Die Chaotenkneipe

This movie qualifies as a "guilty" pleasure...a loopy plot surrounding an aspiring actress and her restauranteur-wannabe boyfriend (and actually featuring some quality 'soft-core' sex scenes that actually enhance the plot/humor), intercut with some of the best/worst sight gags and one-liners ever filmed. You actually wait for the the next joke, to see if it will fall into one or the other categories!

A major complain is that the movie never really decides WHAT to be--soft-core porn, slapstick comedy or gag-fest. That indecisiveness really throws off the movie's plot, wherever it is.

You will never, ever order wine the same after seeing this movie.

My review was written in September 1982 after a Times Square screening.

"Waitress" is a low-budget comedy picture from the team responsible for the successful "Squeeze Play". Only intermittently funny, the new film is serviceable in general situations.

Episodic in the extreme, pic limns the comic experiences of three waitresses at a New York City restaurant. Andrea (Carol Drake) is a feisty would-be Broadway actress working the restaurant gig until her big break. Jennifer (Carol Bevar) is a beautiful blonde fronting as a server while working on "how to meet men" article for a teen magazine, and Lindsey (Renata Majer) is a young girl who was kicked out of Troma Prep School and forced by her dad to work in his restaurant.

Getting off to a hectic start, "Waitress" becomes wearisome with its reliance on food gags, pratfalls , old puns and vulgar schtick. Pic bogs down in the middle for plot material and a romantic interlude involving cafe manager Jerry (Jim Harris), who is opposed to Andrea's acting career obsession, but reverts to sheer anarchy when Lindsey is put in charge of the eatery and succeeds in wrecking it. A very old-fashioned ending has all the leads' dreams come true.

Within a format which is closer to the sketch humor of drive-in films of yore, such as "If You Don't Stop It, You'll Go Blind" than sustained "Porky's" comedy, "Waitress" suffers from non-stop overacting. Although the leads are personable and in some cases attractive this is probably one credit they would like to forget. With more than 200 actors credited in the cast, most in bits, best performance is by Anthony Sarrero, genuinely amusing in a pleasantly overdone attempted cowboy style seduction of Jennifer.

Other actors simply try too hard here, with use of Three Stooges-style sound effects tending to overshadow any shadings. Tech credits are variable but adequate.

WAITRESS! Is what the ancients used to call a "sex comedy", usually consisting of nudity and "ribald" humor. In this case, it makes one wonder who in the name of sanity would ever want to produce such a thing?

Starring no one in particular, and filled with idiot sight gags and dialogue, WAITRESS! Is sort of a grounded version of AIRPLANE!, minus any hilarity or fun. So, it comes as no surprise that Troma had a hand -and probably a foot- in this.

The lead-lined "jokes" come fast, leaving big marks on our brains, before thudding through the floor. Yes, the major reason for a "film" such as this to exist is to show scantily-clad and / or naked females. Sadly, the sheer misery caused by this cinematic kidney stone negates any / all nakedness!

Perhaps, it helps to realize that when it was made, there was no internet, and hogwash like this was considered "risque' or "naughty". Truthfully, it doesn't really matter, since whale smegma is still cheeeze, regardless of its vintage...

"Waitress" is a bad movie when judged by the Hollywood standard. The technical aspects fall short of generally accepted norms, the editing sometimes makes you wonder if they resorted to using what they had instead of the best takes, the acting wavers between inspired and insipid, and the writing cannot stay on track long enough to get any single aspect of the story to the front, to allow a single thread to connect the feature.

All of the above combine to make a lurching, bumbling, lost in the dark movie that just also happens to be fun to watch. It could have been better-- but a better film would not have been as good.

Waitress is fun. Not "PC" in any form, not a glossy product, just fun in the context of the time it was made. A bad movie that is fun to watch-- another example of the contradiction of the American Dream.

I bought Waitress! because I was interested to see Lloyd Kaumfan and the Troma Team's roots before the making of The Toxic Avenger, SGT Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo and Juliet, and so on. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie is not as bad as everyone says it is. Actually, this movie is quite funny. It basically has the same jokes as The Toxic Avenger...just no gore. The movie seems plot less until we start to get into it a little more, and a plot actually evolves as we follow a wanna be actress and a wanna be news reporter. They both find love, and make it yet another love story, only a wild wacky one. The jokes in this film are funny for the most part, especially the "6 feet...and 11 inches" joke which is clearly the funniest part of the film. If you liked The Toxic Avenger, and other stupid comedies, see Waitress! You may or may not be disappointed.