National Lampoon's Animal House

Rating:
Summary: Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son
Review: It was the Deltas against the rules... the rules lost!

Animal House is one of the top 5 funniest movie of all time. Period. It does not matter how many times you have seen this movie, every time it is on you watch it, and every time you watch it, you almost die laughing. This is one of the feel good movies of all time, which you wish Landis, released the original 175-minute version, or eventually would.

Animal House is directed by John Landis (Beverly Hills Cop III, Three Amigos, Spies Like Us, Coming to America, and Trading Places), who indeed, has a very impressive resume. You should watch his movie based on that alone. However, he does have a pretty impressive cast he worked with. Notice Landis may have directed two of the funniest movies ever made in Animal House and Coming to America, and maybe three of the top ten comedies of all time when you throw in Trading Places.

John Belushi (January 24, 1949-March 5, 1982) was in his prime, and looked to be a budding star because of this movie. Belushi was the highest paid actor in this movie, making $40,000. His wife was quoted as saying Belushi looked at this movie as his launching pad. Belushi put everything he had into this movie, in every scene, and his performance is marvelous.

Tim Matheson (famous voice of Johnny Quest (original), Fletch, Drop Dead Fred, She's All That) plays Otter, the smooth womanizer. Otter is a quick thinker, who has a soft spot in his heart for pledges who wouldn't make it into other fraternities. He is a leader, a good friend, and a troublemaker, all at the same time.

Peter Riegert (Traffic, The Mask) plays Boone, who discovers his girlfriend (Karen Allen) is having an affair with his teacher (Donald Sutherland). Boone is also a trouble maker, is best friends with Otter, and though doesn't have that soft spot in his heart that Otter has, makes up for it by being hard headed, and stubborn (his scene with the cops is classic).

Animal House should be one of the first five DVD's you ever purchase. It belongs front and center in your DVD collection, and did I mention no DVD collection could be complete without it. The special features are nice, and seeing Landis call out facial expressions and watching Belushi act them out is a can't miss feature.

Grade: A+


Rating:
Summary: MUCH BETTER THAN ALL THOSE COPYCATS
Review: "Animal House" was the movie that started the trend of college comedies, and by the way, it's much better than imitators like "Porky's" or more recently the "American Pie" trilogy. If you have seen many films from the 80s, you will find a lot of familiar faces in this movie, but the only one that started a promising career was John Belushi, unfortunately he died a few years later. Kevin Bacon appears briefly, but he is not one of the main characters.

In "Animal House" you will see most of the stuff that has been shamelessly imitated throughout the years: there are pretty girls (specially Karen Allen), jokes directed to the authority figures, silly (but funny) humor, a lot of irreverent characters, and yes, the toga scene.

"Animal House" is a simple, basic comedy, but it's funny and it's better than all those copycat movies that came out in the 80s and 90s.

Rating:
Summary: Classic fun
Review: Oldie but still a goodie. Great to take out and watch with friends. Good old days type fun. Great movie. Not for the kiddies. Get your popcorn and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Like Sending Cadavers to the Alumni Dinner
Review: When "Animal House" came out in 1978 it ushered in a new genre, the slob vs. snob film. It also bought to the silver screen a prescence that unfortunately burned brightly and then burned out all too soon. John Belushi was such a massive comic force that you laughed hysterically at the turn of one of his eyebrows. The film is graced with an excellent young cast (Tim Mattheson, Peter Riegert, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst) but it's Belushi that elevates this film to comic nirvana. The humor holds up remarkably well today, rather, some of it seems a little innocent in light of what the Farrelly brothers and the "American Pie" creators have brought to the screen. Enjoy the innocent fratboy humor of this film and take it for what it is.

Rating:
Summary: There should be more movies like "Animal House"
Review: Animal House is a hilarious film about the delta fraternity on the campus of Faber College. Watching these charactors pull crazy stunts and getting away with anything they want was both entertaining and funny. The first time watching this film was the semester before I started college and this film made me grasp a different view on college life that I did not already know. I believe that this film is a classic and I recommend it to anybody, especially someone that is going to college because besides all the drinking and what goes on in the "Animal House," these charactors are generally funny, each having a special trait about them that makes you think of somebody that you know. This movie set a stereotype to all college fraternitys, and I believe that that is both good and bad. One thing is for sure, after watching this movie, I made sure I joined a fraternity not only for the parties, but mainly for the freindship I saw in the movie between the charactors. I recommend this movie to anybody. You'll be on the floor laughing and you'll see what I mean.