The Last American Virgin (MVD) Blu-ray Review

Teen Sex Romp Gone Wrong

The Last American Virgin is a guilty pleasure out of the 1980s, a coming-of-age teen sex comedy from Cannon Films. The movie is a fun blast of youthful shenanigans powered by a well-chosen cast with a fantastic soundtrack of rockin’ songs, easily one of the most enjoyable soundtracks of its era. Think an early predecessor to American Pie with Porky’s in its lineage.

Alas, that is not the final story about The Last American Virgin. Drastically changing tones with an unhappily realistic and melodramatic twenty minutes, pure juvenile escapism is twisted into something else entirely. A jarring end for what had been a great b-movie at servicing its genre’s needy demands.

Technically a remake of the Israeli film Lemon Popsicle, director Boaz Davidson’s The Last American Virgin initially has all the trappings of an early teen sex comedy. Three close high school friends are mostly concerned about one thing and it’s not their academic futures. Their sexual misadventures get them into repeated trouble and a string of failures.

Boaz Davidson’s The Last American Virgin initially has all the trappings of an early teen sex comedy

Nebbish Gary (Lawrence Monoson) is the film’s slightly awkward protagonist. His two buddies fill different niches in the group. Rick (Steve Antin) is their alpha, the cooler and better-looking friend who is quite popular with the ladies. Everything comes easy for him compared to his more challenged friends. The overweight David (Joe Rubbo) is primarily comedic support, an enthusiastic supporter of the group’s misadventures with girls even if things don’t work out.

Gary has a massive crush on Karen (Diane Franklin), who stands out from the crowd as a fresh-faced ingenue. It’s love at first sight for the pizza delivery boy. Complications arise when Karen meets Rick and falls for him, foisting her best friend Rose on Gary as a substitute. The group’s dynamics change as Gary becomes incredibly jealous of Rick dating Karen, his dream girl.

Set to an absolutely classic film soundtrack filled with popular bands of the early 1980s like the Cars and Blondie, the first seventy minutes or so are a smooth trip down memory lane of exaggerated teen sex mixed with several funny gags. To the screenplay’s credit, the final act completely subverts all expectations. The awful consequences of earlier gags and cheeky throwaway jokes are completely deconstructed, turning what had been a happy experience into much darker fare.

The unexpected finish is a polarizing end to what had been a jovial journey into high school lust and debauchery. The whiplash suffered from watching Last American Virgin isn’t necessarily for everyone, expect divided opinions.

Video

MVD licenses the high-definition transfer from MGM, struck from fine-looking elements, most likely from the camera negative, in what is a seriously serviceable effort. It’s an older transfer probably struck about a decade ago when this movie first made the rounds on international Blu-ray.

Detail and definition are fairly vivid, if mildly out of date by today’s more refined 4K transfers. The raw film scan boasts fairly impressive clarity. Maybe a hint of ringing in a couple scenes and minor filtering on some level, but overall a strongly film-like presentation.

The color grading goes for bright, perky colors at the expense of everything else. The color pink looks a bit off when Gary’s all-pink station wagon is shown. Flesh-tones could use more warmth. There’s no real damage visible in the print, shown here at 1.85:1. Minor crushing exists in select scenes.

The main feature runs an uncut 93 minutes on a BD-50. The AVC encode efficiently captures film grain without compression issues.

Audio

The Last American Virgin is known for its utterly fantastic soundtrack, an impeccably chosen mixtape of hits and underground classics which would have been en vogue for teens of the early 1980s. The movie boasts popular songs by Devo, Blondie, Journey, The Cars, Journey, The Police and a little upcoming band known as U2, among other featured acts. It may very well be the best film soundtrack released in the 1980s, which is no small feat. The entire first act almost plays out as a musical, melding the familiar songs into the drama and comedy.

The vibrant stereo mix is heard in excellent 2.0 PCM. Tunes have a full bloom of range with clean higher frequencies and a thick midrange. It’s a slightly raw mix favoring music over dialogue. There’s nothing gimmicky beyond meaty stereo design and powerful rock music blasting loud and clear. Dialogue reproduction is a touch wonky in a handful of scenes, though intelligibility isn’t particularly affected.

When the movie played in theaters upon release, the soundtrack included an unlicensed Human League song. Like prior home video editions, the song has been replaced in the soundtrack by Devo’s “Whip It” hit.

Optional English SDH subtitles play in a yellow font.

Extras

The Last American Virgin first received a barebones Blu-ray release from Olive Films back in 2015. MVD reissues the cult classic here in a new special edition. The included bonus features are technically new to North America – Arrow Video issued them first in the UK all the way back in 2013.

The Last American Virgin Blu-ray is movie #47 in MVD’s Rewind Collection. The disc is locked for Region A. Arriving in a retro VHS slipcover with a collectible mini-poster, it’s probably worth the double-dip if you already snagged the disc from Olive Films.

“The First American Remake” Interview with Boaz Davidson (36:06 in HD) – A 2013 interview in which Davidson discusses his filmmaking history beginning in Israel and his transition working in Hollywood. He dives into the movie’s reception across the world.

“Memories of a Pizza Boy” Interview with Lawrence Monoson (26:07 in HD) – Monoson fondly looks back on his experience making the film and how Davidson approached directing.

“Babe of the Eighties” Interview with Diane Franklin (20:59 in HD) – Discusses how a young, green actress new to movies landed the leading role. She shares her impression of the cast and Davidson.

“In Praise of Smaller Movies” Interview with cinematographer Adam Greenberg (21:10 in HD) – Greenberg gives a lucid discussion of how much freedom a cinematographer has on small-budget flicks compared to bigger movies he’s worked on such as Terminator 2.

Photo Gallery (03:36 in HD)

Original Theatrical Trailer (01:55 in HD)

TV Spot (00:28 in SD)

MVD Trailers:

Go-Go Boys (02:27 in HD)

Men At Work (01:45 in SD)

Ski Patrol (01:58 in HD)

At Close Range (02:57 in HD)

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided by the label for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle all review material, please visit our about us page.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 40 full resolution, uncompressed HD screen shots grabbed directly from the Blu-ray: