METRO ACTIVE MOVIES
Trey Chic: Captain Orgazmo (Trey Parker) fights lusty crime in
'Orgazmo.'
Bob Akester
A Mormon becomes a smut-fighting superhero in porn spoof
By Karen Reardanz
MAINTAINING A SENSE of innocence in a porn industry spoof is no
simple feat. But Trey Parker, half of the creative team that
brings South Park to the telly every week, has managed to create
a flick that's rude and crude while keeping its heart intact. An
admittedly sophomoric spoof of porn films, kung-fu flicks and
kitschy '60s TV shows, Orgazmo is 100 percent silliness that,
while hovering at a 12-year-old mental level, manages to dish up
a surprising amount of amusingly original shtick.
Joe Young (played by Parker, who also wrote and directed the
farce) is a Mormon doing a few weeks of missionary work in
Hollywood. He winds up preaching the gospel to some henchmen of
skin-flick guru Maxxx Orbison (Michael Dean Jacobs), impresses
the producer with his mastery of martial arts and ends up the
latest sensation in the porn world. His superhero porn persona,
Captain Orgazmo, and his sextoy-slinging sidekick, Choda Boy
(Dian Bachar, looking unnervingly like a hybrid of the two main
characters from Doogie Howser, M.D.), fight lusty crime with
their Orgazmatron, a RoboCop-esque weapon that paralyzes bad guys
with superstrong orgasms.
Captain Orgazmo becomes a huge hit (even making the cover of
Time), creating instant stardom for our wayward hero, and from
here, the plot (what little there is of it) quickly meanders into
further silliness, bringing the crime-fighting duo into real
life, pitting them against their evil porn producer and wreaking
havoc on the L.A. streets with their real Orgazmatron.
Parker is endearing as the mighty Joe Young, maintaining his
Mormon-fueled ethics while rubbing, uh, elbows with the seedy
underbelly of the porn world. The rest of the cast (including a
fair share of porn star regulars) hams it up.
While not for the faint of the heart, compared to the
over-the-top antics of There's Something About Mary, Orgazmo
seems surprisingly low-key. Sure, there are plenty of fart jokes
and a ton of ribald humor, but with the volatile combination of a
South Park mastermind and a Mormon-meets-porn-industry plot, one
would expect the lewdness to be flying. But the film is so
cartoonish that it winds up looking and feeling more like a
naughty version of the old Batman series.
No, Orgazmo is not going to wind up an Academy Awards contender,
nor will it top any box-office charts, but does the phrase
"cult favorite" ring a bell? Mark my words, this film
is going to make a killing in midnight screenings for years to
come.