity.

To watch THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT is like unearthing a forgotten episode of V (original series) just without the aliens.  Not to be missed are Jimmy and David hurtling through hyperspace 80's-bound, the generous-with-her-cigarettes drag queen filing her nails in jail, Jimmy's rocket-man return-trip space suit, or the bodies of random sailors half-fused into the metal frame of The Eldridge!

Get it while it's up:

There's a Riot Goin' On | SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID (1987)

dir. Stephen Frears (DANGEROUS LIAISONS); screenplay by Hanif Kureishi

Can you pass me the human rights violations, please?

The writer/director team that brought the gay classic MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1985) swings out a doozy of a film that encapsulates the street rage of Thatcher-era London, festooned with the sexual and class identity politics of the time, couching the story of a couple on the brink, the touching open-relationship romance of the title characters Sammy (Ayub Khan-Din) and Rosie (Frances Barber).  They are put to the ultimate stress when Sammy's father Rafi (Shashi Kapoor), a human-rights-violating Pakistani head-of-state, moves into their South London flat to escape assassination.  This precipitates by virtue of a tapestry of juxtapositions a delicious comedy of errors served by a well-scripted dialogue abounding in very British fashion with loads of witty banter and brainy quips. 

Also copious, the fantastic music, a soundtrack of background and in situ selections that showcases the times (the mid-80s fascination with American hip-hop music and street style) and the place (imports from the colonies like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Jamaican reggae cuts).

Fine Young Cannibals lead singer Roland Gift turns in a fine performance in his first movie role as Danny/ Victoria, bravely lending his ass as a curvy counterbalance to the opening scenes of white girl booty, the one famously tattooed with W's on each cheek (guess what it spells when she bends over?).  That's just one of the pairings that frames the film, others being a couple of unrelated suicides, and two Thatcher overdubs ringing contemptuously out of touch with the images of an economically depressed and socially disintegrating London.  

Unmissable are Frear's rendition of the Brixton Riots, Virginia Woolf's portrait in flames, the omni-present ambulant  street band of urchins, and the disfigured ghost of a cab driver (Badi Uzzaman) portentously milling about town.

With so much being bandied about, SAMMY AND ROSIE could have been a very disjointed piece.  Instead Frears renders an artful, intricate construct, delivering a multifaceted layer of readings and a rich tapestry of situations in a film that truly utilizes the tropes of its medium to the utmost end.

Fair warning:  This Youtube upload literally pauses to a blue screen for a bit at 22m and at 1h:25m there's some VHS-style glitchiness.  Still,  SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID is such a hard-to-find movie that it's worth getting through these petty issues which do nothing to diminish the glory of all its juicy details.

So get it while it's up at: