''Losin' It'' is a 1983

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Curtis Hanson Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His directing work included the psychological thriller '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' (1992), the neo-noir crime film ''L. ...

and starring

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...

Shelley Long Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. Long portrayed Diane Chambers on the hit sitcom ''Cheers'' and received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Seri ...

Jackie Earle Haley Jack Earle Haley (born July 14, 1961) is an American actor and director. His earliest roles included Moocher in '' Breaking Away'' (1979) and Kelly Leak in '' The Bad News Bears'' (1976), ''The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training'' (1977) and ''T ...

, and John Stockwell. The plot concerns four teenagers trying to lose their virginity. ''Losin' It'' was filmed largely in

Calexico, California Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...

Plot

Four teenagers from early 1960s

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

are on their way to

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

: Dave, Woody, Spider, and Dave's brother Wendell. Dave, Spider, and Woody are there to lose their

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

ity, while Wendell came along to buy

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

. They end up picking up a woman named Kathy, who goes with them because she wants a fast

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving th ...

from her husband, and they get into a series of hijinks and misadventures south of the border.

Cast

as Woody *

as Kathy *

as Dave * John Stockwell as "Spider" * John P. Navin, Jr. as Wendell * Henry Darrow as Sheriff * Hector Elias as "Chuey" *

Mario Marcelino Mario Marcelino is an American actor, possibly best known for his role as Mario Nunouz in the television soap opera ''Falcon Crest''. He has also appeared in ''Knight Rider'', ''Airwolf ''Airwolf'' is an American action military drama telev ...

as Pablo *

John Valby John R. Valby (born November 22, 1944) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, comedian, and producer known for his comedic and obscene song parodies. Also known as Dr. Dirty, he typically performs in a white tailcoat suit and black derby ha ...

as Johnny "Hotrocks" *

Rick Rossovich Frederic Enrico Rossovich (born August 28, 1957) is an American actor. Rossovich began acting in the early 1980s, first gaining recognition for portraying Ron "Slider" Kerner in the 1986 film ''Top Gun''. Rossovich's other movies include the thri ...

as Marine *

Kale Browne David Charles "Kale" Browne (born June 16, 1950) is an American actor. He was born in San Rafael, California. Browne was the first to play the roles of Michael Hudson on '' Another World'' (1986–1993, 1995–1998) and Sam Rappaport on ...

as Larry *

Joe Spinell Joe Spinell (born Joseph Spagnuolo; October 28, 1936 – January 13, 1989) was an American character actor who appeared in films in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as various stage productions on and off Broadway. He played supporting roles in ''The ...

as US Customs Officer * Santos Morales as Barker At Tongaley

Reception

Critical response

The film received negative reviews from critics. It has an 18% score on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 11 reviews.

Box office

The film opened in 180 theatres in New York and Los Angeles opening with a "lackluster" $437,257 for the weekend.

Home media

MGM released ''Losin' It'' as a Region 1 DVD on February 6, 2001.

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films ...

released the film on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on March 5, 2019.

References

External links

* * * * * 1980s sex comedy films 1983 films American independent films American sex comedy films American teen comedy films Films about virginity Canadian sex comedy films Canadian independent films Embassy Pictures films 1980s English-language films Films directed by Curtis Hanson Films set in the 1960s American comedy road movies 1980s comedy road movies Films set in 1965 Films set in Tijuana Teen sex comedy films 1983 comedy films 1980s American films 1980s Canadian films {{erotic-comedy-film-stub