Ugh Again!

A little less than a month ago, I watched the Scott Baio classic "Zapped!" Really, I ought to have put classic in quotes considering the disturbing manner in which that film delivers its titillation (which, of course, is the reason for being of all 80's sex comedies). Baio, the school nerd, stumbles upon a formula for telekinesis and uses it exclusively to strip innocent women of their clothes. His love interest is fine with that, but bristles at his use of his powers for the comparatively moral purpose of unfairly influencing games of chance.

The sequel, "Zapped Again!", concerns a newcomer to the same school a few years later. He is not so much a nerd, and just happens to find Baio's formula hidden in the wall of the room used by the science club. The film plays out in mostly identical fashion, with the newcomer aggressively using his powers to expose women either to punish them for perceived crimes or merely to serve as some kind of distraction during critical moments. It's ugly stuff.

The film is possibly worse in that the lead does not even have the cover of being a persecuted nerd. He's the new guy in school, but he's handsome and charismatic, so it's hard to say quite why he has any struggles fitting in. Hell, he quickly wins the heart of a beautiful girl who he shares classes with, but just as in the original, he pursues the alpha female for no especially good reason. He's a pretty awful guy, and no one in the film is much better.

If there's anything the movie has going for it, it could be that the cheating in casino games story line is missing. The film also changes up the concluding sequence from the original (wherein Baio went nuts with his powers and stripped most of the student body naked at the big dance), instead having the students undress as a consequence of itchiness brought on by spiked hot dogs. It's hard to say whether that represents a less offensive conclusion.

All around, the film is not a defensible one. I did watch it to its conclusion, and I can only explain that by saying first that I can't bear to not finish a movie if I can possibly help it and second that in spite of its repulsive worldview, the film is technically relatively watchable. Maybe that's no excuse, but it's what happened with me. I can't really recommend Zapped Again!, but if you did watch it, you probably wouldn't die.