Lover Boy Review

Patrick Dempsey plays a teenager earning some extra cash on the side by delivering pizzas. He earns extra cash on the side of this by delivering his energetic young body, on a plate as it were, to a gaggle of monied, desperate housewives.

by Angie Errigo |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1989

Running Time:

98 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Lover Boy

A nerdy pizza takeout boy earning his college fees by delivering extras to neglected Beverly Hills wives may sound truly painful to behold. This absurd trifle, however — co-written by two women and a man and directed with the affectionate touch of Crossing Delancey's Joan Micklin Silver — does have a considerable degree of charm.

Teen wet-dream comedy meets above-average middle-aged bedroom farce as puny pup Randy (Dempsey) attracts Barbara Carrera and is passed on to a circle of well-heeled women, among them Kirstie Alley and Carrie Fisher. Meanwhile, Randy's parents (Jackson and Ginty), girlfriend, customers' husbands and pizza parlour pals are swept into an increasingly enter­taining, quite insane tornado of misunderstandings, coincidences, assignations and chases. The first half is a tad laboured as the more predictable developments are laid out, but the more frenzied farce that ensues has its moments and Sean Penn lookalike Dempsey is particularly engaging as he throws himself enthusiastically into his How To Please Women self-improvement programme.

Powerhouse cameos, just enough sauce and extra anchovies that no one will be complaining about.
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