CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
lowell
I hereby place Universal studios on double-secret probation for putting out such an atrocious video transfer. It is dark, so dark that the frequently silent jokes don't land (Belushi in the food line, most of the nite scenes in the fraturnity). It's a shame that so many uni titles are now in definitive blu-ray versions in which a cheesy video transfer now defines that movie, I'm especially thinking of Marnie, The Birds and Norrh by Northwest.
romanorum1
During Rush Week at Faber College, Freshmen Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) visit Omega Theta Pi, the grooviest frat house on campus, but are poorly received. When Larry and Kent approach the nearby Delta Tau Chi house house, a dummy, smashed through an upper window, lands at their feet. Nearby, they notice light- headed Bluto (John Belushi) nonchalantly urinating on the grounds. Delta house is an eyesore, the worst house on campus, and there is little social protocol. Truly an animal house, it features drunks and destruction of property. Tom and Kent are allowed to pledge.Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon) has summoned Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) of Omega to his office. He tells Greg that Delta is on "double secret probation" because of continuing poor conduct and low academic grades. The dean wants Greg, whose frat house is next to Delta's, to work with him to find ways to ensure that Delta is kicked off campus. So the balance of the movie shows the shenanigans of frat life as Delta descends into oblivion: initiation rites ("hell night"), exam theft, ROTC drill, cafeteria food fight, peeks into a sorority house to gaze at the boobs of Mandy (Mary Louise Weller), toga party, and a road trip to a black club. There is even a scene where hip teacher Jennings (Donald Sutherland) introduces some students to pot. Later he seduces student Katy (Karen Jane Allen). The beginning of the end of Delta House comes during the disciplinary meeting, the Student Court. Delta is accused of several infractions: (1) serving alcohol during pledge week, (2) having low academic standing for five weeks, (3) providing narcotics, and (4) "disgusting acts" during the toga party. Although Delta temporarily escapes closing, the day comes when the house will finally lose its charter because of terrible academic grades. Before the frat boys are officially expelled, they plan to take revenge during the homecoming parade. They create "The Deathmobile" and "Eat Me" cake floats. See the movie to see what happens. At the end there is an update as to the humorous destinations of the main characters.Animal House was the top-grossing comedy of 1978. It was directed by John Landis, who had skill to produce such a screwball farce: He combined different aspects of comedy – such as sight gags, one- liners, gross-outs, and innocent fun – into one coherent film. The insanity of college humor is almost nonstop from beginning to end. At the top of the spoof is John Belushi as John Blutarsky ("Bluto"), a prankish, obnoxious, beer-swilling, trouble-maker who crushes empty beer cans on his forehead and gobbles Jell-O with his fingers. Notified that he will be expelled, he blurts out: "Seven years of college down the drain" (his GPA was 0.0). Belushi is in only about a dozen scenes and only has few lines until his ending speech, but his presence is huge. He is well-supported by a capable cast that includes not only those already mentioned, but also Tim Matheson ("Otter"), James Widdoes, Mark Metcalf, Martha Smith, Cesare Danova, and Kevin Bacon (in his first movie). Otis Day and the Knights effectively perform "Shout." The soundtrack features pleasing pop songs of the early sixties, but "Louie Louie" hit the airways in late 1963, not 1962, the setting of the movie.
adam walworth
This movie is probably my favorite film that has ever hit a single screen. The move takes place in the 60s and shows you what college would of been like, and if you were part of the Delta Frat house then you were probably having the best time of your life. Delta is the craziest ferturnity on the campus at Faber College, members of the college even the Dean is trying to do everything in their power to get Delta off campus but they find out after its all said and done that you don't mess with crazy college kids that are just trying to party and have a good time. Throughout the whole movie there is a good variety of music that is played, contains classic love and party songs. Before I watched this movie I was not interested in college one bit but now there is no doubt I will be like John Belushi.
Movie_Muse_Reviews
No film presents so daunting a challenge to review nearly 40 years after its release as "Animal House." That's because no matter how well one feels it holds up after all this time, there's no divorcing the National Lampoon debut from its place of distinction in history as the movie that gave birth to the modern comedy.The passing of these many decades can make it easy to forget that "Animal House" was not a contemporary comedy when it was released — it takes place in 1962 but was release in 1978. So the objective of first-time writers Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller was to capture the nostalgia of a more idealistic era, specifically the period in time when they were in college. That's why the film's soundtrack plays a big role in its iconic status. It's also what contributes to its timelessness — the humor doesn't get lost in topical jokes and references."Animal House," the original college comedy, paints a portrait of Greek life from the perspective of two freshmen at Faber College, Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst), who at the beginning of the film rush the prestigious yet white, WASP-y and wealthy Omega house with their fancy formalities. Spurned, they turn to the dilapidated Delta house, where Kent is a legacy (his dad was a Delta). Despite being peed on and windows breaking every five seconds, they feel right at home, eventually becoming "Pinto" and "Flounder." From there, the movie is mostly a collection of hijinks and sexual screwball comedy built around a basic story: Faber's Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon) is embarrassed of the Deltas and conspires with the Omegas to get them kicked off campus.From the film's opening credits sequence showing parts of the campus to marching band music, director John Landis quickly establishes the oxymoron of universities that take pride in all this academia, tradition and pomp and circumstance but in actuality foster a wild and crazy party lifestyle. It's not an indictment of higher education, but a reality check that the Delta lifestyle is what people actually remember about their college experiences and where college adds real meaning to one's life.Because "Animal House" is all about humorous twists on the gamut of college experiences, it plays a lot like a sketch comedy show strung into a film. There's no logical order to the scenes outside of the ones that tie into the thin story of Delta being on "double-secret probation." So it's easy to pick your favorite scenes or for certain moments to become memorable in spite of what happens in the rest of the movie. That's an important characteristic of "Animal House," one that its dozens of imitators over the years (and to this day) have mostly ignored. The movie was never bogged down by a plot or any kind of narrative arc. In fact, it has one of the most non-traditional endings of any comedy ever made. Yet generations of people have laughed with this film and taken a liking to its characters anyway.Anyone who has been in a fraternity relates to being freshmen like Pinto and Flouder or remembers well-mannered troublemakers like Boon (Peter Riegert) and Otter (Tim Matheson) — and the not-so-well-mannered troublemakers like the infamous Bluto (John Belushi), whom too many real-life college students have aspired to emulate. Even if you were an "independent" in college, you surely had a close-knit group of friends with similar dynamics who tried to pull off the same kind of shenanigans.The slapstick comedy including the golf balls, everything related to Niedermeyer's (Mark Metcalf) horse and the cafeteria food fight don't hold up as well over time, but earn a few smirks when you remember the extent of their influence. A lot of what was college situational humor back then is more typically associated with cliché high school humor now, such as stealing test answers, homecoming parades and food fights. There is, however, a subtle absurdity in the execution of these jokes, such as the length of time Landis spends filming Belushi piling plates onto his lunch tray (while snacking). There's a timeless genius to that even if it's not laugh-out-loud funny.The sexual humor, on the other hand, is a bit distasteful now, even though at the time its R-rated proclivities opened huge doors for raunch in movies. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the female characters. The scene with Bluto spying on the sorority girls having a topless pillow fight and Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller) as she undresses is an obvious example of male gaze and promoting the straight male fantasy, but more problematic are how all the female characters in the film exist solely to gratify the male characters, or they turn out to be liars and cheaters. Pinto's angel-devil conscience moment might seem like the basis for an argument in defense of the film's portrayal of how men treat women, but that male behavior toward women continues to be problematic, especially on college campuses, these depictions are still troublesome. There's a truth to the notion that college guys are preoccupied with getting laid and it's understandable that Landis and the writers would want to play that up for comedic effect, but it's unfortunate the message they send in doing so.Nonetheless, from the toga party and "Shout" dance number to Bluto chugging a bottle of Jack Daniels, "Animal House" is a giant among comedies. Every modern comedy, even if it has nothing to do with college life, owes it a debt of gratitude. It's hard to see why it was such a trendsetter from 40 years into the future, but it's because how often its fingerprints have shown up in movies and television since that it becomes especially difficult to appreciate how novel it was in 1978. Even in its shortcomings, it has the aura of an unmistakable classic.
