The two actors in this musical mish-mash are Tony Curtis and Michael Parks. The rest of the cast could best be described as actor wannabees. Curtis definitely has the best lines, including this gem. "You screw with me and I'll play stick ball with your nuts." Michael Parks giving bouncer lessons is also memorable. The lesbian nightclub and a waterbed filled with goldfish are not something you see everyday. Basically "Club Life" isn't much more than music videos interspersed with drug use and violence. The story, what little there is, mostly leads to dead ends. Definitely watchable for Curtis and Parks fans, others might want to look elsewhere. - MERK
6 Reviews
wholly depressing
nhlgumby26 December 2003
A movie like Club Life leaves little to be desired. With a story of a small town boy coming to a big city to find work and only finding trouble, it's hard to stay cheerful. The depressing manner of death of new friends, drug addiction of your high school sweetheart, and bad jobs make this story's end morose and sad. After watching this, there is not much to be proud of in life. On the positive side, the movie provides an excellent depiction of how to snort cocaine, beat up people, and how to get beat up yourself by those who are stronger than you. The movie's moral: don't go to Hollywood. My moral: don't watch these kinds of movies.
Dazzling neon 80's time capsule
Falconeer20 February 2007
When this film played on 'Showtime' after hours cinema, it was called 'King of the City'. Since then, it has been one of my favorite teen memories. 'Club Life' is a dazzling visual experience, filmed mostly in a decadent, and very 80's Hollywood nightclub, filled with druggies, pimps, lesbos, and lost souls desperate for a piece of the "Hollywood dream". The story is absolutely classic; Cal, a handsome professional dirt bike racer, decides to go to Hollywood, to "make it", on his good looks and charm. What he finds there is not quite what he expects. He lands a job as bouncer at a flashy nightclub called 'The City', after the owner, (Tony Curtis) sees him beating up a rowdy, dope smoking punk outside the club. After a short while, his girlfriend Sissy turns up in Tinseltown, looking for her man. Before she can find him, she has the misfortune of meeting a very sleazy pimp/pusher, who hooks her on pills, and has her working in a sleazy strip club. Classic! What makes this so great is it's romanticized portrait of Hollywood, glamour and sleaze walking hand in hand. filled with lovable and interesting characters, mostly broken people, who came to Hollywood for stardom, and ended up on the skids, or working on the very fringe of the entertainment business. There is Tillie, (Dee Wallace), the tipsy bleach blond, who dreamed of being a great singer, who ends up singing boozy torch songs at 'The City Club'. She is glamorous, she lies about her age, she drives a Cadillac convertible, and is the girlfriend of much older Hector, (Tony Curtis.) Hector is a good guy, loved by the people of the club, and becomes a father figure for cal. There is 'Tank', an over-the hill pretty boy who talks about his days of hanging out in front of Schwabs drug store in the 50's, hoping to get discovered. Tank likes his bourbon, and the occasional line of coke, but he is a kind and lovable type as well. Pat Ast turns in an unforgettable performance as the butch dyke owner of a sleazy 80's lesbian bar. The story here, after we get to know these interesting characters, is to see who will make it out of Hollywood, and who will meet a tragic fate. The film is beautiful in it's innocence, and portrays a world that only exists in the memory.It's an 80's version of "Valley of the Dolls", the boulevard of broken dreams' for real, and is the most stylish, neon-saturated fantasy since 1982's "Liquid Sky". Filled with dazzling imagery, such as a very hot nude lovemaking session on a glowing blue waterbed filled with live goldfish swimming across perfect, natural bodies. The pulsating 80's soundtrack stays in your head long after you see it, I can still remember the songs, word for word! The film is that memorable. For fans of 80's culture this is unmissable! Of course a DVD for this does not exist, but the old VHS tapes are there if you search them out. It is worth the effort it will take to see this forgotten gem of the 80's. A breathtaking look at a time gone by.
How do you NOT love this movie.
kingofdepew200310 October 2010
My friends and I raid cheap video stores around LA and pick up TONS of titles like this. There's nothing like straight to video 80s B movies, they fu*kin rule.
This one absolutely did not disappoint. The best aspect of one of these films is that they always manage to bring in one washed up star for the "heavy" role, or some juicy part. Amazingly, they managed to get Tony Curtis for this picture.
I had the feeling that the entire thing was an excuse for the director to call his friends and go "Holy shi*, I got Tony Curtis to be in my movie!" The whole thing seems like Tony just walked on set, threw away his pages and ignored all direction and just said "Im not doing it like that, ya motherfu*ker. Im doing it THIS way." And bless his heart for it, because he RULES in this. Of course this was a schlocky movie for him to do, and its no doubt Tony's a great actor. But to watch him in something like this, surrounded by a bunch of other horrendous actors makes him shine twice as bright. It's kind of like being a mediocre looking chick in a group of fatties. Any other night, nobody would look twice at you. But tonight, you're a STAR. He's such a bad ass in it, I loved it. It made me wish he'd go for meatier roles like this in real movies in his older age.
Micheal Parks is his usual, bad ass "Nick Nolte before Nick Nolte" self. He spews tons of great B movie dialog, and says "got-damn" better than most actors in the history of Hollywood. He actually pushes a line of coke in front of the main character and goes "Be somebody." YES! He also has one of the most ridiculous death scenes I've seen in a while, and one of the best funeral sequences ever captured on celluloid.
And thank god, thank GOD they didn't let the neon nun-chucks go. You see in bad movies, often there will be some kind of awesome aspect alluded to or featured on the box cover that never really lives up to it's potential; a new kind of gun, some kind of crazy car, etc. (Think of the Balabushka pool cue from Color of Money; some kind of weapon or item that makes the character special) They'll tease you with it for hours, but due to budget constraints it will either fall by the wayside or wind up being totally lame.
In this one, they keep showing these awesome glow in the dark nun-chucks. And in the 3rd act, he does indeed use them to their full potential. I was so happy. This movie rocks man, if you're into 80s cheese this one does not disappoint. It's kind of like Roadhouse before the Roadhouse.
This one absolutely did not disappoint. The best aspect of one of these films is that they always manage to bring in one washed up star for the "heavy" role, or some juicy part. Amazingly, they managed to get Tony Curtis for this picture.
I had the feeling that the entire thing was an excuse for the director to call his friends and go "Holy shi*, I got Tony Curtis to be in my movie!" The whole thing seems like Tony just walked on set, threw away his pages and ignored all direction and just said "Im not doing it like that, ya motherfu*ker. Im doing it THIS way." And bless his heart for it, because he RULES in this. Of course this was a schlocky movie for him to do, and its no doubt Tony's a great actor. But to watch him in something like this, surrounded by a bunch of other horrendous actors makes him shine twice as bright. It's kind of like being a mediocre looking chick in a group of fatties. Any other night, nobody would look twice at you. But tonight, you're a STAR. He's such a bad ass in it, I loved it. It made me wish he'd go for meatier roles like this in real movies in his older age.
Micheal Parks is his usual, bad ass "Nick Nolte before Nick Nolte" self. He spews tons of great B movie dialog, and says "got-damn" better than most actors in the history of Hollywood. He actually pushes a line of coke in front of the main character and goes "Be somebody." YES! He also has one of the most ridiculous death scenes I've seen in a while, and one of the best funeral sequences ever captured on celluloid.
And thank god, thank GOD they didn't let the neon nun-chucks go. You see in bad movies, often there will be some kind of awesome aspect alluded to or featured on the box cover that never really lives up to it's potential; a new kind of gun, some kind of crazy car, etc. (Think of the Balabushka pool cue from Color of Money; some kind of weapon or item that makes the character special) They'll tease you with it for hours, but due to budget constraints it will either fall by the wayside or wind up being totally lame.
In this one, they keep showing these awesome glow in the dark nun-chucks. And in the 3rd act, he does indeed use them to their full potential. I was so happy. This movie rocks man, if you're into 80s cheese this one does not disappoint. It's kind of like Roadhouse before the Roadhouse.
A total film of the 80's!!!!!!
screamlouder210 July 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I bought this film at a flea market for a dollar as it looked good and I heard Warhol film graduate Pat Ast was in it as I loved Ast in Reform School Girls and Motley Crue's video "Smoking in the Boys Room" plus Warhol's film "Heat" was better than any of Warhol's past work. I also knew that Sal Landi from "Savage Streets" was in it too. I loved the movie and glad I own it. It was a look at a bouncer's life named Tank which was played by Mike Parks from Tarantino's Kill Bill flicks working in dance clubs. Landi's character was in one scene only but a big scene as he tries to make a deal with the club owner with a bunch of other guys. Ast plays an owner at a sleazy rough lesbian bar who hires the bouncer. Ast was a lesbian in real life so she could relate to her role as her character's name was Butch and butchy attitude she had but she wasn't nasty like her role Edna in "Reform School Girls" or in the Crue's music video. She had a supporting role in it and her roles were bigger than in her other films like "Foul Play" or "Homer & Eddie" So she had known roles in all three, "Heat", "Reform School Girls" and this one. Also there's a great soundtracks by 80's music in this film and we also get to see Dee Wallace sing in it. Tank has to deal with some killer thugs in the film who killed his trainer and then at the end killed the owner played by Tony Curtis. It was very sad to see that. Also the closing credits came rolling down instead of rolling up which was interesting too. In the beginning when you see the opening credits and the dirt bike racing it looks like it was going to be a really bad Z-grade film but it isn't. If you love 80's dance films this one is for you, you won't be disappointed.
I love this movie so much
BandSAboutMovies1 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Norman Thaddeus Vane lived a life.
After an early conversion from Judaism to being Roman Catholic, a year in the Merchant Marine and two in the Air Force, he went to Columbia University on the G. I. Bill.
After graduation, his first play The Penguin opened Off-Broadway with Martin Landau in the cast and had rave reviews, reviews that eluded his Broadway debut Harbor Lights. He then spent the next two decades in London, where he wrote and directed Conscience Bay and The Fledglings when he wasn't running nightclubs - one of which he sold to the Krays - and contributing to Penthouse.
He also married 16-year-old Sarah Caldwell when he was nearly forty, which formed the basis of his script for Lola (AKA Twinky AKA London Affair), a movie in which Susan George stands in for his wife - his wife did act in his film Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter - and Charles Bronson basically played him.
As the seventies began, he wrote the Italian film 1931: Once Upon a Time in New York AKA Pete, Pearl & the Pole, which had Tony Anthony as Pete, Adolfo Celi as the Pole and Lucretia Love as the Pearl. He also wrote the Native Americansploitation film - is there a genre? - Shadow of the Hawk, which stars Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett and Chief Dan George.
Somewhere in the middle of the 70s, he shot second unit on the adult horror comedy Dracula Sucks, which would serve him well when he made the mainstream Frightmare, a movie that has references to the Universal Dracula.
Perhaps his most interesting film is 1984's The Black Room, a movie that Vane revealed to Nightmare USA was based on his real life, as he cheated on his wife in his own black room with Penthouse centerfolds that he met while working at that publication. It's also the only movie I've ever seen where a man rents a sex room from a brother and sister couple who may or may not be vampires.
The last few movies of Vane's career are hit and miss: Midnight, in which he was unhappy with the final cut, which was taken from him; Taxi Dancers, a sex film shot in the same nightclub used for Club Life and You're So Dead, made when Vane was 79 years old and never shown, as far as I know.
Vane wrote an op-ed to the Los Angeles Times in 1991 in which he confessed to how hard agism had hit him, saying "After being dropped by William Morris some years ago, I managed to sell several scripts to studios. But in recent years the wall has been impenetrable. Instead of disappearing, I decided to write, produce and direct low-budget, independent features."
If you want to know more, the incredible Hidden Films was lucky enough to interview Vane before he died in 2015.
But hey - we're here to talk about Club Life.
Cal (Tom Parsekian) is a kid from a small town who is pretty good at motocross but wants to be a star in Hollywood at something. That takes him to The City, the nightclub owned by Hector (a legit coked out of his mind Tony Curtis) who is in debt to organized crime but also loves to watch his wife Tilly (Dee Wallace) sing. Cal's Hollywood dream ends up being a bouncer - Road House came out two years after this before you claim theft - and learning from Tank (Michael Parks), particularly in a scene where Tank just avoids every move Cal has before the kid kicks him in the stomach and they both end up laughing and wincing in pain.
The girl Cal left behind, Sissy (Jamie Barrett) has come to Los Angeles looking for him, but she falls into a bad crowd at the same time as Cal leaving behind The City, as he comes to work at a lesbian bar called Different Drummer. Sissy also sings and her number "First Class Man" gets her both booed off the stage at the ladies only club and also catcalled.
This movie is awash in neon and fog. It also has one of the most amazing sex scenes ever, as Cal and Sissy work it out on a clear waterbed lit from the inside and filled with fish. This is the movie that proves to you that you haven't seen everything.
It's not done yet.
After Tank gets killed, during which one of the tough guys says, "The cat can't sleep if he wants to breathe." Cal comes back to The City and tries to keep Hector safe from all his debts. Did I mention that Cal can also dance? Or that he uses - and here's the part that might be better than the waterbed filled with sea life - neon nunchucks that get a slow motion dance fight scene that blew my brains out my nose.
This is a movie filled with strange BDSM fog-enhanced dancing set to music by Frank Musker (who is credited on the Stardust song "Music Sounds Better with You" thanks to a sample it contains from the song "Fate" that he did with Chaka Khan), Michael Sembello (the Flashdance force is strong within this) and Terry Shaddick (who co-wrote Olivia Newton-John's "Physical").
Smiley-faced balloons intrude on breakups, graffiti clowns watch over overdoses and a funeral happens inside a nightclub. It's also shot by Joel King, whose resume includes camera work on Just Before Dawn, The Beastmaster, Carrie, Out of the Blue and Embrace of the Vampire. That should give you an idea that this movie looks all over the place. As for the wild dance numbers, they were choreographed by Dennon Rawles, who also worked on Voyage of the Rock Aliens and Staying Alive.
Also, Kristine DeBell shows up and again, her career has some wild choices, from Meatballs and the erotic Alice in Wonderland to playing Jackie Chan's love interest in The Big Brawl to being in A Talking Cat!?!
This film ends as only it can. Cal smashes the hall of mirrors that his friend Tank died in and basically decimates the entire club with his neon nunchucks, ending with splitting the disco ball and throwing his brightly colored martial arts weapon over the Hollywood hills.
You best believe I was crying.
PS: Norman Thaddeus Vane was not paid for the movie and when it was nearly finished, he stole the film itself. He told Hidden Films, " The movie was being edited at Consolidated Film Industries, and I went over and stole these really heavy cans of negatives and put them in the cellar of a friend's house. And then I told our representative, "Listen, tell Guy Collins that I'm not giving the negatives back until I get some serious money." They called the police and I said to them, "I've been working for this company for three months and I haven't been paid dollar one. I'm holding the negative as a lien against the money they owe me by contract." The police took my side. Guy's brother came over and paid me $40,000 and said he'd owe me another $40-50,000, but I never got it."
After an early conversion from Judaism to being Roman Catholic, a year in the Merchant Marine and two in the Air Force, he went to Columbia University on the G. I. Bill.
After graduation, his first play The Penguin opened Off-Broadway with Martin Landau in the cast and had rave reviews, reviews that eluded his Broadway debut Harbor Lights. He then spent the next two decades in London, where he wrote and directed Conscience Bay and The Fledglings when he wasn't running nightclubs - one of which he sold to the Krays - and contributing to Penthouse.
He also married 16-year-old Sarah Caldwell when he was nearly forty, which formed the basis of his script for Lola (AKA Twinky AKA London Affair), a movie in which Susan George stands in for his wife - his wife did act in his film Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter - and Charles Bronson basically played him.
As the seventies began, he wrote the Italian film 1931: Once Upon a Time in New York AKA Pete, Pearl & the Pole, which had Tony Anthony as Pete, Adolfo Celi as the Pole and Lucretia Love as the Pearl. He also wrote the Native Americansploitation film - is there a genre? - Shadow of the Hawk, which stars Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett and Chief Dan George.
Somewhere in the middle of the 70s, he shot second unit on the adult horror comedy Dracula Sucks, which would serve him well when he made the mainstream Frightmare, a movie that has references to the Universal Dracula.
Perhaps his most interesting film is 1984's The Black Room, a movie that Vane revealed to Nightmare USA was based on his real life, as he cheated on his wife in his own black room with Penthouse centerfolds that he met while working at that publication. It's also the only movie I've ever seen where a man rents a sex room from a brother and sister couple who may or may not be vampires.
The last few movies of Vane's career are hit and miss: Midnight, in which he was unhappy with the final cut, which was taken from him; Taxi Dancers, a sex film shot in the same nightclub used for Club Life and You're So Dead, made when Vane was 79 years old and never shown, as far as I know.
Vane wrote an op-ed to the Los Angeles Times in 1991 in which he confessed to how hard agism had hit him, saying "After being dropped by William Morris some years ago, I managed to sell several scripts to studios. But in recent years the wall has been impenetrable. Instead of disappearing, I decided to write, produce and direct low-budget, independent features."
If you want to know more, the incredible Hidden Films was lucky enough to interview Vane before he died in 2015.
But hey - we're here to talk about Club Life.
Cal (Tom Parsekian) is a kid from a small town who is pretty good at motocross but wants to be a star in Hollywood at something. That takes him to The City, the nightclub owned by Hector (a legit coked out of his mind Tony Curtis) who is in debt to organized crime but also loves to watch his wife Tilly (Dee Wallace) sing. Cal's Hollywood dream ends up being a bouncer - Road House came out two years after this before you claim theft - and learning from Tank (Michael Parks), particularly in a scene where Tank just avoids every move Cal has before the kid kicks him in the stomach and they both end up laughing and wincing in pain.
The girl Cal left behind, Sissy (Jamie Barrett) has come to Los Angeles looking for him, but she falls into a bad crowd at the same time as Cal leaving behind The City, as he comes to work at a lesbian bar called Different Drummer. Sissy also sings and her number "First Class Man" gets her both booed off the stage at the ladies only club and also catcalled.
This movie is awash in neon and fog. It also has one of the most amazing sex scenes ever, as Cal and Sissy work it out on a clear waterbed lit from the inside and filled with fish. This is the movie that proves to you that you haven't seen everything.
It's not done yet.
After Tank gets killed, during which one of the tough guys says, "The cat can't sleep if he wants to breathe." Cal comes back to The City and tries to keep Hector safe from all his debts. Did I mention that Cal can also dance? Or that he uses - and here's the part that might be better than the waterbed filled with sea life - neon nunchucks that get a slow motion dance fight scene that blew my brains out my nose.
This is a movie filled with strange BDSM fog-enhanced dancing set to music by Frank Musker (who is credited on the Stardust song "Music Sounds Better with You" thanks to a sample it contains from the song "Fate" that he did with Chaka Khan), Michael Sembello (the Flashdance force is strong within this) and Terry Shaddick (who co-wrote Olivia Newton-John's "Physical").
Smiley-faced balloons intrude on breakups, graffiti clowns watch over overdoses and a funeral happens inside a nightclub. It's also shot by Joel King, whose resume includes camera work on Just Before Dawn, The Beastmaster, Carrie, Out of the Blue and Embrace of the Vampire. That should give you an idea that this movie looks all over the place. As for the wild dance numbers, they were choreographed by Dennon Rawles, who also worked on Voyage of the Rock Aliens and Staying Alive.
Also, Kristine DeBell shows up and again, her career has some wild choices, from Meatballs and the erotic Alice in Wonderland to playing Jackie Chan's love interest in The Big Brawl to being in A Talking Cat!?!
This film ends as only it can. Cal smashes the hall of mirrors that his friend Tank died in and basically decimates the entire club with his neon nunchucks, ending with splitting the disco ball and throwing his brightly colored martial arts weapon over the Hollywood hills.
You best believe I was crying.
PS: Norman Thaddeus Vane was not paid for the movie and when it was nearly finished, he stole the film itself. He told Hidden Films, " The movie was being edited at Consolidated Film Industries, and I went over and stole these really heavy cans of negatives and put them in the cellar of a friend's house. And then I told our representative, "Listen, tell Guy Collins that I'm not giving the negatives back until I get some serious money." They called the police and I said to them, "I've been working for this company for three months and I haven't been paid dollar one. I'm holding the negative as a lien against the money they owe me by contract." The police took my side. Guy's brother came over and paid me $40,000 and said he'd owe me another $40-50,000, but I never got it."
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