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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
" This is classic comedy. Period." ---from the review --------------
Another Classic Comedy: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, now on DVD! ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- No sidebar comments. Yet. ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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National Lampoon'sAnimal HouseSorry, the DVD for this film is no longer distributed! AIGH!!!
A Techtite ReviewThe Film: This is classic comedy. Period. Modern comedy fans might say their favorite comedy is There's Something About Mary, and I'd always ask, had they even seen this film? Of course, everyone is entitled to an alternate opinion. The American Film Institute rated this film at a mere 36, with Mary at 27. Let's just say I disagree, and move on to the actual review... The truth is, it's very easy for a modern comedy to tackle the ribald escapism of college life for a comedy setting, though very had to make such a comedy work! We all know college life is filled with beer kegs, brainy kids, jocks, and those dweebs who make you wonder how they got accepted into the college at all; where's the funny? Well, how about the Worst Fraternity Of All Time, as they do everything a frat house always wished they'd get away with, and have fun while doing it? Now, that's funny! How bad is the Worst Fraternity EVER? Just listen to Dean Wormer's summary of Delta House; "Who dumped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring the toilets...explode!" This Delta Fraternity is a frat house so problematic, the college dean (John Verson) wants to put them on probation...again. "They're already on probation, sir," his lackey tells him. "Well, then, put them on double secret probation!" is the Dean's reply. So begins the film...and the fun! The story may be a typical 1970's comic tale of "slobs vs. snobs," though it has its classic comedy moments...ALL of them, actually! Most of these include the exploits of the Delta House's king of the bad boys, Bluto (John Belushi), who is irrefutably the most well known, hilarious character that any Saturday Night Live alum ever performed on screen. Sure, it's unlikely that he could go to the nearby sorority with a ladder and peek in the second floor windows undetected. Sure, he is a slob supreme, who when called a "P, I, G, PIG!" at the cafeteria, muses to the girl, "See if you can guess what I am now," and then uses a giant cream puff to impersonate a zit. He's hilarious! Your girlfriend will hate him. You'll be quoting him over and over (though hopefully, without that cream puff!). There are other memorable characters, too. The film begins with two new pledges to Delta House: "Flounder" (Stephen Furst) and "Pinto" (Tom Hulce), who slowly learn about Delta fraternity along with the audience. There's skirt-chasing Eric Stratton (Tim Matheson), whose recent conquest is none other than Dean Wormer's wife! There's Daniel "D-Day" Day (Bruce McGill), who is the hot rod mechanic of the fraternity. Then there's Don (Peter Riegert) and Katy (Karen Allen), who try to make their love life work regardless of the goofiness happening around them. Unforgettable adversaries from the neighboring "snob" fraternity include Douglas C. Neidermeier (Mark Metcalf), and their newest pledge, Chip (Kevin Bacon). Last though not least, there's the classic rendition of "Shout," as sung by Otis Day and the Knights. You'll be reciting that song --and many quotes from the cast-- for hours after watching the film. Of course, no film is flawless. I guess I just can't see where the flaws are here. Even the ending is a hilarious homage to classic high school films that end with "epilogues" of each character, with some of the most hilarious futures of these kids you ever read. Seriously, if you can think of a comedy as classic as this, that isn't mentioned by the AFI's top comedy list, nor my list of Top 25 Comedies snubbed by that list, feel free to send Techtite.com a letter about it. Laughs are a rare commodity these days. It's nice to have this film on DVD, to help them along... The DVD: This is one of those premiere DVD offerings where all future discs were judged. This is due to a brand new, made special for the DVD featurette "reunion" of the cast & crew from the film! Aside from the poignant homage to the now-late John Belushi, you get to see every cast and crew member as they look today, with several amusing anecdotes. This 45 minute featurette is so thorough, it even has its own chapter breaks you can use to skip to your favorite moments. Cool! However, aside from that, there is little to offer here. Perhaps that's why --are you sitting down?-- the DVD is no longer distributed! AIGH! Does this mean a 2-disc collector's edition is in the works? One can only hope so. It would be a travesty if that cool reunion documentary was gone forever.
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