Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

This Crown International production from 1986 is perkily hit-and-miss. It seems like an attempt to do a modern-day screwball comedy with some Dickensian elements (there are some real shockeroos, plot-wise), but the tone is mostly off — it’s hard-edged and pushy where it needs to be flirtatious. Deborah Foreman, the moppet who is chased by Nic Cage in “Valley Girl,” acts as though she’s been directed to quash all of her softness. She comes off as an adrenalized chipmunk, twinkling her eyes and aggressively flashing her gums. (I’m guessing the cast was doing a lot of coke.) And there are some bits that simply bring the movie to a stand-still, namely one in which Penn & Teller do a not-very-amusing cigarette trick. Yet the picture is silly and colorful enough to keep you engaged, or at least stimulated. One scene in particular stands out: A trudge through the wilderness in which Foreman does a daffy impersonation of a Southern belle while carrying a parasol fashioned from her bloomers. Here the movie manages to sustain a satirical tone, and it’s delightful. Leading man Sam Jones is so wooden he’s like a dime store Indian — one that came in a box labelled “straight man.” In this context it’s not a bad quality: he’s amusing. Jones has an extended nude scene, which is pretty unusual.

Related

• Someday I need to blog about my love of Crown International Pictures, one of the great producers of low-budget drive-in fare.
• As far as I’m concerned “Valley Girl” is a classic — and perhaps the most dippily romantic movie of the ’80s. The young Nicolas Cage was a perfect leading man for romantic comedy, which is to say he was born at the wrong time. “Valley Girl” is built around the needy-intense way he looks at Foreman. Talk about a bedroom stare!
• A snippet of the best scene in “My Chauffeur”: