Animal House (1978) - USA - Rated RDirected by John LandisStarring John Belushi, Tom Hulce, Mary Louise Weller, Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen, John Vernon, Peter Riegert
Funny and sleazy depiction of college losers and lowlifes taking on the system that is trying to get them to shape up or ship out.
Delta House is the campus eyesore at Faber College. As delapidated as the frat house itself is, so goes the character of its inhabitants. The Deltas are in school to drink beer, get laid, have toga parties and avoid the draft; an education is somewhere beyond last place in their minds, evidenced by having the lowest grade point averages of the entire student body. Their next door neighbors are the Omegas, a fraternity of snotty upper class brats who are in league with the Dean, Wormer, of the school to get rid of the Deltas. Even in the face of double secret probabtion and being expelled from school, the Deltas won't go without a fight.
Animal House is an odd movie of sorts. Despite how dispicable and lowlife most of its main characters are (they cheat on tests, use the obituaries to get pity sex, will lay anybody's wife, and are huge underacheivers), the situations they get themselves into and how they handle them are definitely the stuff of comedy. Animal House keeps the story moving with bawdy, lewd, and offensive behavior while keeping the laugh meter well above average. This makes it a movie that is easily rewatchable. Yes, most every character in the movie is an anti-role-model and loser, but take that as a caveat that these are not the cool guys and they are to be laughed at and not with.
My Rating: 4 Fingers
Get Animal House on DVD, Blu-ray or Instant Video