List Price:   $14.98 Price:   $14.98 find out more information

Buy posters from this movie

Our two heroes are Joe (Michael Kopelow), a shaggy, redheaded and essentially amiable young pothead, and his ringleader pal Hubbs (Bradford Tatum), owner of “The Blue Torpedo” (a blue Volkswagen station wagon). Joe and Hobbs are two heavy metal freaks whose wardrobe and hairdos seem to be a serious preparation for careers as either metal rock stars or roadies, but their only real activities seem to be driving around looking for babes while they attempt to glean the last few precious fumes out of a clear plastic bag of used, low-quality reefer. Early on in their quest they encounter the loathsome (well, loathsome is a relative term here) Tack (Clifton Collins, Jr.), who clues them into a “party” where awesome babes can be found. Hubbs agrees to take on Tack, trading gas money for transportation to the “party.” However, he quickly weasels the party location out of Tack and then dumps the pimpled informant along the way because he “throws off the ratio.”


Joe goes along with this deceit with a mild protest. However, the lesson to be learned is that the world (and potential babes) belong to the strong, thick-headed, and aggressive Alpha Male, as Hubbs points out in so many words when he gives Joe hell for listening to Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper”—“A pussy song!” as Hubbs explains. Joe has a core of decency in him that will do him absolutely no good in the world of his territorial, lizard-brained friends.


When Joe and Hubbs arrive at the “party” they find it to simply be a house occupied by two young girls, blonde bombshell Lanie (Renee Griffin) and plain jane Jill (China Kantner). Joe and Hubbs quickly claim the “territory” as their own, rebuffing Tack and a horde of other male creatures also on the scent. Of course both Hubbs and Joe also immediately begin their own campaigns to win over the “hot” girl, virtually ignoring Jill. They make a brief sortie to a real party being run by obnoxious rich kid Jimmy Muldoon (a young, shockingly smooth-faced Jake Busey) but are quickly ostracized to the outside.


A brief poolside scene reveals the core of THE STONED AGE’s sexual politics: low-key Joe makes off with snotty Lanie to hot tub in a neighbor’s pool and smoke Joe’s pathetic stash. Joe attempts to make polite conversation with Lanie until Hubbs arrives and lambastes him for taking such a lame route to getting any action. Hubbs’ approach? He leaps into the hot tub, says he wants to “show Lanie something” and dunks the blonde’s head underwater roughly. This minor assault results in immediate make-out privileges for Hubbs, and thereafter Joe is relegated to a position where the only action he could possibly achieve would be the result of Hubbs’ charity. In other words, nice guys finish last. Even though Joe is decent enough to recognize that Jill is actually every bit as worthy of attention as the slutty Lanie, it takes Hubbs mere seconds to subvert the “decent” girl to his cause as well.

THE STONED AGE was made on a shoestring and first-time director James Melkonian isn’t exactly a master of cinema, so the film is awkwardly shot and edited and the performances are too blunt to achieve the hilarious goofball energy of something like REPO MAN, but it’s also an honest look at the youth culture of the time and the ruthless mating game of the teenager--even if most of the cast looks about thirty. -- Jeff Bond

 del.icio.us    
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=3833&reviewer=119
originally posted: 02/22/01 17:06:38
 printer-friendly format