Animal House

Baby Boomers love this movie and you’ll often seen it ranked as one of the best comedies of all time. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t hold up. I swear the first twenty minutes of the film are completely joke-free. Belushi is billed as the star but his part boils down to being a pervy Buster Keaton and occasionally mugging his puppy dog eyes at the camera. I found it hard to sympathize with the Deltas who were, in reality, a bunch of stupid drunks. The movie’s idea of a joke is to yell, “Food fight!” then have people throw food. Hilarious. I guess the general form here is gross-out comedy, but so many films did it better later on. Even Revenge of the Nerds, which basically steals every plot beat here, had more likable characters and bigger laughs. The last 15 minutes of mayhem is the only time when I felt the movie come to life.