Post by Charlie O. on Dec 26, 2020 6:33:44 GMT
hatz's post made me think of this:
No doubt inspired by the success of National Lampoon's Animal House, in 1980 MAD Magazine allowed their name to be put on Up The Academy - only to immediately (and very publicly) regret doing so. I had no interest in seeing it at the time, but in the late '90s one of my best friends insisted that it was actually pretty good and I should give it a chance... and he had it on VHS, so we watched it together.
It's a dumb period Teen Comedy - so dumb, indeed, that I remember next to nothing about the actual story. But y'know, I did actually enjoy it! (I'm easy, I admit.) It was no Animal House, but there were some genuinely funny bits scattered amongst the typical period dumb Teen Comedy shit. (And there were some great songs used in the soundtrack, including "Gimme Danger" and Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner".)
Ironically, I think the movie might have done better at the box office if MAD hadn't been involved - if only because they would then have had no reason to beg their readership (and anyone else who would listen) not to go see it. I read somewhere that MAD publisher William Gaines later paid a good sum of money to have all references to his magazine removed from the home video release. They missed my friend's copy, though.
No doubt inspired by the success of National Lampoon's Animal House, in 1980 MAD Magazine allowed their name to be put on Up The Academy - only to immediately (and very publicly) regret doing so. I had no interest in seeing it at the time, but in the late '90s one of my best friends insisted that it was actually pretty good and I should give it a chance... and he had it on VHS, so we watched it together.
It's a dumb period Teen Comedy - so dumb, indeed, that I remember next to nothing about the actual story. But y'know, I did actually enjoy it! (I'm easy, I admit.) It was no Animal House, but there were some genuinely funny bits scattered amongst the typical period dumb Teen Comedy shit. (And there were some great songs used in the soundtrack, including "Gimme Danger" and Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner".)
Ironically, I think the movie might have done better at the box office if MAD hadn't been involved - if only because they would then have had no reason to beg their readership (and anyone else who would listen) not to go see it. I read somewhere that MAD publisher William Gaines later paid a good sum of money to have all references to his magazine removed from the home video release. They missed my friend's copy, though.
