Hollywood Zap! is a 1986 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written and directed by an obscure Canadian film-maker, David Cohen (no relation to David X. Cohen

David X. Cohen

David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...

) and distributed by Troma Entertainment

Troma Entertainment

Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...

, a company known for its low-budget exploitation films. The film features a large number of unusual character actors, including Chuck Mitchell

Chuck Mitchell

Chuck Mitchell was an American actor, known for his role as "Porky" in the raunchy 1982 cult classic movie Porky's...

 (Porky's

Porky's

Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...

) and Tony Cox (Bad Santa

Bad Santa

Bad Santa is a 2003 American screwball black comedy film directed and co-written by Terry Zwigoff, produced by the Coen brothers, and starring Billy Bob Thornton as the title character and Tony Cox as his partner in crime. Actors Bernie Mac and John Ritter co-star...

). Scatological humor and extreme ludicrous plot turns punctuate a film that has drawn thematic comparisons to the artistic works of John Waters (filmmaker)

John Waters (filmmaker)

John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

.

In 2001, the film was featured at the 1st annual Video Game Festival to examine gaming's impact on media and culture. Described as being "historically significant, " the film was Sponsored by Twin Galaxies

Twin Galaxies

Twin Galaxies is an American organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June...

 Intergalactic Scoreboard, the official international electronic scoreboard for video games.

Synopsis

Two young men hit the road to Hollywood, CA to look for money, fame, and the wild life in this youthful comedy. Tucker "Downer" Downs tires of his boring job as a clerk in a women's fashion outlet and heads West. He also hopes that he will find his father, who disappeared 24 years before. En route, Downs hooks up with wasted video addict/hustler Ben Frank. Together they have many adventures during their trek to Tinsel Town.

The film is a black comedy

Black comedy

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

of failed expectations and disillusion. Ultimately both men must confront the reality that dreams often do not come true.