Orgazmo (1997)NC-17

CapeHalf a capeHalf a wrecking ball

Trey Parker, the co-creator of South Park, wrote and directed and plays the title role. He also recorded the song used in the credits. (Matt Stone has a minor supporting role. He apparently did help write it, but he has no onscreen writing credit.) It’s a comedy about a Mormon missionary (fourteen years before The Book Of Mormon hit the stage) with a talent for martial arts. Through a series of odd events, he gets ensnared in the porn industry, where he ends up playing a spoof superhero called Orgazmo. He then ends up fighting crime in real life, thanks to the combination of his martial arts skills with a raygun that disables people by making them cum.

In some circles this is considered a classic “midnight movie”. Somehow this got rated NC-17 despite the total lack of anything explicit being shown on screen. In fact, almost no nudity is shown except male asses. One of the running jokes is that they interpose a male ass whenever you think you’re about to see female flesh. It’s as if just talking about the porn industry makes it for adults only. But wait a minute — Boogie Nights got an R! Did someone say the rating boards are corrupt? Sorry, I thought I heard somebody say something.

Is it funny? Somewhat. It’s nowhere near as funny as South Park, but few things are. It’s campy and the action (both fighting and fucking) is deliberately unrealistic, imitating the cheapest B movies, yet there’s good acting sometimes. Dian Bachar as Ben / “Choda Boy” (the inventor of the raygun) is the best thing in the film, both for silliness and for real acting. In fact, he’ good enough that I find it surprising that he remains largely unknown outside of appearances in other Parker&Stone movies. 

The final verdict on this film is: I’m afraid I didn’t really laugh very much, but I wasn’t bored. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

In 2003 they threw together The Book Of Orgazmo, a documentary about the making of the film. I think it ended up being included as a DVD extra feature in a recent rerelease.