The Apple (1980)

From the director of “Over the Top” comes this Christian-themed-Glam-Rock-Folk-musical set in the far off future of 1994. George Gilmor & Catherine Mary Stuwart play our proverbial Adam & Eve, Alphie & Bibi, 2 naive Folk singers from “Moose-Jaw” who get swept up by Corporate Music Giant and make-shift government, BIM, to be the next big thing. BIM (Boogalow International Music) is overseen by the sinister Mr. Boogalow, a devilish-looking fellow who promises big rewards for Alphie & Bibi if they just sign a contract with them.

Bibi is all too willing to sign away her life, but Alphie is much more skeptical and has the foresight to see the pitfalls of fame and fortune, namely sex and drugs. Alphie is then banished by BIM and has a difficult time adjusting to life without Bibi. Meanwhile, BIM's monopoly impacts governmental laws, namely, everyone is binded by law to wear a “BIM mark” somewhere on their face, plus there's the mandatory stop-what-you're-doing-and-dance-hour.

As you can probably tell, this movie is very silly, and I'm not even going to get into the film's climatic hippy/BIM confrontation in the woods.

From the glittery dance numbers to the futuristic cars (imagine those model spaceships from “Star Crash,” the ones with the glued on random pieces of plastic, but on a real-sized station wagon), “The Apple” is a genuine visual spectacle, one that I found to be less “unintentionally” enjoyable, and more just plain enjoyable.

This was a Weird Wednesday screening, and an odd one at that. Rarely, does Lars drop something in the rotation that so near to the 80's and glammed-up to boot, but perhaps since “Skatetown USA” worked out so well, this seemed like the next logical step. The show was also strange because it was slightly more interactive than usual, due entirely to Weird Wednesday regular, George, who hand-crafted 80 BIM marks and placed them all on the members of the audience. You could tell from the response in the crowd that night that there just was not really that much to make fun of, story-wise in “the Apple”, yet still, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Sounds like a legitimately good movie to me.

For your listening enjoyment, here is "the Apple" soundtrack.

Follow link, wait a moment, and then click on "Click here to download."

“The Apple” screened on 8/13/08 at the Alamo Ritz and was presented by Weird Wednesday