Released in 1987, Psychos in Love was a minor hit for Charles Band’s Wizard Video. After this, Band offered director Gorman Bechard a multi-picture deal to produce more direct-to-video titles for Empire Pictures. With his previous film, Bechard had complete creative control since Band was merely distributing the movie. However, Bechard would grow to hate his time working with Empire Pictures, starting with a sci-fi sex comedy. Originally titled Club Earth, Bechard intended the film to be a “non-animated adult cartoon” with bright, flashy colors. In an interview with Cinefantastique, Bechard said Empire chopped the movie in editing and removed all the colors. To this day, Gorman Bechard has disowned the film and is thankful that Empire Pictures went bankrupt soon after. With all that in mind, let’s look at 1987’s Galactic Gigolo and see how bad it is.
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Synopsis
After winning a game show, the intergalactic alien Eoj (Carmine Capobianco) wins a trip to Earth. Specifically, he’s sent to Prospect, CT, “The Horniest Town in the Galaxy,” to sleep with as many women as possible. His arrival catches the attention of two groups of people, a family of Jewish rednecks and some mobsters. Billy Joe Bob (Barry Finkel), Big Peter Dick (Todd Kimsey), and Sammy Harry Bill (J.E.L. Gitter) want him captured. Meanwhile, Sonny (Michael Citriniti), Carmine (Tony Kruk), and Tony (David Coughlin) want Eoj to help them commit robberies. Tagging along with Eoj on his sexcapades are reporter Hildy (Debi Thibeault) and her photographer Waldo (Frank Stewart). During one of his more prominent sexcapades with Dr. Pepper (Ruth Collins), Eoj is intercepted by the rednecks and mobsters. Will Eoj escape them and finish his vacation, or is this Galactic Gigolo done for?
Review
Despite its flaws, I found Psychos in Love a fun, strangely heartfelt horror-comedy romance with a home-grown feel. Because of that, it hurts to say that Galactic Gigolo is one of the most unfunny comedies I’ve ever seen. Granted, I don’t go into a movie like Galactic Gigolo expecting something similar to The Marx Brothers or Mel Brooks. The humor is pretty low-brow, relying either on stereotypes, innuendos, or slapstick, complete with cartoon sound effects. It doesn’t help that the film doesn’t have much of a narrative, just going from one scene to another. It goes like this: sex scene, rednecks acting goofy, sex scene, mobsters doing whatever, rinse and repeat. Even at 80 minutes, the movie feels like it’s slowly plodding along, trying to get to the ending. Honestly, this movie was a slog for me, so be warned if you’re curious to watch it.
Everyone in the cast plays their parts as exaggeratedly as possible, which can get irritating after a while. The worst is with the rednecks, who stretch their lines so long that you’ll scream, “Cut!” Like Bechard’s last movie, Carmine Capobianco and Debi Thibeault are easily the movie’s highlights and get the biggest laughs. They have a few scenes together where you can see the same chemistry they had in Psychos. Speaking in Bechard’s defense, I can see how he intended this to be like a live-action cartoon. I’m unsure how much Charles Band did to this movie, but I’d be curious to see Bechard’s original vision. Regardless, as unfunny as this movie is, I’d still watch this over It’s Pat or Freddy Got Fingered. Overall, Galactic Gigolo isn’t the worst comedy, but I still wouldn’t give it a glowing recommendation.
Buy Galactic Gigolo on Amazon: https://amzn.to/40m5BUw.
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