Review #50 - Back to School (1986)

Pause with me for a moment, dearest reader - 5 1/2 months into The Project, we are at #50. I don't think I've ever done any one thing 50 times in my entire life. Okay, I know what your mind automatically went to, and you should be ashamed of yourself. What would your mother think?

You see, science has transformed me into a dedicated, focused Woman of Valor who will stop at nothing until she has viewed...them...all.

Even this one with Rodney Dangerfield.

So, let's do it. Cue Netflix: "This wacky comedy stars Rodney Dangerfield as self-made millionaire Thornton Melon, who decides to get a better education and enrolls at son Jason's college. While Jason (Keith Gordon) struggles just to fit in with his snobbish fellow students, Thornton struggles to gain his son's respect - giving way to hilarious antics. Sally Kellerman co-stars as an English professor who encourages father and son to stick out their first year despite the odds."

You know what I loved about this movie? It was made in 1986. Okay, Oingo Boingo was in it. Hello. Keith "I thought I'd have a career after I starred in Christine, but I guess not" Gordon was in it. And, of course, Our Hero was in it, with his pre-capped cute little gap between his teeth.

Rodney Dangerfield was a dirtball, and guess what. In this movie - he was a dirtball. No big stretch.

However, I must confess - I did not want to gouge my eyes out, as I had anticipated I certainly would by minute 23. It had some cute little parts, if you pretend like you haven't already heard those Dangerfield zingers 50 thousand times. ("Hey, don't knock my wife. She gives good headache.")

I realized that I didn't see this movie when it was released back in 1986. In a Back to the Future-type moment, I guarantee you that if I had, my life would have been forever altered; because I would have fallen head over heels for Our Hero. He had whacked-out hair and dressed like Paul Revere and the Raiders. I was so totally into that in the 80's, I would have written him a letter proposing marriage on the spot, as soon as my braces came off and I could get to California.

But, alas, I didn't see the film. I didn't write the letter. Instead I watched Miami Vice. And look at me now...a rip in the time-space continuum and now I'm in the armpit of Washington instead of the pearl of California. Bummer, dude.

A number...a number. Well, I didn't want to hang myself during the credits, but it was still pretty pointless. I'll go with a 5.