Reaction & Review | Waitress!

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a comedy from 1981. That movie is "Waitress!".

About the only thing I can tell you that I know about this movie is that it was put out by Troma. And I've mentioned them a few times in my past reviews when covering their movies. They're basically one of the most well-recognized indie film studios that's still around today. And I've noticed that I haven't been really covering a whole lot of movies from Troma lately. The last movie I covered from Troma was last year, and I'm only covering one movie from them this year. So, it has been a bit...sporadic, to say the least. However, I do plan on changing that next year, because, a bit of a spoiler here, I'm gonna be doing a marathon dedicated to both Troma and Full Moon, which I'll get into more details about it early next year.

So, you've probably noticed that I haven't been really talking about tonight's movie yet. And why is that? Well, honestly, I couldn't find very much information about this movie. The only thing that I could find out about it was that it was the second film in a line of "sexy comedies" put out by Troma. And apart from that, I don't know ANYTHING else about this movie. Now, since this movie is a comedy, I'm hoping that it's better than the last comedy that I watched from Troma, which was "Vegas in Space". Which was absolutely terrible, and there was no comedy to be found in that movie whatsover. I'm hoping that this thing is gonna be a step up from "Vegas in Space", but I could easily see this thing being as terrible as that movie was. I'm hoping that's not the case, because I do want this thing to be decent, both as a comedy and as a movie. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is decent, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Waitress!".

10 minutes later

OK, I have a question that I'm probably not going to get an answer to, but I'm curious about something. What woman jogs in their high-heels? I can't imagine that's comfortable on any woman that does this. Especially knowing that the stilt of those heels could break at any time. It just looks incredibly wrong to me, you know?

10 minutes later

You know, out of all the things I was expecting from this movie, I wasn't expecting someone to sniff up whipped cream as if it were cocaine. That's...something different. Also, I just saw a cowboy chef hogtie, I think, a customer as well. Yeah, this movie is just flat out insane, guys, and we're not even a half hour into the movie yet.

10 minutes later

OK, you know what? The way that Andrea just read back the letter from this guy about Joan of Arc was fucking funny as shit. I really was not expecting that at all, but god damn it, it was actually really funny! I'm kinda impressed by that.

16 minutes later

You know, I don't claim to be an expert on women's anatomy, but I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that those are, probably, some of the most fakest boobs I have ever seen. Also, I never thought I'd get to see a physical demonstration of women's breasts in medical school. Not totally sure how common that was back in the 1980's, but if that's how demonstrations were like back then, then the 80's must've been fucking tame as hell. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

15 minutes later

I think I have found a problem with this movie, guys. This movie was going somewhere for a while, but now it's just delving into random chaos. And I totally understand that Troma is known for weird bullshit, but this movie's just becoming weird for the sake of being weird. And it's kinda becoming too much, even for me.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Waitress!". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Good god, where do I even start? Well...first things first. Earlier, I said that I wanted this movie to be better than the last comedy that I watched from Troma, which was "Vegas in Space". And I wanted this thing to be a decent comedy, too. Well, guess what? I actually got that. Mind you, this thing is flawed as shit, but at least it's a better movie than "Vegas in Space". And that's really the best I could've asked for.

But now, I should probably get into the movie itself. Let's start with the writing. Now earlier, I stated, going in, that I had very little information about this movie. And because of having so little information, I had no idea what the hell kind of plot this movie was going to have. Or even if it had a plot whatsover. Well, there actually IS some kind of plot, even if it is rather disorganized. Because there's two different stories going on here. The first story, and the one that gets the most development, involves one of our waitresses named Andrea Morgan. Andrea is a failing actress who is trying so desperately hard to get into stage theater by audtioning for many roles, but gets turned down a lot from others that simply say no to her. And then, suddenly, she gets the inspiration to try out for the role of Joan of Arc. However, Mr. Belleman, who is the producer, does not want her, because he already has a different actress for that role, even though she is described as being a "much older actress" who does not look fit to be playing the role of a character who is suppose to be 18. We never see this actress that Mr. Belleman mentions, so I couldn't tell you how old this actress, that he picked, was. But anyway, when Andrea gets turned down by him, she pretty much tells him that she is gonna be keeping an eye on him, no matter where he goes, until she gets the part, because this is a role that she desperately wants. And this leads into stalker territory, as Mr. Belleman is being lead into delusions of grandeur, because he truly believes that she is not going to leave him alone until she gets the role. Honestly, despite some questionable bits, it's actually some of the best parts of the movie, because Andrea definitely gets the most development in this entire movie. Which is more than what I could say for Jennifer, which leads into the other story, where she's trying to write for a mature teen magazine on how to pick up men. And I really couldn't tell you a whole lot that happens with her story, outside of a couple of bits, which were admittedly funny, however, her character was pretty bland throughout the entire movie.

Which now leads me into talking about the biggest problem with this movie, which is the restaurant itself. First of all, I want to make mention that this movie is, like I said earlier, a straight-up comedy. At no point does this movie ever takes itself seriously. It is just straight-fire comedy that comes right at you in your face. And I appreciate that this movie knew what it wanted to be, unlike "Vegas in Space", where shit just happened and none of it made any sense. Which admittedly, this movie DOES have that problem. But, at least, it's slightly better handled here than what happened in "Vegas in Space". However, I suppose I should get into the problem that I was gonna delve into before I mentioned the humor. You see, when this movie is focused on both of our stories involving Andrea and Jennifer, it's something that you can follow and would probably find something to like out of it. But when it's focused on this restaurant that they both work at, the focus is completely gone and it's just nothing but random chaos. I swear, guys, there is so much shit going on at this restaurant that trying to even to attempt to explain all this would be a fucking feat in and of itself! Like, I could mention the fucking chef cowboy, who has a thing for Jennifer in this movie, if just briefly. I could mention the guy who snorts up whipped cream as if it was cocaine, which I sorta did anyways. Or I could bring up this head chef, who is known for getting angry when drunk and will just put in random ingredients into this cooking pot that makes no sense whatsoever. What also makes no sense to me is how the hell this restaurant even got past health inspection to begin with? Because since there's so much shit that goes on at this place, you would think that any of the customers would've reported this and said that there may be something wrong with this place. But surprisingly, that doesn't happen. Not even when some customers either have a live turtle in their soup, a shoe that's buried in their food, or when random shit is going on in the kitchen itself. My guess is either it's New York (where this movie takes place in BTW) and nobody cares about the quality of the restaurants that they go to there, or I'm just thinking way too hard about a comedy that wasn't really meant to be taken seriously, anyways. However, I could imagine those questions popping up in anyone else's mind, if they ever decided to watch this movie.

And unfortunately, the random chaos doesn't just solely focus on this restaurant. It also kinda barges it's way into Andrea's story. Because when Andrea finally gets the chance to audition for the role of Joan of Arc, she and Jerry, who is her love interest AND the owner of the restauarant, spend time together in his apartment. And then all of a sudden, people just started coming into Jerry's apartment, and it just doesn't stop. There are so many people that enter his apartment that any development we might've had is just interrupted by this madness that goes on during this entire scene. And I guess there was suppose to be conflict between Andrea and Jerry about her getting this role and her position as a waitress of Jerry's restaurant, but I honestly couldn't focus on that, because there was just so much random bullshit that happens when these people enter their apartment room. And to give you guys some perspective, I'm gonna compare this movie with another Troma film that I love to watch, that being "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.". You see, guys, Sgt. Kabukiman had random chaos going on as well, but, at least, it was still rather tame because it still focused on it's main story. This thing, however, has so much random chaos that it just kinda fell flat and pointless.. And again, I understand that Troma is known for being weird, wacky, and loves to inject a lot of comedy, but you also kinda want to have a bit of a balance as well. And unfortunately for this movie, that's not really the case. And, for me personally, it's honestly the weakest part of the entire movie.

However, if you can look past the random chaos that happens within this movie, what you have is a pretty decent comedy. And I actually did get a laugh out of a couple of jokes here, because they were legitimately really funny. And that's more than what I could say about a lot of supposed "comedies" that I've seen for this series. So, to sum up, the writing here is OK, as long as you can look past all of the insane madness that happens within this movie. With that said, let's get into the acting. The acting here is actually pretty decent. Again, none of it is amazing. But then again, from the few films that I've seen from Troma, acting is usually sort of a mixed bag when it comes to this studio. However, I can honestly say that this is some of the better acting that I've seen from them in a while. Everybody here feels comfortable on camera, and I couldn't really pick out any bad actors from this movie. Some actors do kinda ham it up, but it's still tolerable in the long run. So hey, at least the acting here is decent for what it is. Not amazing, but I'll take decent acting over bad acting almost any day.

Special effects, what very few there were, are OK for what it is. However, I should also mention that Troma is known for being one of the godfathers of low budget movies. So, you're not really expecting high quality art here. A lot of the stuff they work with here is actual food, which makes sense considering that this movie centers around a restaurant and all. And it does work, for the most part. Makeup effects here are OK. Costuming is kinda all over the place. I could remember the waitress's outfits looking fine. Andrea's armor, when she's trying to get Mr. Belleman's attention, looks kinda like shit, but it's not really that noticeable, unless you were really looking at it, like I was. So overall, everything here looks OK, at least when it comes to the costuming.

Camerawork here is OK. Lighting here is decent, but there are times where, when it's filming in dark areas, it looks kinda like shit, and you can barely see what's going on. However, those shots are very few and far between. So it's not like you'll have to worry about it too much. But then again, I did watch this movie off of YouTube, and I have no idea if the movie is like that on DVD or Blu-ray. Aside from that, lighting, as I just stated, is still decent. Sound-mix here is OK. The soundtrack here is pretty good, actually. There are quite a few songs here in this movie that are actually kinda catchy, so I can definitely say that the soundtrack here is nothing to scoff at.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Waitress!"? Um...kind of. Again, if you're able to look past all of the weird, random chaos that happens within this movie, then I'd say that you're in for a pretty decent comedy. However, if you're someone who's not into straight-fire comedies that just goes full-on comedy mode, then this movie might not be for you. If you're someone who is looking for more of a balance for comedies, then, again, I would not recommend this kind of movie for you. However, if you ARE into straight-fire comedies that are just in your face, then you're gonna have a fucking blast with this movie. And who knows? You might actually really like the random chaos that happens within this movie. So, if you're into that kinda thing, then you can probably find this movie up on YouTube somewhere. In fact, I'm gonna do something I normally don't do very much of. I'm gonna put a link to this movie in the description for you guys to watch. If you are curious enough, go ahead and click the link and check this movie out for yourself. And if you like it enough, then find a copy of it somewhere on DVD or Blu-ray. As for myself, I'm not totally sure if it's something that I would add to my DVD collection, but I still had a bit of with fun it, so I can't really say that the movie wasted my time. Now, as for myself, I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.". I'm in the mood for another Troma flick, so I'm gonna go and watch that next.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.