Found Footage of the 80s
Ivan (John Cusack) and Josh (Tim Robbins) have been friends since they were barely out of diapers and dancing along to their heroes, soul duo The Swanky Modes (Sam Moore and Junior Walker). When Ivan's partying gets them kicked out of their job as security guards he comes up with the plan to go in to business using Josh's talent as a visual visionary to set up a music video production company called "Video Aces". Whilst the pair find themselves meeting their idols and trying to help them relaunch their careers by hijacking another band's concert a small gig they did for a politician whilst starting out leads to a lot of unwanted attention when someone slips a tape in to their bag.
One of the best things I read about "Tapeheads" is "that the plot doesn't matter". And never have truer words been spoken as this quirky movie from 1988 comes across like random sketches written by probably a group of people who when told you can't do that responded with "why not". Yes there is a storyline of sorts which revolves around Ivan and Josh trying to make it as music video makers and we have the various ups and downs in their journey but it is only just a vehicle for the comedy.
But the thing is that "Tapeheads" comes across more like random gags from a hilarious music video for a Swedish rock band singing "Baby Doll" to videoing a dying man's will who dies before they finish leading to some "Weekend at Bernies" style action. If it wasn't so diverse it probably wouldn't be as much fun but being so random does give it that feel of a lot of random sketches. It also features one hell of a list of cameos from musicians such as Sam Moore to actors such as Bobcat Goldthwait and even the likes of Courtney Love and Ted Nugent show up.
What this all boils down to is that as a movie "Tape Heads" doesn't work for me but as a lot of daftness, comic set pieces and music video spoofs along with lots of cameos it is a lot of fun.
