gab-14712 What do The Godfather, Jaws, and Animal House all have in common? The answer is that they are 1970's classics that have influenced movies the way they are today. The Godfather inspired mafia films/television shows, Jaws began the advent of blockbusters, and Animal House began the R-rated comedies that are prominent in Hollywood today. Before Animal House, there were hardly any R-rated comedies. What this film showed was never showed on the big screen before. Lots of vomit projectiles, lots of sex, and just crazy raucous behavior. People have never seen anything like it but……most of them loved it. I, myself thought it was a very good film. There are many laughs to be had. What I found surprising that despite all the laughs, I could relate to this film because I am not too far removed from college and this film is about fraternity college life. This movie came from ideas out of a college magazine called National Lampoon, and they would eventually became a highly successful production company well into the 1980's and 1990's.What did I like about the film? The script is one of the best written scripts in all of comedy. Harold Ramis excels at writing these kind of movies, and he truly created a funny and unique film. His screenplay hardly wavers and it keeps a consistent tone, although that ends up hurting the film just a tad. The cast is all wonderful. But the standout belongs to John Belushi. Belsushi was an Saturday Night Live favorite and he would become a big comedy movie star after this movie until his untimely death in 1982. But he was hilarious as the fat, obnoxious John Blutarsky. He loves being drunk and he loves starting food fights (one of the best scenes in the movie-that epic food fight!) Another standout was John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer. Wormer was an evil dean who did all he could to expel the Delta House fraternity. Donald Sutherland is also a scene-stealer. His performance as an early-60's pothead English professor was spot-on. This movie features supporting turns from Tom Hulce, Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen, Bruce McGill, among others. The film is also well-directed. John Landis is in his wheelhouse with this sort of film, so you can easily tell he knows what he is doing.Are there any negatives? No, not really. My biggest complaint is actually the consistency of the film. It may be too……consistent. What I mean is that the more jokes there are, the more some may fall flat. There were some that fell flat at times. Maybe a little more than I would have hoped given this film is called a "classic." But that is only a small nitpick. I really enjoyed the movie for what it was.Animal House is movie that is mostly about a war between two fraternities at Faber College. The Delta House has a reputation of taking anyone, while the other fraternity is the home of white, rich men that no one likes except for Dean Wormer (John Vernon). Wormer and his frat boys plan to kick Delta Fraternity off campus before homecoming parade. But not if the Delta boys can help it.There are just many classic scenes to behold. There is the epic food fight that was fun to watch. I wonder how much food was wasted during the shooting of the scene. Then there was the parade, which is the end of the movie. This is the parade where the Delta show us who the real fraternity is. If you like music, you'll like the scene where they successfully incorporate the hit song, "Shout." Finally if you want to make Dean Wormer mad, all you got to do is put a horse in his office. Overall, Animal House is a comedy to see. It inspired many comedies in years to come thanks to raucous and endearing screenplay.My Grade: B+

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.

zhongzl-kelley2014 I have no critiques about the story-telling techniques. The acting is realistic, angles are comfortable and fluent, music is light and uplifting, but some values preached by this film is serious unacceptable to the society.First of all, let's look at all the characters that prevail in this movie: the infamous fraternity Delta, in which of course there are no African Americans, Asians, homosexual members or others. So clearly diversity is not a theme of the film.What kind of people thrive in Delta? Low-graders, drunkards, trouble-makers, people who indulge themselves in excessive sex life and endless partying and a brotherhood that is based on breaking the law and causing extreme discomfort to everyone around them. And of course the handsome-looking chef of a prominent fraternity makes a farce out of himself by believing a vicious girl's lie and is convinced that his girlfriend is stolen from one of the Delta members, and his girlfriend miraculously fall for the retard Delta member. And the good-looking uniformed officer gets himself knocked down from a horse, and his horse dies of a heart attack.In this film, doing things without thinking about consequences is bravery, alcohol overdose and obscene sex fantasy are the beauty of youth, trespassing the rules of society equals to thinking outside the box and breaking the status quo, and the high-achievers are the ones to be defeated, the losers are the ones with glare of heroes. I respect freedom of speech, I really do, but I still think the director needs to kneel to the ground and apologize to whoever come to believe any core values expressed by this film after watching it. However, I am forced to comment on the comedy elements of this film. Many classic lines from this film will always resonate in my brain during my college life. If the crew didn't try to use film as a tool to justify their twisted values, this film might have a really high rating.