Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Robert J. Maxwell In the middle of World War II, in the absence of many men from the usual breeding pool in Los Angeles, Sonny Wisecarver (Patrick Dempsey), a fifteen-year-old boy who is tall for his age, runs off with two grown women. Woman number one is six years older than he is, and dim witted and horny. Woman number two is ten years older, and horny and dim-witted.The first time it's with Thalia Balsam, the common-law wife of a great bruiser named Carlo and the mother of two babies. They get married in Yuma, spend a night together, and get caught. The love affair is broken up by the stern and cynical judge who is not influenced by Sonny's apparent charm.The second time, he runs away from his job in a tuna-processing plant with the wife of a overseas Marine. This time there's no question of love on the part of either party. They get caught, the affair is broken up, the same judge now sends Sonny to a camp run by the California Youth Authority. Sonny doesn't like the camp and runs away.With all these tabloid headlines, Sonny becomes a hero -- dubbed "The Woo Woo Kid" -- and all the restless young women salivating over him. He's "the perfect mate" who really "knows how to make love", say the papers. "He's done it again!", says the Newsreel voice.At first, my impression of Sonny Wisecarver was that he was just a dumb high-school kid who committed a foolish and impulsive act, running away from home and from school with a pretty woman he had a crush on. But, listening to his ironic and self-pitying narration, I began to think he might be one of those people who hunger so rabidly for attention that they'll take a nose dive off the Empire State if a camera is rolling.Then, with his escape from the corrections facility, the clinical picture became a little clearer. He seemed less like a wayward and naive teen ager and more like a good example of what's now called "anti-social personality, socialized type." A generation ago he would have been called a "sociopath" and before that a "psychopath." His stimulus hunger takes him wherever whimsy dictates. And meanwhile he's "laying pipe", as he puts it.The writers and director try their damnedest to make us like Sonny. Like Forrest Gump, he seems at once good-natured, generous, stupid, and perceptive. Whether you'll yield to those demands depends on your ability to swallow some scenes that are obviously contrived for the purpose of making the film itself likable and up tempo. For instance, when Sonny leaps off a train on which he's been identified as a fugitive, he runs at full fifteen-year-old speed down a rural road pursued by ladies in high heels. The scene is ludicrous, but whether a given viewer buys it or not is problematic. And it raises the question of what else has been falsified for the sake of promoting our identification with this poor love-sick child.Dempsey is adequate, but he's outmatched by both of his female partners. Thalia Balsam, Martin's daughter, captures the defeated but not hopeless, impoverished wife perfectly. She's big-eyed and sweet and speaks with an endearing lisp. After she's out of the picture by order of the court, the writers wisely give us a shot of her wounded expression while reading about Sonny's second adventure. See, for her, it really MAY have had something to do with "love". And Beverly D'Angelo as the second kid-napper outclasses Dempsey as the defiant and aggressively sexual, cheating wife of the Marine. The direction is functional, the musical score is all 1944 big band and Billy Holiday, and the production design by Dennis Gassner is evocative. One shot shows Balsam's fingernails painted a deep scarlet -- not the glossy, long, claw-like shrimp-pink of a Hollywood actress, but the clipped and gnawed fingernails of a working girl wearing cheap-looking polish. In a way it's a pretty distasteful movie. I don't mean that to refer to anything remotely connected with the sex or the affection, but with the fact that this movie tries to make a heroic figure out of someone who has little regard for his parents, his friends, or his own future. Doing deviant stuff isn't necessarily funny. Taking off without explanation from home and school leaves baffled and worried parents behind. Balsam's character winds up betrayed. D'Angelo's husband is cuckolded. And it's all a big joke?

ccthemovieman-1 Here's a different story: funny and appealing for awhile. I say "awhile" because on the third viewing of this, I must have gotten "righteous" because I did not appreciate adultery, pre-marital sex and sex with minors as something to be glamorized. It was in this film, sad to say.Apparently based on a true-life story of a kid called Ellsworth ""Sonny" Wisecarver, Patrick Dempsey plays the 15-year-old kid who married two adult women in the 1940s, causing scandals. In this movie, Wisecarveer is made out to be a lovable, naive, romantic and sympathetic figure despite the fact he is an immoral idiot!The first woman he's involved with, "Judy Cusimano," is played by a pretty actress with whom I am not familiar: Talia Balsam. She reminded me of Lea Thompson. According to her filmography, she's done mostly TV work since this movie. Anyway, "Judy" and "Sonny" certainly make a strange pair. There are some funny lines between them, but she's as morally bankrupt as him.After those two are quickly discovered and the marriage dissolved, Sonny is now the attraction of older women everywhere. It doesn't take long for Beverly D'Angelo enters the picture as "Francine Glatt" being second important adult woman in Sonny''s odd life.Although the movie glorifies all this sleazy nonsense, it is a fun movie to watch if you've never seen it before. The bright colors in here, the 1940s mood and atmosphere, a great '40s soundtrack and some genuinely funny moment and scenes all are pluses.

Claudio Carvalho In 1944, `Sonny' Wisecarver (Patrick Dempsey) is a fifteen years old teenager having very weird and depressive parents. He gets closer to his neighbor Judy Cusimano (Talia Balsam), a twenty-one years old woman living with a brutal man, Carlo (Tony Longo). His sensitive and delicate way of treating her makes Judy falls in love with him. They decide to escape to get married in a nearby town. A few days later, Carlo calls the police and the couple is arrested. The cases gets publicity, and the tender words of Judy about `Sonny' makes him famous as a heart-breaker. This is the beginning of a nice and funny movie, with Patrick Dempsey in the beginning of his career performing a character who really knows how women are to be treated. A good entertainment, recommended for those who likes comedy. My vote is seven.

semicool Being from the Generation Y...the generation in love with technology and movies that cost millions to make and take about 50 computers to put the graphics together, I must say I loved this movie! It was greatly put together and made many great lines come across. One of the best of the '80's!