While attempting to stay up all night to adjust myself to working nights at work, I saw this on cable and figured I would give it a shot since both Tim Robbins (_Shawshank Redemption,Bull Durham_) and John Cusack (_One Crazy Summer, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, Grosse Pointe Blank_) have been in some of my favorite movies. Their careers were both heading in different directions at this point in 1988 since most of Cusack's hits had already happened and Robbins' (previous credit Howard the Duck) star had recently risen with the release of Bull Durham earlier that year. Even with that kind of star power, this movie managed to make only $129,000. I know why. It was pretty bad. Tim Robbins was 30 years old when this was released. Half the endearment of Cusack in these parts is that he is believable as the young angst-driven teen who is coming of age before your eyes. He STILL looks like he could pull it off. Anyway, the story here is extemely thin and the infusion of their passion for soul music with the desire to be rock video legends befuddled me. In conclusion, I struggled to stay awake.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s there were so many quirky indie comedies that we took them for granted. It seemed like every weekend we got a Dudes, a Highway 61, a Roadside Prophets. If Tapeheads isn’t up to the level of Repo Man it’s still filled with funny bits, cameos and great music, and unlike a lot of these things it still has a bit of gas in the tank for the finale.