Animal House
The movie that set the standard for future college flicks such as Revenge Of The Nerds and Road Trip, director John Landis' (Blues Brothers) 1978 classic Animal House follows the exploits of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity at the fictional Faber College in 1962. This unscrupulous mix of troublemakers, innocents and deadbeats, known campus-wide for their low (make that nonexistent) admission standards and mischievous pranks, foregoes academic achievement in pursuit of a more noble goal: beer and babes.
The school's dean, Vernon Warmer, considers the Delta house a menace to the school's Greek society and wants nothing more than to get rid of the Deltas for good. In fact, this quest becomes an all-consuming passion for Warner. He even declares this to a rival fraternity's leader, Greg Marmalard, informing him that the Deltas are on "double-secret probation" from the start (an impromptu term apparently coined by the Dean).
John Belushi scores a home run with his hilarious performance as the slovenly, gluttonous slackard John Blutarsky (fondly referred to by his brothers as "Bluto"), a man who has an insatiable thirst for Jack Daniels and a cumulative grade point average of 0.0. Other cast members include Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce (you'll recognize him as a very young "Amadeus"), Peter Riegert, Stephen Furst, Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen and Donald Sutherland.
The mother of all college classics, Animal House is chock full of timeless one-liners and quotes that will have you hitting the rewind button over and over again just to memorize them for yourself. And a raucous lunch scene punctuated by one chaos-inducing word - "foodfight!" (instigated by Bluto) - will have you yearning for the days of cafeteria fare all over again.
Examples of some of the best lines include:
"Grab a brew - it don't cost nothin'."
"That boy is nothing but a P-I-G pig."
"See if you can guess what I am nowÉ(insert gross act here)ÉA ZIT, get it?"
And a personal favorite (directed to a brother whose car has just been demolished by the fraternity): "My advice to you is to start drinking heavily." In fact, you've probably heard these or similar phrases uttered at your own college throw-downs.
A turning point in the movie comes when Bluto, in an attempt to pilfer a carbon copy (remember, this is 1962) of the midterm test results, steals the wrong answers, which results in a failing grade for all the Delta members. Finally Wormer has the proof he needs to expel them: a regrettable list of near-zero grade-point averages.
Undaunted, the Deltas devise a plot to get even with Wormer (after a rousing "pep talk" by Bluto) in response to their collective expulsion. It culminates with a most memorable scene in which the order and decorum of the town homecoming parade is overthrown by the Deltas, as they disturb the peace and descend upon the unsuspecting crowd in a cake-shaped float with an in-your-face, blatantly disrespectful name. Suffice it to say they successfully exact their revenge upon Dean Wormer and throw the parade into complete upheaval, rendering the event a complete and total disaster. If you haven't already seen this movie and you attended even one semester of college, get thee to a video store near you.
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Well, duh - is there any movie that could provide a better excuse to swill an excessive amount of suds than this one? Don't press play until the fridge is amply stocked with a case or more.
A romantic comedy this is not. If you're simply reminiscing about your college days together, though, it may spark up nostalgia.
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