I had raided a couple of online auctions, and got just over one hundred DVDs for less than a dollar each. Among the interesting looking movies (whoa, a Criterion disc?), there was a lot of filler to get through. The film "Foreign Exchange" is one of those films.
Four writers were inexplicably involved in the creation of this nightmarish "American Pie" rip-off. Four horny high school senior dudes are obsessed with sex, and get assigned four foreign exchange students, all of whom have a profound effect on their lives- sorry, I made that sound a little more serious than it is.
Mainstream character talent like Jennifer Coolidge, Curtis Armstrong, and Clint Howard embarrass themselves in some of their worst work, and in Howard's case that's saying a lot. The young cast might be familiar to television watchers, I recognized one actor from an "iCarly" episode, but they look lost and uncomfortable, especially one scene where three young actresses must flash their breasts after losing a bet. The scene is cringe-worthy, and the expressions on their faces is heartbreaking. The jokes are misogynistic to the extreme, as the dudes sit around wondering why they can't have serious girlfriends before treating the women in their lives like crap. Racism runs rampant as well- one Asian female is constantly referred to by her last name- Ho...I know, right? Strap yourselves into your easy chairs as an actual scene centers around the word "Bush," referencing both the political family and the slang term. Oh, stop. The direction is awful, and I think all the interior scenes were lit by desk lamps and whatever other lighting sources happened to be around. I literally picked this disc off the top of a stack sitting on my dining room table, and the only bright spot is that I watched the R-rated version, and not the presumably longer "Unrated" version. You've probably never heard of this thing, and you're lucky.
Stats:
(1995) 95 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Danny Roth
-Screenplay by Joel Solomon & Elliott Phear & Danny Roth & Tyler McGee, Story by Elliott Phear & Joel Solomon
-Cast: Ryan Pinkston, Vanessa Lengies, Randy Wayne, Tania Raymonde, Daniel Booko, Miles Thompson, Jennifer Coolidge, Curtis Armstrong, Clint Howard, Arshad Aslam, Johnny Acker, Ashley Edner, Jessika Van
(R)
Media Viewed: DVD
