Customer Reviews

Back To School (Extra-Curricular Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After his appearance on Leno recently, it seems Rodney Dangerfield is losing his touch due to age and his admitted pot smoking. He still had it in Back to School, however. This has always been a good way to spend 90 minutes or so to get some laughs. Along with Caddyshack and Easy Money, it's his best work.

Be careful of which DVD version you buy. There are two floating around out there and they both look the same until you make a close inspection of the back cover. MGM quietly slipped this new transfer out there with the same cover without as much as a peep. The original copy was non-anamorphic widescreen and was a poor transfer with some framing issues. The new one is a great improvement with anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 Surround Sound. You have to look at the bottom left of the back cover. You will see 16:9 Widescreen 1.85:1 versus the old one which did not have the '16:9' printed above the word Widescreen. The free booklet with the older copy was nice but the new anamorphic transfer and 5.1 trump the importance of the little booklet included in the older DVD release. I don't know why they didn't throw in the old booklet but its importance is negligible. You don't buy DVDs for booklets anyway.

One more thing. Always buy DVD releases of films in their OAR(Original Aspect Ratio). Don't buy Fullscreen copies if the movie was originally released in Widescreen to theaters. The only time you should buy (Fullscreen, 1.33:1, 4X3) is if that was the OAR, which is usually only television these days and much older films from the early 50's and beyond. Why would you want to watch a film with the sides chopped off? You'll learn to live with the 'black bars' and realize that you're not losing any picture on the top or bottom.

Aside from the comedy classic ensemble Caddyshack, Back To School is my favorite Rodney Dangerfield film.

Self-made millionaire Thorton Melon (Dangerfield) decides to join his only son, Jason (Keith Gordon), who is having difficulty fitting in, as a freshman in college. This impulse gesture drives Jason a little nuts, while setting Thorton on a path to a little romance with an English professor (Sally Kellerman). He also learns that there are things in life money can't buy, and in the process, somehow becomes the most popular man on campus.

Director Alan Metter allows Dangerfield to do his thing. But also allows him to show a softer side that doesn't seem at all out of place. Don't let that deter you though, there are still plenty of laughs to be had. Gordon is pitch perfect as Jason and provides plenty of grounding as well. The film also boasts solid support from actor Burt Young as Lou, and early performances by Robert Downey Jr. as Derek, Jason's roomie, as well as former Star Trek beauty, Terry Farrell.

Sadly, the DVD doesn't have any "real" extras, save of course, for the film's theatrical trailer. Typical for most MGM releases, the package also includes a "collectible" production trivia booklet. An audio commentary or a few deleted scenes, would have put this disc over the top. Still, this film is a must see, for comedy and Dangerfield fans. It's a very funny movie.

Coming three years after making a big splash with his first-ever starring role, in the 1983 Horror classic CHRISTINE, Keith Gordon returned in this, the 1986 Comedy classic BACK TO SCHOOL, starring one of the most beloved comedians of all time, Rodney Dangerfield.

The story actually begins in 1940, where young Thornton Meloni (Jason Hervey, who would become famous two years later as Fred Savage's older brother on the TV show "The Wonder Years") is being exhorted by his immigrant father to stay in school and not to take over his tailoring business. The kid ends up not listening to him and becomes a high school dropout, taking over the business and changing it to a "Tall & Fat Store" while taking the "i" off the end of his last name and making a fortune. The fifty-something adult Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) is having an awful second marriage to Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau in full vamp mode), but is proud of his college freshman son Jason (Keith Gordon), whom he thinks is in a popular fraternity and on the school's diving team. Soon after arriving for a surprise visit, however, Jason admits the truth that he's not in a frat, is not popular and is, in fact, the 'towel boy' for the diving team. Jason wants to leave school because it's not going the way he thought it would. The tall, beautiful Valerie (Terry Farrell) won't even notice him, and his roommate and only friend Derek (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a complete weirdo with wild hairstyles that appear to change daily. Rich Dad has an idea: he'll enroll as a freshman himself and that will influence Jason to have a better time and to stay in school!

After pulling some strings, including donating a huge sum for a brand-new School of Business (it is, after all, not everyday that a well-respected university will take on a student who never finished high school, even someone as rich as Thornton Melon), fun-loving Thornton proceeds to throw his weight around, changing Jason & Derek's room into a plaza suite (complete with a hot tub), throwing awesome parties and even romancing his English professor (Sally Kellerman), much to the chagrin of her uptight boyfriend, Business professor Phillip Barbay (Paxton Whitehead), who would like nothing better than an excuse to drum the impudent Thornton Melon out of the university! Meanwhile, Thornton uses his considerable influence on Coach Turnbull (M. Emmett Walsh) to let Jason officially join the squad, which upsets the snobby star diver Chas (William Zabka) who suddenly finds himself competing for his girlfriend Terry, who begins to take a liking to Jason.

If this all sounds like too much plot for this 96-minute movie, let me just say that BACK TO SCHOOL makes very efficient use of its time (no slow points here), and equally good use of Mr. Dangerfield's comedic talents, that the plot itself is almost secondary to the one-liners Rodney uses in his usual self-deprecating way. Plus, the cameos are real fun, especially Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as himself, being hired to write a paper for Jason about--what else?--Kurt Vonnegut Jr.! The music is very upbeat 80's here (as you would expect for a movie of this type); however, it does mark the film scoring debut for Danny Elfman of Oingo Bongo who appears in the film (as themselves) performing their great classic "Dead Man's Party" (which, incidentally, had been on the soundtrack to WEIRD SCIENCE a year earlier).

Even if certain occurrences are patently unbelievable, such as the oral exam scene late in the film, BACK TO SCHOOL is so much fun to watch that it doesn't matter what happens, just as long as Rodney's and Gordon's characters win in the end and make us laugh while doing it. It is of definite interest to us Star Trek fans that Terry Farrell would eventually go on to play Lt. Dax on TV in "Deep Space Nine." Also, watch quickly for a cameo by Robert Picardo (who would join the aforementioned Jason Hervey two years later in "The Wonder Years" playing the dreaded Coach Cutlip, then later on joining Ms. Farrell in the Star Trek series in his wonderful role of the holographic Doctor) as the guy Thornton catches Vanessa fooling around with at a big party. Oh, and Sam Kinison is hilarious in a small role, playing himself as a shell-shocked History professor who never quite came out of Vietnam.

Everybody is great in this mid-80's comedy classic. Lastly, you have to love a Rodney Dangerfield movie that features a university dean by the name of Dean Martin (the always-wonderful Ned Beatty). BACK TO SCHOOL really takes us back to school on what a great film comedy should be. Add this one to your DVD library! Even with the lack of a lot of extras, it's still very much worth it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

In the mid 1980's, Rodney Dangerfield had a surge of popularity, after starring in hits like CADDYSHACK and EASY MONEY. BACK TO SCHOOL is arguably his second-best film, in which Dangerfield portrays an obnoxious businessman who goes back to school, with the intentions of helping his discouraged son (Keith Gordon). There's enough jokes and comedy in here to last the whole film, thus it's very, very entertaining. Dangerfield is great, displaying a type of charm as he attempts to start a relationship with a Language Arts teacher, played by Sally Kellerman. The film also marks Danny Elfman's first on-screen appearance.

Rodney Dangerfield's follow-up to Easy Money (1983)is as equally funny as said movie. This time he plays Thornton Melon, a self-mad millionaire owner of a chain of Tall and Fat clothing stores. His son, Jason (Keith Gordon), is up at college, living the sweet life... at least in the phone calls home. He only has one friend, the campus weirdo (Robert Downey, Jr.), and is the lowly towel boy for the swim team. After a divorce with his shallow second wife (involving pictures of her with the butler and a midget), he comes up to the college, and winds up enrolling as the world's oldest freshman. He helps make college life fun for his friends, and winds uop ticking off his finance professor by stealing his poetry professor girlfriend (Sally Kellerman), who vows to make college life a living hell. Can Thornton make it by, even with the trouble he lands in?

A good, solid comedy with great performances all around, the best by Dangerfield, Kellerman, Gordon, Downey Jr, and Sam Kinison as a crazed vietnam vet-turned-history professor(according to Thornton, "He's a good teacher. He really cares.... about what, I'll never know.") The disc gives you a choic between widescreen and full frame presentations of the film, bot with good video, with little to no grain present. The sound is presented in Dolby Surround 2.0, and sounds great. the only feature is the trailer (in full-frame), and this is a title that screams SPECIAL EDITION. Where is it?

BACK TO SCHOOL
(1986, PG-13)

Thornton Melon: Rodney Dangerfield
Diane Turner: Sally Kellerman
Lou: Burt Young
Jason Melon: Keith Gordon
Derek Lutz: Robert Downey, Jr.
Phillip Barbay: Paxton Whitehead

Director: Alan Metter
Writers: Rodney Dangerfield, Greg Fields, Dennis Snee (all story), Steven Kampmann, William Porter, Peter Torkovei, Harold Ramis (all screenplay)

MOVIE: 5
VIDEO: 5
AUDIO: 5
EXTRAS: 2
MENUS: 3
OVERALL: 4

Back to School Rodney Dangerfield's best movie since Caddyshack. He plays Thornton Melon, a high school dropout who owns a chain of suit stores called Tall and Fat. After splitting from yet another wife, he goes to visit his only son at college. He finds out when he gets there that his son has been lying to him about where he lives on campus, his grades and his status on the dive team. He decides to join his son at school and truly turns the campus upside down. He turns their dorm room into a palace, makes registering for classes a breeze and dates a professor. His number one adversary is the uptight Dr. Barbay, his Econ. professor who does not like the fact that Melon bought his way in by donating a building. Meanwhile his son is battling super-jock Chas for the affections of Melanie.

There are lots of great moments, and characters, in this movie, one is Dangerfield's confrontation with his American History professor, the late, great Sam Kinison. Even though there aren't any extra features, the DVD is worth it. This movie will make you laugh time and time again.

Rodney delivers the goods here. I mean, let's face it, he was the ONLY reason to watch Caddyshack. He is one doggone funny guy. The one liners here are great and there are plenty of 'em. Plus you get to see Robert Downey Jr. in an early role as a wigged out college guy (now that he's a, you know, very conservative adult, catch this movie to see how much he's really changed).

Yeah, OK, so maybe it's not exactly credible that a gorgeous babe like Sally Kellerman would fall for a goofy overweight guy like Rodney, but then again, he's loaded. And what babe would turn down a loaded guy, even if he's chunky? But he shows a lot of heart here which is what makes this work.

Rodney (Thurman Melon, short for Meloni--I guess he didn't want to reveal his Italian ancestry) never finished college--actually, he never went to college. So he accepts a challenge from his college-age son to go to the same school his son attends to show how hard it is--or isn't. We find out that Thruman was a diving champ in high school and he gets to prove it in the story. Plus he belts out a great rendition of Twist and Shout.

You also get to see Oingo Boingo when they were at the top of their game do a few numbers. (For those of you unfamiliar, they were a great party rock band from the mid-80s to the early 90s.) Thurman is married to catwoman Adrienne Barbeau who, despite her obvious, shall we say, endowments, is mean-spirited (Rodney loves to have a mean-spirited woman in his flicks; check out Geraldine Fitzgerald in Easy Money). But she fools around once too many times and the marriage is bust.

Off to school Rodney (uh, I mean Thurman) goes which is where he meets Sally Kellerman's English professor with whom he's smitten immediately.

It's predictable, but a lot of fun. Rodney is one of the very few guys around who really makes me laugh. Pretty hard thing to accomplish, but he does the job. So if you're feeling low, stick this in your DVD player and for at least 90 minutes or so you can relax and laugh a lot.

This is one of those movies I can watch every six months because of the great humor and story Dangerfield stars in. Dangerfield goes back to college to be closer to his son and the funny one-liners and humor really come together in this funny and intriguing comedy. I also enjoyed Dangerfield's acting in which he has to earn the respect of his son at school and how he cares about father-and-son issues. I think Dangerfield is at his best here and it's unfortunate we haven't seen another film like this from him and I simply have to call this film a comedy classic!

Rodney has been in many films. However this is the one I will always relate him to. Aside from his one liners and "I get no respect" gags he does a good job of bring out the best (and worst) abut collage. I will admit that he does not look like Bing Crosby in " High Time" (1960), however we have just as much fun watching him adjust and then do one better.
On of my favorite parts is when he has Kurt Vonnegut Jr. doing his homework; that is called delegation.
One annoying part of school is when someone says there is so much picture framing material and asks how do you make a picture twice [as] wide as it is high? People usually measure the picture for the frame. So when the professor said let's build a factory and Thorton Melon asks what are you going to make? I about fell off my seat.

This movie is absolutely hilarious. It isn't as 'dumb-hilarious' like Austin Powers, but it is hilarious.
Here's an overview:
Mr. Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield) owns a 'Big and Fat' store. His son goes to college, however, he tells his dad that he is going to drop out. Mr. Mellon is distressed and says, "I'll do it with you." Mr. Mellon has a personality that is hilarious. He keeps giving things away, and gives money away too. He also gets in trouble with the professors. See the movie to see how it ends.
Now I had a very dull description of what was actually going on in the movie. Rodney Dangerfield is absolutely hillarious. This is a must see movie.