Anarchy TV (1998) Online

This is one of those gems of a film that seems to rise above the sum of its not so stellar parts.

Although the production values don't seem to be up the quality we would expect from the cast, everyone seems to be having fun and the commentary of the director appears to confirm this.

Why are they, and the viewer, having fun? Simply because by not taking itself too seriously, this movie manages to skewer everything in its path: The religious right, the over-righteous (and cantankerous) left, and the seemingly unconcerned middle, and even conspiracy theorists that see everyone as the enemy. (Didn't anyone catch the naked aerobics instructor bit as a Jane Fonda reference?).

Rather than re-summarize the plot, let me summarize the idea: Nobody has a lock on the "truth", only on their concept of it.

This is one of those films that if you want to check your brain at the door and sit back and be entertained, you will miss the whole point of the movie.

At the beginning of the "comedy," director Jonathan Blank tells us Anarchy TV was based on a "true story" of a group of anarchist who took over a public access station. When their propaganda fell on deaf ears they went to the extremes, included getting naked on television to get noticed. What follows is an absolutely dreadful film.

I have often complained that some hollywood studios, directors, producers, and even actors will throw way too much money to try to make a wacky or embarrassing political statement with a bad movie. Anarchy TV proves that one can make a wacky or embarrassing politcal statement on a smaller budget.

The film starts off with some funny occurances with a public access station where "Anarchy TV" is run by a bunch of rich white kids. A few great scenes involve another television show called "Eat Me!" (two teenage punx tell obnoxious callers where to go) and a brief appearance by George Wendt (Norm from "Cheers") as a goofy, aging, hippie leader.

From there, this movie goes into the toliet of self-righteousnous and conspiracy mongering. In Blank's version of events, the station is purchased by an "evil" Chirstian business man who happens to be the father of one of the kids as disapproves with Anarchy TV. The show's cast takes over station where a large conspiracy is uncovered about the religious right involving profits, racism, and murder. The message falls on the deaf ears of the public until members of the cast get naked. Then, like the calvary of old Western flicks, liberally-minded groups from the Pro-Choice movement to NORML appear to save the day by picketing the studio.

At the beginning, I thought this would be a harmless parody of public access television or grass roots politics. Being that this was to be an "independent" production (as in "independent from Hollywood") I thought it may also stay away from the radical leftist view of Hollywood and look at every thing from a new edge or original angle.

This film does not attempt any of that. It comes off as a sanitizingly politically correct Scooby Doo episode with the conservative Christian villain being shown up by a bunch of meddling, if not self-righteous, conspiracy mongering, naked rich white kids. Where is the originally or edge in that?

Although this is set up as a independent or low budget movie, this should not be an excuse for the silly performances in this movie. Alan Thicke plays the villian to cartoonish proportions as do the Zappa kids. In particular, Moon Unit Zappa's performance is soooooo superheroishly cheesy, she makes Wendy, Super Marvin and Wonderdog look like members of the Royal Shakespeare Society. And no, the Zappas do not get naked in this film. That honor is left to Jessica Hecht and Jonathan Penner. Both Penner, Hecht and the rest of the casts could have been protrayed by those cheap marionettes that can be purchased from street venders in Tiujuana, Mexico (except for the nude scenes).

After watching this film, I wonder why Blank made this bad peice of fiction instead of making a charmingly disjointed documentary on the true story from which Anarchy TV is based.

With each passing minute of Anarchy TV, I wondered where the real anarchists were, who they were, and what REALLY motivated them to do what they did. More importantly, were the real people ever contacted by Blank, and if they were, was their political view of the world different from Blank's politically correct vision of a film?

If Blank's aim was to villify or praise the anarchists and their assault on the airways, why not go to the real source instead of ruining the careers of so many actors. Why not give me the real story, with real people and real political motives instead of wasting 90 minutes of my life?

I was one of maybe six people who've ever seen this thing. I sat through it mostly out of respect for Blank's prior film 'Sex, Drugs and Democracy', which was interesting. This was not. The Zappa kids looked embarrassed to be there, Thicke looked lost and the script... um, was there a script?

I did like the idea of a TV station takeover ('Tapeheads' did this better), but the idea is wasted here.

Skip this - rent SD&D instead if you can find it.

This is one of the worst films i've had the misfortune of seeing in the theater. It was showing at the CMJ convention in New York back when it first came out, and that was quite possibly the films only stint in theaters. The acting is poor, the story is far worse, and we walked out when we'd reached our breaking point. Luckily since we had passes for the convention, it was free, but even then i felt ripped off. As for a plot summary, imagine a completely cliched, pandering, and trite attempt at "anarchy"; spearheaded by lots of cheesy intimations to "the man" and rampant overuse of the term "fascists". A complete crapfest.

Okay, so yeah, this movie was funny. However, besides having an "all-star cast" especially for an indie film, the plot was shallow and by the end of the movie I got extremely annoyed by the whole thing. The movie itself turned into a huge anthem of protesting and tried desperately to get the audience to stand up for their rights and what they believe in, etc., which is fine but not what I expected of this film at all. I expected it to have some sort of ... substance ... but instead I got an over-done filet of American rights thrown in my face. I wouldn't watch it again.

This is a very funny movie! The Zappas are especially good. Really off-the-wall performances. Irreverent comedy. Loads of fun and nudity!!!

Jonathan Penner is the only reason to see this movie... The part where he takes his clothes off and his junk is bouncing around as he does aerobics... Great! But the rest of the movie is pretty lame. I wish it had been done better but it really was not executed very well. The plot seemed to drag on forever and the dialogue was horrible. Not to mention the acting! (Except for Jonathan, but his penis helped). So I would not recommend this film unless you are not offended by blatant nudity and pubic bushes in plain view, both male and female. But yeah, Jonathan Penner is hot in this movie. Great body, nice dick, the only reason to watch this. But otherwise, if you are looking for something deep and full of meaning, plus a great screenplay, this is definitely not the movie for you. Mindless entertainment for sure.

There are movies that are so bad they're good, and then there are movies that are so bad they're crap. This would be one of the latter. Utterly devoid of a single redeeming quality (unless you count non-celebrity nudity), Anarchy TV is the unfunniest comedy ever made. And considering that cable access TV is such a haven for oddballs that this thing should write itself, that's almost something of an achievement. This atrocity aims for the broadest targets imaginable (Are ya ready? How about…televangelism!) in the most unimaginative way possible (the Fundamentalist Christian TV network is called Christian Unity Network Television; one scan of those initials will give you a taste of the level of comedy genius at work here). It is populated mainly by unknowns, or has-beens (and even they seem like they're slumming). In a characteristically brilliant scene, an assassination attempt on a main character, broadcast on the station, infuriates the viewing public so much they, in a show of solidarity, smash their TVs. Right on.