Review #12 - Up The Academy (1980)

Courtesy of Netflix:

"Before he waxed on (and off) as the Karate Kid, a young Ralph Macchio appeared in this uproarious adolescent comedy about a group of mischievous military school misfits forced to suffer under a sadistic headmaster (Ron Liebman). Directed by the independent-minded Robert Downey Sr., the film features Barbara Bach as a gun-toting armaments specialist and Tom Poston as an instructor who loves bed checks."

Our movie opens with a shot of a teenaged Ralph Macchio in a cute little powder-blue suit and an open-neck yellow shirt with a collar which could blanket Rhode Island. Adorable.

It all goes downhill from there.

This movie is exactly as bad as you would expect it to be. Our friend at Netflix describes this film as "uproarious", evidently not understanding that this word is not a synonym for "asinine". Take the funniest teenage sex romp 80's movie that you can think of, take out all the funny stuff, and the leftovers would be "Up The Academy".

RDJR is "Soccer Player", which appears to be the role you get when your dad is at the helm of the turdmobile. No lines, but he had that cute little flippy Scott Baio hairdo.

I give this a 1.5, for the Napoleon Dynamite dance scene and that sweet little suit. All I can think right now is-- at least it's over with. On to greater cinematic efforts, like, oh, just about any other film ever made.

Tina