Stay Hungry

My second Arnold movie of the month is “Stay Hungry” which also features Jeff Bridges and Sally field. From seeing the movie poster it seemed to me that it would be more of an Arnold movie. He is in amazing shape, there seems to have a more serious tone to it and I just got the impression it was an action movie. And boy was I wrong! This was more a romance/comedy movie, and worse of all Arnold isn’t even the main character. Even with those disappointments in mind, I did get some enjoyment out of it.

Up and coming business man, Craig Blake (Bridges), is sucked into a large realtor group that wants to buy out a whole block. Only one shop keeps them from accomplishing that, a gym by the name of “Olympic”. The same place Joe Santo (Schwarzenegger) is training to be Mr. Universe. All Blake needs to do is to persuade the owner Mr. Thor Erickson to sell the place to him. Problem her is, he falls a liking to the folks working at Olympic and even falls in love with Joe’s best friend Mary Tate (Sally Field).

I wasn't kidding, Arnold is a badass with a violin.

Even though this movie tries to act like a comedy, there isn’t much to laugh about. Maybe it has to do with the time period, maybe the comedy was funny during the 70’s but I couldn’t find the humour in it. The movie does take place in the south so I got a laugh out of Joe being in a Bluegrass group, as he rocks out with a violin. The most memorable scene is near the end when all the body builders are chasing down Joe down the street. But it gets better when they are all in their speedos and still greased up and parading the streets. A lot of it is men just flexing their muscles, but there is a bit of humour that made me chuckle.

There was a huge romantic story between Blake and Mary Tate. Most of the time the actors are great with each other and made it believable, but it gets awkward during the sex scenes. I mean, there is a fair amount of nudity in this movie from prostitutes to even Mary Tate being naked. Problem is, it was all weird and I just wish I didn’t see it. The most shocking part was when the movie implied that Thor raped Mary Tate in the end, not sure why that was needed but it was.

Craig and Mary Tate getting acquainted with one another.

Now enough about the movie, and more about Arnold, he was actually acting in this movie. As compared to Hercules in New York where he just talked, walked around and wrestled a bear. Here he actually acts, and it is believable. Sure he isn’t going to win an award, but it was still pleasant to watch. But a great deal of the movie he is showing off his body, and what a body. There were muscles on that man that I didn’t even know existed! No wonder he won Mr. Universe.

To summarize, there really isn’t much to say. It felt like a generic movie with no real outstanding points but nothing really bad to say. It’ll just slide back into my memory as a movie that I saw during that year I saw a bunch of movies. BUT if you really want to see Arnold acting during the early years, this is a cool movie to check out.