Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - May 23, 1985
Author: JOE BALTAKE, Daily News Movie Reviewer
* "Fraternity Vacation." A comedy starring Stephen Geoffreys. Directed by James Frawley from a screenplay by Lindsay Harrison. Photographed by Paul Ryan. Music by Brad Fiedel. Running time: 89 minutes. A New World release.
* "Rappin'." A comedy with music staring Mario Van Peebles and Tasia Valenza. Directed by Joel Silberg from a screenplay by Robert Litz and Adam Friedman. Photographed by David Garfinkel. Music by Michael Linn. Running time: 92 minutes. A Cannon release.
* "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." A comedy with music starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt. Directed by Alan Metter from a screenplayby Amy Spies. Photographed by Thomas Ackerman. Music by Thomas Newman. Running time: 87 minutes. A New World release. All three films are in area theaters.
Wendell Tvedt, see, is this nerd from Iowa State who heads to Palm Springs with two of his buddies for a little leching.
Wendell is the central character of "Fraternity Vacation," one of three new "youth-oriented" films that opened here recently and that come with inch-deep matinee substance.
He's a kid who simply wants to have a nice, cozy time with the cute daughter of the Palm Springs police chief (a situation that is trouble in itself), but whose good buddies get him involved in a creepy competition involving a pair of rival fraternity brothers and a pretty virgin.
Wendell's also a virgin, and as played by Stephen Geoffreys (recently of ''Heaven Help Us"), he looks like what might result if the young Jack Nicholson of "Little Shop of Horrors " mated with Jerry Lewis' Julius Kelp
from "The Nutty Professor."
Naturally, Wendell - who does a mean Wayne Newton imitation - turns out to be a natural, a better swordsman than any of the other four guys, all of whom fancy themselves Tom Selleck clones.
"Fraternity Party" is a wretched film. A colleague compared it to two dogs checking each other out. However, any movie that advances the notion that Wayne Newton is more sexually formidable than Tom Selleck gets my vote. Quality has nothing to do with it.
"Rappin'," from the director who gave us the original "Breakin'," is another ghetto-ized Mickey and Judy romp, in which the film's Mickey (Mario Van Peebles) - named John "Rappin' " Hood - gets out of jail, cleans up his native Pittsburgh (of not only gang warfare, but also greedy land development) and wins a recording contract.
He gets the girl, too (soap star Tasia Valenza). Everything has been sanitized and sugarized in the urban world here, so much so that the original Mickey and Judy look like cynical J.D.s by comparison.
But at least "Rappin' " has a semblance of a plot. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" simply continues the dance contest that started with "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" and continued with "Fame," "Flashdance," ''Footloose" and the two "Breakin' " films. It's . . . bouncy.
Sarah Jessica Parker, nevertheless, is engaging as a nice Catholic girl trying to hide her penchant for sexy dance gyrations from her hard-nosed daddy.
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