BACK TO SCHOOL (1986)

BACK TO SCHOOL (1986)

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(Comedy, Romance, Sport) [PG-13]

Please, try to understand. I don't have the background for this. I mean, the high school I went to, they asked a kid to prove the law of gravity, he threw the teacher out the window!

In this one, a businessman Thornton Melon (played by the late Rodney Dangerfield ), with tons of money decides to go to the college his son Jason, (played by Keith Gordon) attends, when Jason tells him he’s thinking about leaving school. The idea was to encourage his son to stay and give it his best. Thornton echoes his own father’s sentiments, that you can do anything with an education. Oddly the premise of the movie kind of goes against all that since Thornton is a millionaire and ended up massively successful without college. Anyway after buying his way in Thornton becomes a party animal on campus and no one at the college can stop talking about him. Up until 2019, I would have thought that just buying your way into college with zero credentials was impossible. Anyway, now Thornton is put his son in his shadow and quickly discovering that just being rich doesn’t solve all of your problems. 

First off let me say that this movie absolutely crushed it at the box office. If it hadn’t, it might have become a cult classic, but as it stands, this movie was extremely well known and extremely well liked in its day, making almost 9 times what it cost to produce. The movie also features some names that many people these days recognize. The cast included Thornton’s teacher and love interest Sally Kellerman who has been in Hollywood since the 1950’s. In the movie it doesn’t feel as weird as a teacher student relationship should, because in the movie Thornton is actually older and technically shouldn’t even be there. Robert Downey Jr. is also in this movie as Jason’s best friend Derek. It’s almost the same type of role he plays in WEIRD SCIENCE only Derek isn’t a total jerk. Downey is decent in the role. Burt Young (most famous for playing Paulie in the ROCKY series) is also in this. Burt is good in this movie playing a bit of the tough guy who works for Thornton. The movie also features Terry Farrell from Deep Space Nine and Sam Kinison who both are pretty good in this. This was one of only 2 movies Sam Kinison, who was mostly known for being a comedian, appeared in. 

Overall the comedy style is probably a bit too much for today’s audiences unless you grew up in the 80’s or have a sense of humor that can handle this sort of thing. Dangerfield was known for his most famous comedic line “I get no respect” but also for his “no pulled punches” comedic style. BACK TO SCHOOL is not crass, but it is over the top and a lot of the situations Thornton finds himself getting into would draw frowns from the PC overlords, but overall this movie is pretty fantastic and in some parts heartwarming. I think you could even say that it’s basically BILLY MADISON only from the 80’s. 

I kind of liked this thing just because it reminded me of the days when no one was near as serious as they are now, most of the rules were mere suggestions and people had much thicker skin when it came to language. If you can check out real life for 96 minutes, this is a fun ride not to be taken in the least bit seriously. I will say that a lot of Rodney Dangerfield’s lines in this thing do miss the mark for me, but the outlandish nature of the film allows for it. 

I have to give this movie a 4 out of 7. Probably not a movie I feel you or I need to own, but it’s entertaining and it’s got a great soundtrack. There is also a live appearance by “Oingo Boingo”, so it’s worth checking out just for that. 

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