Satisfaction (1988)

Recent graduate Jennie Lee (Justine Bateman) is the lead singer of her band Mystery. Mooch (Trini Alvarado) is the drummer. Billy (Britta Phillips) is the wild lead guitarist. Bassist Daryle (Julia Roberts) gets a marriage proposal. The girls are trying to play at the beach for the summer. Their pianist is in jail and Jennie picks up classical pianist neighbor Nickie (Scott Coffey). They audition and get a gig at producer Martin Falcon (Liam Neeson)'s beach nightclub. The songs are standards. The performing is functional. Having a real musician helps but they are generally limited. It's amazing to see Roberts and Neeson as well as 80's stars Bateman and Alvarado. The plot is straight forward and bland. The writing is relatively weak. The acting is functional. If this is a star vehicle for Bateman, it needs a tune up. She never could make that jump from TV to movies.

SatisfactionThe difference between male and female rock-stars is that women form meaningful relationships with their groupies.However, the songstress in this drama has developed feelings for a nightclub owner.The minute high school is over Jennie (Justine Bateman) and her band The Mystery (Julia Roberts, Britta Phillips, Trini Alvarado) head to Florida in a stolen van to audition for Martin Falcon (Liam Neeson), a bar owner in need of performers for the summer.While they get the position, over the summer the band starts to drift apart as some members fall in love with locals and others overdose on drugs.Everything calumniates when the owners of the stole van show up.Produced by Aaron Spelling, Satisfaction has all of the earmarks of the successful television show creator but for some reason those elements do not elevate this mediocre musical misadventure.Interestingly enough, all-girl house bands boast the lowest bar tabs.Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

If you've always suspected that combining elements from "Times Square" (1980), "Josie and the Pussycats" (2001), and "Summer of '42" (1971) would be an extremely bad idea, look no further than "Satisfaction" for confirmation. Although "Times Square" fans (the film from which "Satisfaction" steals the most) will frequently cringe during the viewing experience, the fusion of these three films is not a totally bad idea. It did give Trini Alvarado, eight years later, a chance to play the tough girl Nicky Marotta part, the character she played against in "Times Square". Although she plays her less like Robin Johnson did and more like Tara Reid's Cybil in "Girl" (1998). An underrated actress, Alvarado carries too much baggage (nice girl type-casting and too sweet a face) into this role to even begin to sell it. A much better idea that might have saved the film would have been for her and co-star Justin Bateman to switch parts. Bateman is capable of looking mean and is really too limited as an actress for a part with the degree of dimensionality of Jennie Lee. I've never quite grasped the popularity of Julia Roberts but for her mega-fans "Satisfaction" is a must see. The script doesn't give her much to work with but it is an opportunity to see her when she was this young. Of course there is some retrospective perverse amusement to be had at the idea of Roberts and Liam Neeson playing second banana's to the talent challenged Bateman, Britta Phillips' career rocketed forward from this film with 65 episodes as the voice of the title character in "Jem and the Holograms". Nice voice, excellent casting choice, and a cute performance; she and Chris Nash at least manage to give a fair amount of authenticity to the production. Director Joan Freeman of Streetwalkin' (1985) fame has never done another feature; after these casting decisions it is not hard to figure out why. Maybe she is just another innocent victim of an Aaron Spelling production, she clearly was not a budding Allan Moyle. Likewise Screenwriter Charles Purpura; although his script is no worse than a lot of stuff currently getting feature treatment and the outdated slang no doubt sounded less lame in 1988. Although full of terrible music (covers of classic rock tunes performed slightly worse than when arranged for your high school band's halftime show) the film did connect with its primary target audience, discontented teenage girls who were not so disillusioned that they could not still get off on an identification jag with a group of squeaky clean girl rockers. Those looking for a more real "growing up is painful " experience should stick with "Times Square" and the more recent "Pretty Persuasion". Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.Comment | Permalink

This movie is fantastic. It features the Eighties' bad taste, bad ass Justine Bateman, the rest of Julia Roberts and horrible classic rock songs. I'm told I have to make this review 10 lines long so I'm going to write a bunch of words now. But I've already said what had to be said about this swell movie. It's fine. The reviewers who badmouthed it simply have messed up and hurtful priorities. That's got to be 10 lines. But I'm told it isn't. So I'm still writing words. How much do you really need to know about what people think about a movie? It's not that big of a commitment just to watch it and make up your own mind, for crying out loud. This has got to be 10 lines. Oh, thank god!