Audience Member
Welcome to yet another movie that got me in trouble when Becca came down and saw a scene out of context, 1978's Israeli coming of age movie Lemon Popsicle/Eskimo Limon.
This takes place in the Israel in the 1950s, a time when most of this film's budget is spent on the music. The poster claims it has 24 different artists, including Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. Producer Menahem Golan — one of the saints of scummy cinema who ran Cannon — claimed that the music rights cost more than making the rest of the movie.
Nili or Niki in the American edit is the new girl at school who meets three boys whose whole lives revolve around sex. They are Benzi/Benji, Momo/Bobby iand Yudale/Huey. Of course, nice guy Benzi falls for her, but she's into the bad boy Momo, who tells his friends that he plans on taking her virginity and will soon get rid of her. Benzi is such a nice guy — we'd call him an incel today — that he doesn't warn her or tell his friend to maybe not treat her so poorly. And before we know it, she's pregnant. He becomes her emotional friend and even takes her to get her abotion, which should lead to them as a couple yet just means that she gets back with Momo.
If you're reading this and saying, "Sam, are you describing The Last American Virgin?" Congratulations. Writer and director Boaz Davidson remade this movie four years later in the United States, destroying minds and reaping souls.
Unlike that movie, there's no scene where all the boys line up to measure one another's members or all sleep with the same older woman one after the other. For all the very foreign feeling in The Last American Virgin that don't really translate, those moments would really stick out.
Since the release of Lemon Popsicle, there have been seven official sequels: Going Steady, Hot Bubblegum, Private Popsicle, Baby Love, Up Your Anchor, Young Love and Summertime Blues. There was also a spin-off, 1983's Private Maneuvers, and the 2001 reboot, The Party Goes On. That's because this series was huge in Germany and Japan.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
gets better with every year, awesome movie.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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This West German-Hebrew sex comedy has cheesy acting and even cornier voice acting for the English dub but it does offer a handful of good laughs, a soundtrack sure to delight people who miss the '50s and an ending that's quite unexpected given how the rest of the movie is incredibly lighthearted. It's no American Pie but if you're big enough of a cult classic to warrant SEVEN sequels, the movie must be doing something right. Especially since I'd never even heard of Lemon Popsicle until I was told about it by a close relative.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
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Audience Member
Part 1 of my masochistic excursion through the filmography of Canon Film Group: Lemon Popsicle. Apparently this is the greatest box office success in the history of Israeli cinema. I can't imagine why. The American Pie series definitely owes a lot to it, but it's much more uneven tomalley speaking now. This film is strongest when it focuses on Benji's unrequited love for Niki and the events surrounding that conflict. The rest, though funny, feels like it was tossed in to fill its 90 minute runtime. The best thing I can say about this movie though? It has a killer soundtrack. I never knew that I could listen to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" three times in a single movie without getting tired of it. Honestly, I could probably throw this movie on in the background of a party and my guests wouldn't be the wiser. 5.7/10
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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Audience Member
When I first stumbled across this at the local video store in 1985 I assumed it was a rip off of Last American Virgin. Of course, it turned out that it was in fact the other way round and they share the same writer / director.
While Last American Virgin was ensconced in the 80s, this is set in 1959 with a sound track to match. Beyond that it is practically the same movie shot for shot with a few minor differences (it misses a few of the sillier moments from the remake and has a slightly protracted ending) though the performances are more subtle and the characters are all a lot more likeable.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
one of my fave movies of alltime, the original teen sex comedy remains as funny and raunchy as ever, as our three friends try to fuck anything in or preferbly out of a skirt, they visit a prostitute and get crabs, have a sex party with a nympho maniac and more, in this incredibly funny comedy, the three leads benji, bobby and huey are great, and benji's farther and mother are great 2, i could watch this everyday a must see comedy
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
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