The Angel Beach High gang are ready to graduate. However, before they can do so, they have to face an old enemy.
The boys of the Angel Beach High basketball team are preparing for the championships. However, they face a dilemma when their star player “Meat” is in danger of failing his biology exam due to dislike from the teacher, Miss Mitchell. To make matters worse, the team’s Coach Goodenough is in serious trouble when he owes debts to a loan shark. Brian learns of the news and proceeds to tell Pee Wee, Tommy, Billy, and Meat what has happened with the coach. The boys are soon in for the shocker of a lifetime.
They have learned the loan shark in question is their former arch rival Porky, who has re-emerged by doing business on a riverboat. Things get even more complicated when Porky’s daughter Blossom has a crush on Meat. When the boys make an offer to Porky to throw the game in order to pay off their coach’s debt, the boys actually have more to contend with than ever possible. Will they be able to get everything solved before it’s time to leave Angel Beach High forever?
The final installment of the Porky’s films is missing one important element and well, he is more or less the glue of the franchise: creator Bob Clark. While he had wanted to write a third and final installment, he was at work on another film, Rhinestone, with Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton. The producers got impatient and hired another scribe and when Clark got word, he was upset and decided he wanted nothing to do with the third film.
The major problem in the script as compared to Clark’s is that what made Clark’s first two films more of a good thing is that the film was not just about the jokes, pranks, and action. There were scenes in Clark’s films that really showed a sense of how the beloved Angel Beach High gang stuck by even in the most dire of times or even when one faced an individual issue, they knew they had their friends to help. Here, it is as if they took only the goofy elements of the first two films in terms of pranking and action and threw it in there. It is a more straightforward comedy that doesn’t emphasize on the gang’s friendship as compared to the other two.
That doesn’t go without say that there are some funny moments in the film. For instance, Pee Wee’s infatuation with Swedish exchange student Inga is somewhat of a key plot, but had Clark directed this, it would have been taken further than what we see here. Then, there’s Miss Balbricker, who is a victim of another prank, only this time it involves Tommy not as the prankster in question, but well…you will have to see for yourself. We soon learn why Balbricker is as hard-headed as she is, but it’s great to see her in a whole new light.
As for the title itself, yes, Porky is back and this time, his role is slightly bigger as he is back in business but has added loan shark to what he does. To enhance his role, they gave him a daughter, who has eyes for Meat. Of course, one can guess where this goes and of course, this sets up a retread of the original film’s climax. However, this film does open and end on the same funny distinction about what happens to our good ol’ Archie look-alike Pee Wee.
Porky’s Revenge is an average final installment when compared to the other two. Had they actually followed Bob Clark’s formula, or even better waited for him to finally churn out how to end it, it would have been done even more better. But for what it is, it’s not too bad.
WFG RATING: B-
20th Century Fox Presents a Melvin Simon Productions/Astral Bellevue Pathe Film. Director: James Komack. Producers: Robert L. Rosen. Writer: Ziggy Steinberg; based on the original characters created by Bob Clark. Cinematography: Robert Jessup. Editing: John Wheeler.
Cast: Dan Monahan, Wyatt Knight, Mark Herrier, Tony Ganios, Kaki Hunter, Scott Colomby, Nancy Parsons, Chuck Mitchell, Rose McVeigh, Fred Buch, Eric Christmas, Kimberly Evenson,
Bill Hindman, Wendy Feign.
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