I feel guilty of litotes in stating that this is merely the best film in the history of cinema, because it is much more than that. It is probably the greatest artistic achievement in any field, and arguably the crowning achievement of mankind in our stay on this big blue marble. Many people believe that all of existence and all of evolution took place just so all the DNA tumblers could turn, making our brains large and sophisticated enough that Joysticks could be created. It pains me that Robert Duvall won the Oscar for Tender Mercies when Joe Don Baker's poignant performance in Joysticks failed to score even a nomination, and that the great Jon Gries (later to become the legendary Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite) would receive no recognition for having portrayed the full gamut of human emotions so evocatively in his sensitive turn as King Vidiot.

Joe Don Baker is out to shut down the video arcade because his Valley girl daughter won't stop hanging out there. It's an '80s teen comedy so you pretty much know what the ceiling is on this. It's lowbrow and childish but harmless and even funny in places. The Dorfus character is the 'funny gross fat guy' that all post-Animal House comedies seemed to have. Jon Gries is in this in an embarrassing early role as King Vidiot. The old school video game stuff is cool and, of course, the female nudity is nice. Some great boobs on display here, for those interested. The strip video scene is a highlight. It's not the best '80s teen sex comedy but it's enjoyable enough. Personally I think it's impossible to completely dislike anything with Corinne Bohrer in it.

I can't believe all the harsh reviews this movie gets. I think it's a true work of deliciously dreadful 80's trash exploitation movie art that totally nails the rampant hedonism and stupidity of adolescence with uncanny accuracy. All the kids want to do in this film are play video games or make out. They have no ambitions or aspirations towards doing anything meaningful or significant with their lives. They just wanna party and have fun. Come on, people, that's exactly what being a teenager is all about! And boy does "Joysticks" peg this blithely moronic mindset with spot-on incisiveness and authenticity. This movie reaches its true moment of absolute cinematic greatness during the legendary strip video sequence. When the camera pans down to show the hot chick's ample breasts jiggling up and down in extreme eye-popping close-up as she plays the video game those beauteous bouncing boobs perform a majestic ballet that just screams "gleefully mindless sleazy entertainment!" Yeah, the acting stinks, the plot's a paper-thin joke, the humor is crude and sophomoric, the production values are strictly rock bottom, and the 80's slang, clothes, and hairstyles now are hopelessly dated and laughable at this point in time, but "Joysticks" nonetheless reigns supreme as a genuine tacky no-brainer dreck artifact of its era.

Of all the juvenile attempts at a movie this has to be the worst. they tried so hard to be porky's with video games that it was funny--makes an excellent gag gift for the guy who loves video games though--they will sit through the entire thing just to get glimpses of classic games. If arcades were really like this in 1983, its no wonder the bottom fell out of the industry... The scene with the punks acting out a pacman game had me cringing in embarrassment for the actors. If it wasn't for Joe Don Baker and his illustrious career of movies (as witnessed on MST3k) this movie would be a total loss. But by all means find a copy of this movie somewhere and subject yourself to the torture--you know you've done something wrong and deserved to be punished at some point--now is the time to make ammends!