Reviews

Will these chicks shut the hell up already??? Man, this was the talkiest hen fest I have ever sat through. Okay, the chicks are hot, but as characters they are annoying, hateful and uninteresting. I understand that Tarantino has a way with dialog, but this was purely a masturbatory exercise in script writing. Where's the action?? Ugh. It is no surprise that this was a first class flop in theaters. Kurt Russell is wasted here, and the climactic car chase is way too short. Again, QT tries to dazzle his audience with his cool tastes in films ("Vanishing Point"), but has trouble making a film to idolize. Avoid if you can, or fast forward to the action-packed final scenes.

I saw this shortly after graduating from college. I must say that I was pretty embarrassed to be a part of the generation that the film sought to characterize. There are numerous misconceptions about Gen-X and "Bites" pretty much captures all of them. For one, I can say that few twenty-somethings in the 90s celebrated Shaun Cassidy, "Good Times," Frampton, "Planet of the Apes," and Schoolhouse Rock with as much zeal as the dunderhead characters in this film. In fact, many of the Gen-Xers I was friends would sneer at the thought of listening to "Frampton Comes Alice" and damn sure would not know who Dr. Zaius was. Likewise, most twenty-somethings were either jamming to Alice in Chains or even Snoop's first album instead of going nuts to the Knack. Yes, Gen-Xers helped make "retro" stuff hip again, BUT such music, films and so on were only cool because stupid films like this pushed pop culture references down everyone's throats. In reality, however, some of the stereotypes presented in the film are true. I did know several people like Winona Ryder's character who graduated from college with little focus, little talent and not flexibility to make it in the professional world. And Ethan Hawke's depiction of an oh so ironic, chain smoking slacker was not untypical of some of the era's lost souls. Inaccurate or accurate, it's still a frustrating mess and its ridiculous conclusion only leaves the audience frustrated and furious.

In some ways, this films seems to be a blueprint for the sit-come "WKRP," but it's just not quite as good. For one, the music selected for the soundtrack (save of course for the great Steely Dan title track) is middle of the road white man's rock...Ronstadt, Buffett, etc. While the audience is supposed to cheer for the charismatic jocks as they fight the "man," it's hard not to roll one's eyes at the script. Eileen Brennan plays Mother, a burnt out jock who wants to see what life is like when she's not on an "ego trip for five hours a night". Give me a break. Like DJing at the hottest L.A. station is such a grind! Then, the Ronstadt concert is broadcast live on the air at the last minute!!! Logistically and legally, this is impossible. The message is not to sell out, which isn't a bad statement. When you consider the alternatives, however, how can one NOT sell out? What harm would come of running a few lame commercials as opposed to losing a job playing rock n' roll? As mentioned, the only positive thing about FM is that probably had a hand in spawning "WKRP" (the Dugan and Prince of Darkness characters are pretty much carbon copies of Andy Travis and Venus Fly Trap).