User reviews

I saw this movie in an entirely appropriate place -- as part of an all-night quadruple feature at a cinema in Northern Ontario, which could have been more accurately described as "Four lousy films for the price of one"! (For the record, the other three films were "Ghoulies", "Missing in Action" and "Ninja III - The Domination").

I would say that Losin' It is probably the best of these four films – not that that's really saying very much. (It was the concluding feature of a very long night of cinematic mediocrity) . It's not an awful film (particularly compared with some of the other components of this multiple feature), and it has the advantage of having been put together by a crew who knew what they were doing. Rather, it's an assembly line teen film of the period, which is given somewhat more polish than usual by the presence of Shelley Long and the up-and-coming Tom Cruise in the cast.

Two years previously in 1981, Porky's established a profitable template for teen films that many producers are still exploiting today. I see Losin' It as a Porky's knock-off, from a similar time and aimed at a similar audience. Essentially, if you were part of that target audience, you would probably have enjoyed it. I was just passing out of the target demographic when I saw this, so perhaps I'm more blasé about it than I might have been if I had seen it a few years earlier. There's a whole genre of teen sex comedy (which tries to tease the audience while dancing around the fact that they can't really show very much) that loses a lot of its impact once you've actually "lost it" yourself.

Lay off this movie, people. It's a teen-age sex romp comedy. It doesn't pretend to be anything more. And as for teen sex-romp comedies, it's pretty entertaining.

Tom Cruise is in it. Shelley Long has a good part. And the guy from Breaking Away has the best character of all. What I really liked about this movie was how it "romanticized" Tijuana. It makes you want to take a trip down there and raise some hell yourself.

This movie is a good time on a Friday night. If you're gonna rent a movie like this, rent this one. You won't be disappointed.

Losin' It is the film that Tom Cruise got first billing in. On the strength of being more than noticed in Endless Love, Taps, and The Outsiders, Cruise got the lead in this minor teen comedy that made quite a bit of money back in the day.

Cruise, Jackie Earle Haley, and John Stockwell are three high school kids from the Eisenhower years who are looking to have a good time in Tijuana. Unfortunately they can't make the trip without John P. Navin who is Stockwell's brother because Stockwell came up short of cash.

Along the way the three of them pick up Shelley Long who is a young married who runs a convenient store on the way with her husband. Our three heroes just happen on her store when she's having a knockdown drag-out with her husband, culminating in Long walking out on her husband to hitching a ride to Tijuana to get a quickie Mexican divorce.

The rest of the film is about their adventures in Tijuana and their escape from there. I do say escape because Stockwell and Haley get into some serious trouble down there in separate incidents. They manage to get some marines on liberty down there mad at them and they fall into the hands of a crooked Tijuana cop played by Henry Darrow who really likes jamming up young Yanqui snot nose kids.

Cruise has an adventure of a different sort with Shelley Long in her pre-Cheers days. He's the only one who gets some enjoyment from Tijuana.

If there's a moral here, there's two of them. First there's no such thing as Spanish fly and second Tijuana is not a good place if you don't know the ropes.

After this Tom Cruise did Risky Business which cemented him as a teen idol and after that All the Right Moves which proved he was not only a box office draw, but a very capable actor.

As for Losin' It, it's an average teen sex comedy without the presence of Tom Cruise would barely be remembered.

Don't let the cast and director fool you. This is a teen sex comedy that's just as bad as any of the dozens (hundreds?) that Hollywood churned out back in the 1980s. Bad enough that this turkey wastes the talents of future stars Tom Cruise and Shelley Long. What's worse is that this was directed by Curtis Hanson (you know, of "L.A. Confidential" and "Wonder Boys" fame -- THAT Curtis Hanson.) I realize he was just an up-and-coming director at the time, but surely he must have taken one look at the script and realized it didn't have a chance. (Maybe he was gambling this film would be another "Porky's" and skyrocket him to fame. He gambled wrong.)

Even if you're a die-hard Cruise fan, you're advised to stay away. Cruise, at this time, had yet to hone the persona upon which he would build his career. In other words, he isn't his usually funny, cocky self this time around, but instead comes across as bland, dull, and surprisingly lifeless. Shelley Long, on the other hand, is quite good in her thankless role as a runaway bride headed to Tijuana for a quickie divorce. Too bad the script doesn't give her anything funny to do.

Also, since this is a teen sex comedy, I should mention that there's almost no raunch and nudity at all. Basically, this film is ninety minutes of three teen-aged jerks raising havoc in T.J., getting into lots of dumb bar fights and a few car chases with the usual Hollywood Mexican stereotypes.

Bottom line: compared to this film, "Top Gun" (which also starred Cruise and John Stockwell) is deserving of ten Academy awards.)

This is a really bad movie. The only reason to see it is because it is early Tom Cruise, and of course he is gorgeous. I've been to Tijuana lotsa times, and let me tell you, some 16 years later, it's still a dirty, wicked city. If this movie conveys anything well, it's that.

Losin' It

Giving away your virginity in some sex-pact is ludicrous - especially since you can sell it on the Internet.

Unfortunately, the digital era is decades away in this 1960s set teen sex-comedy.

Hell-bent on popping their cherries, three seniors, Woody (Tom Cruise), Dave (Jackie Earle Haley) and Spider (John Stockwell), head from L.A. to Tijuana in a 1957 Chevy intent on losing their virginity in a Mexican brothel. However, losing it is harder than it seems as the boys are tested at every turn by the corrupt local sheriff, a desperate housewife (Shelley Long) and a bad case of limp dick.

Teeming with tons of testosterone-tinged hijinks involving cross-border prostitutes, fireworks and fabled aphrodisiacs this 1983 romp is a forgotten gem of the juvenile genre that features an exceptionally embarrassing performance from a young Tom Cruise.

Moreover, for a man to lose his virginity, technically, he needs to be penetrated. Yellow Light

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I loved this movie cause it's so funny and it has the then unknown Tom Cruise and Shelley Long in this movie before they went onto fame later on the 80's, but the best performance goes to Jackie Earle Haley as Dave, who is a sex obsessed pal who is a Frank Sinatra wannabe, and I also liked John Stockwell's character Spyder who came from a broken home, Tom Cruise is the intellegent honor student. This movie is about 3 high school seniors who want to go to Tijuana in search of sex (without their parents knowing it) and things don't work out the way they want it as Dave's little brother Wendell 'Wimp' (John Navin) goes along for the ride and later they shoplift a grocery store and the owner's wife goes with them cause she claims that she's gonna divorce him and she finds out that they stoled some items at the grocery store but she didn't care, the situations that the boys got themselves in Tijuana are hilarious and they later meet crooked cops, insane marine sailors and junkyard ruffians, will they get out of Tijuana alive, will the three boys lose their virginity, in order to find out, watch this movie and it's way better than the movies of today, I think that Losin' It deserves more recognition than what it gets cause it's a funny movie and if you can find this movie at your local video store, rent it and have a good laugh, it's a great way to spend a weekend evening.

It's 1965 Los Angeles. Woody (Tom Cruise), angry Dave (Jackie Earle Haley) and cool Spider (John Stockwell) are high school student vowing to lose it in their trip to Tijuana, Mexico. They need money and wheeling dealing little Wendell forces his way into the group. Kathy (Shelley Long) runs away and grabs a ride with the guys. She gets a quickie divorce in Tijuana.

This is following the success of Porky's over a year before. The difference is that this isn't nearly as funny. The story isn't very original and has all the hallmarks of a teen sex romp. The boys aren't very likable. They're missing the lovable goof character. Neither Dave nor Wendell is lovable. The movie just has too much anger. Everybody is angry. The group is separated for much of the movie anyways. It does have an awkward kissing scene between Cruise and Long. That may be worth a look.

Losin' It is a pretty funny roadtrip movie, thanks to the comedic antics of Jackie Earle Haley ('Breaking Away') who plays Dave, an oversexed kid desperate from some action during a weekend in Mexico. He and his buddies, Woody (Tom Cruise) clean cut shy kid, headlong Spider (the gorgeous John Stockwell) and Dave's clever brother Wendell (John P. Navin Jr.), embark on a wild roadtrip to lust after girls and underaged booze in 1965.

Each of the guys has their own experiences with love and mischief. Woody spends most of the time with Kathy (Shelly Long), a flamboyant older woman who hitched a ride with the boys to get a quickie divorce. Spider, the ego, abandons the group and frequently gets in trouble with a corrupt sheriff. Wendell, who came along for lots of black market goodies, spends the weekend trying to save his brother's ass, since Dave's misconception that the town is full of easy women gets him in heavy trouble with the locals.

It's a pretty funny movie that I'm surprised hasn't been given more notoriety among 80s fans. Tom Cruise and John Stockwell played their typical characters, but the stars of this movie, were really Jackie Earle Haley and John Navin. They were perfect.

I thought that this movie was very funny the first time I saw it ten years ago, and I still do today. This is a movie that is in the same genre as Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds. True fact, Tom Cruise said in a Playboy interview that he did this movie because of Jackie Earle Haley. Since Haley had been in Breaking Away, Cruise figured that this movie would be just as good. It didn't quite work out the way he expected, at least not right away. Cruise fan or not, it's worth a look. For me, Jackie pretty much steals every scene he's in. Anytime I watch this movie, I have to laugh at Tom Cruise because he ended up becoming one of the biggest stars in the movie world, and he started out in this. If you REALLY want to see Cruise in another light, check out Endless Love, with Brooke Shields. It's his first movie, and though he's in it for less than a minute, it's worth a look, just like Losin' It. Check it out!

Losin' it is one of my favorite movies because it is so much fun. Sure Tom Cruise is in it, but the best performance is by Jackie Earle Haley as "Big Dave". Go rent it if you can find it! It's really funny.

I thought this movie was pretty funny, it had its fun quirks to it that made it intriguing to watch. But the plot line for this movie has been wore down, the fact that guys in high school staged during the 1950s to 1960s want to go lose their virginities is an old story. This movie reminds me of Porky's it has the exact same story line. There is that one guy who is dying to have sex with anyone right now, there is the hot headed one that starts all the fights and the nice sweet one who is a gentleman and gets the nice girl. Also I think this movie is rated wrong, it could have easily been a PG-13 movie because throughout the whole movie the "F" word was said maybe three times the only reason its was rated R is because of the nudity is what exactly like Porky's had. But its a 1980s movie, its rated "R" its a comedy, its bound to be stupidly funny all 80s are.But overall everything, this is an amusing movie and after watching it, if you are old enough to understand, its a feel good movie. YOu laugh a lot because of all the high jinks and problems that these guys go through is more entertaining than Porky's or any other film related to the plot.

I saw this on Comedy Central Back in 1996 a few times. I loved the movie. I found it quite funny and cute. A good teen type movie. I would recommend you see this movie with a whole bunch of friends, cause it's good like that. Good movie.

Jackie Earl Haley totally blows away the urban legend about Spanish fly. Great part of movie.

Losin' It is a crude but amusing story about some frustrated high school boys who want very much to loose their virginity. So they take a car ride to Tijuana and get into some trouble while "Losin' It". Losin' It is not a typical hollywood movie. I think it is slightly better than its rating on IMDB, but maybe not worth paying for. The title is a play on words, BTW.