Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray Movie Review

There's still a virgin in America?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 27, 2015

Certain “life events” (to borrow a phrase from social media) are so universal that they eclipse any specific time or location. Birth, death, falling in love—these are all parts of the human condition and are therefore not dependent on any individual circumstance. Add to that list that rush of hormones that is part and parcel of the teenage years, and the resultant desire (typically by males) to lose one’s virginity. Boaz Davidson offered a sweet if occasionally raunchy coming of age film in 1978’s Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle), a huge hit in its (and Davidson’s) native Israel which was in fact set in that locale and which took place in the 1950s. The theme of a trio of young high school guys on the hunt for available (and willing) girls was universal enough that when Davidson, along with original producers Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan, decided to reimagine the story for American audiences, both the location and also the time period were changed, recasting the tale as a contemporary (meaning 1980s) story taking place in the sunny climes of Los Angeles. Once again Davidson traffics in both sweetness and a fair amount of raunch, and individual responses to the film will probably depend on how these two at times disparate elements tend to resonate both separately and together. The film is notable for not just its testosterone fueled main plot device, but also for at least a couple of unexpected developments which point out the fact that there are often unforeseen consequences not just from becoming sexually active but for the perhaps more mundane condition of simply falling in love.

The focal character of The Last American Virgin is generally sweet natured but inherently shy Gary (Lawrence Monoson), a kid who brings in a few bucks delivering pizzas but who, along with his buddies Rick (Steve Antin) and David (Joe Rubbo), can’t stop thinking about girls. Rick is already relatively experienced, and doesn’t mind bragging about his conquests, while Gary and the overweight David are perhaps content—for a little while, at least—to bask in Rick’s reflected glow.

The film initially seems to be playing out as a series of comic vignettes where the guys attempt to get laid, with varying results. The first sequence involves the trio bringing three girls back to Gary’s parents’ house, where of course they hope to “seal the deal,” supposedly with a little help of a powdery white substance (which is not what the girls think it is). There’s an unabashedly farcical ambience to this and even some later sequences (notably one in a convertible car) that are just downright silly, but which may well provoke laughter in many. In this particular instance, the parental units return unexpectedly, finding at least two girls in states of undress and poor hapless schlub David mistakenly making a play for Gary’s panic stricken mother.

The fact that The Last American Virgin turns out not to be a total raunch-fest (or perhaps more appropriately at least not just a total rauch-fest) begins to be apparent once the character of Karen (Diane Franklin), a girl whom Gary spies at the local watering hole early in the film, is properly introduced a bit later on in the story. Gary obviously has deep feelings for the girl, almost a “love at first sight” situation, but Karen seems to be drawn more to “bad boy” Rick.

Meanwhile, a number of other more purely salacious scenes act as interstitials to the main storyline. Some of these, like the boys spying on the girls through a hole in the school’s locker room wall, are pretty old hat and offer little comedic spark. Others, like a totally over the top but still fairly hilarious interaction with an older woman named Carmela (Louisa Moritz), manage to generate copious laughs, albeit some at the expense of the portly David.

The film ends up getting into some unexpectedly serious content when the interwoven relationships of Karen, Rick and Gary finally collide. The last half hour or so of The Last American Virgin actually gets into some relatively dark subject matter, although Davidson seems to want to hedge his bets by intercutting some of this material with some more purely comedic elements, a choice which gives the film a bit of a tonal disconnect at times.

There’s a perhaps unwitting subtext here that “casual sex” may not be so casual after all, either in terms of what may happen physically (that old bugaboo the unexpected pregnancy rears its ugly head) but perhaps more importantly emotionally. The Last American Virgin is quite notable for not opting for a typical “happily ever after” wrap up, and in fact the film’s closing moments are among its most memorable achievements. The film is bolstered by its nonstop use of 1980s source cues, something that helps to establish its timeframe as well as the overdone hair of the females (and maybe a couple of the males).

Note: My colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov was considerably more positively disposed toward The Last American Virgin. Fans of the film may want to check out Svet's comments here.

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Last American Virgin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While the aspect ratio here is just slightly wider than the British release reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, the transfer appears generally similar if not identical to the British release in terms of general color space and clarity. As with a lot of catalog titles culled from the MGM archive, this has the look of having been sourced from an older master, and there are occasional issues with grain resolution, especially in some of the more dimly lit environments. As Svet mentioned in his review, the palette here is just slightly anemic looking at times, and flesh tones tend to skew a bit toward the ruddy pink side of things. Elements have the typical age related issues, including small nicks, scratches and dirt popping up with fair regularity, but not to any huge extent that will be distracting for most.

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Last American Virgin's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track has occasional slight prioritization issues which seem to trace directly to the source mix (they've been extant in all previous home video releases I've personally seen), where at times dialogue can be just slightly obscured by the nonstop use of (often fantastic) 1980s source cues. This release repeats the substitution of Devo's "Whip It" for a Human League song which according to some (including some Human League band members) was not properly licensed at the time of the film's original theatrical exhibition. (There's actually some quite funny data on this situation available online for the perspicacious Googler—bands evidently weren't always "in the loop" when their labels, in this case A&M, struck deals for soundtrack usage.) The music is one of the film's true calling cards, and it sounds vibrant and forceful throughout. Dialogue, when not in "competition" with the music, is cleanly and clearly delivered. There are no age related issues on this track, and fidelity is fine throughout.

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike the British Blu-ray released by Arrow, this domestic release sports no supplementary content. The main menu simply offers choices for Play and Chapters.

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Last American Virgin seems to be going in one kind of Porky's inflected direction, only to veer off into a somewhat subtantially more dramatic mode in its closing act. That gives the film a slightly schizophrenic feeling, but it's a laudable approach toward what many probably expected to be just another all out raunchy teen comedy. The film in fact offers a rather unexpectedly deep emotional component, though it's often buried beneath the more titillating aspects of the boys trying to get their groove on. Performances are generally quite winning, and technical merits generally fine on this release. Those with region free players will probably want to opt for the Arrow release, as it evidently has some excellent supplements which this Olive release does not. Otherwise, though, this release of The Last American Virgin comes Recommended.