This is one of those movies that's so bad it's almost good. The story is about this girl named Valerie, who after getting seriously burned all over her body in a freak tanning bed accident, changes her name to Rhonda and opens up a workout facility. All seems to be going well until her aerobic clients start getting mysteriously killed off. A lieutenant from out-of-town starts investigating the case eventually starts to suspect Rhonda is responsible for the killings, but various incidents interfere with her arrest. At the end of the movie the killer walks free.
The story wasn't so bad. It actually sounded kind of humorous, and who doesn't like a cheesy slasher from the 80's. I think that only especially bad thing in the film was the lieutenant's acting. He was always properly scowling and suspicious, like a good one-dimensional cop should be, but he'd make these eye-rollingly worthy jumps of logic. When he suspects someone as the killer you will know because he will actually start telling that person in a conspiratorial way that he or she is guilty. The funniest of these are when he starts suspecting Rhonda and find out that she was badly burned. He then says to her that she was the killer because she had to see all of these beautiful bodies when she would always have to hide her own, and that the sight of her body would make any man sick to his stomach. He doesn't have any evidence (and never does in any of his accusations) but because he's definite that anyone that ugly would never be able to live happily he arrests her. Also funny on her part, when he does accuse her she gets mad and flashes him her burnt chest screaming 'is this what you wanted to see?'. But yes, poorly written and acted.
Besides the poor dialogue there were basically two components to this movie, people getting killed by a hand without a body, and zooming in on the butts and breasts of the girls while they're doing their workouts in revealing clothing. Definitely not a classic of its time, but it is pretty fun to watch if you're over the age of majority.
The story of Thumbelina was originally a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. It's the story of a thumb- sized girl and her adventures in life and love. The film begins with an old woman. The woman is lonely and has always wanted a child of her own, and one day a fairy grants her wish and gives her a small seed. The old woman plants the seed and kisses it when it's ready to bloom, and inside she finds a tiny girl no bigger than her thumb, whom she then calls Thumbelina. Thumbelina is quite contented with her life on the old woman's farm. She tries to help out with chores, but only seems to her herself into scrapes whenever she tries to help. She loves her mother though and is happy. One night, Thumbelina is singing to herself in her room when, as chance would have it, the prince of the fairies flies by her bedroom window and is enchanted by her voice. He takes her for a ride on his pet bumblebee and they sing and fall in love. He then returns her to her room with the promise of returning. On that romantic ride through the meadow, a frog over hears Thumbelina singing and thinks to herself that this small girl would make a great addition to their travelling show and would make her son a good wife. So she kidnaps her that very night while Thumbelina slept, before the prince could come back to marry her. When Thumbelina awakes and discovers what the frogs have planned for her she runs away from them and tries to make her way back home, but being so small she can't see above the grass. The frog whom she escaped from is hot on her tail so quickly makes her way through the company of various bugs and birds and rodents who both try to help her and try to capture her. In the end the swallow, who also is the narrator of the story, helps her find her way to the vale of the fairies, where she hopes to find her prince. They end up getting married and Thumbelina grows a pair of wings to match her prince's and they all live happily ever after.
I liked this movie a lot when I was a kid. I'd sing the songs with my cousin when we watched the movie together, though apparently according to Wikipedia the 'marry the mole' song won the worst original song award. I remember feeling kind of awkward that all of these creepy guys wanted to marry Thumbelina and I guess that sort of took away from the movie a bit for me, but overall the memories are pleasant. Thumbelina isn't a strong character by any means, she sort of just gets tossed around by fate and always needs rescuing. The prince also isn't any knight in shining armour. He acts as a boy would, shirking responsibilities and spouting idealism without having anything to back it up. The villains are also kind of one-dimensional in their drive to get Thumbelina. Besides being struck by her voice, which isn't enough to make someone fall in love, there isn't really anything substantial in their desire to marry her. Besides a few character flaws however, this really is a sweet film. The songs are catchy, I like the animation, and the story is adventurous with a kiss at the end, short, sweet, and nostalgic.
