Das Geheimnis meiner Karriere

Todd Headlee, while still an A.S.U. student, created the first beefcake calender and it was a hit. Naturally, such a world shaking event cried out for a big screen epic... and here you are. This badly directed, written and scored little feature is useful only as a time capsule for awful eighties clothing and hair styles. The only other thing you can give this dull little caper is that it consistently avoids all the usual exploitative sleaze of campus comedies. It isn't clever or particularly funny, but it also isn't stripping down the women in the cast (and there are some pretty girls evident throughout) and there's no slobbering fat guy tossed in for comic "relief." No raunch, no swearing, no over-the-top sitcom acting, no crotch-smacking slapstick, no flatulence, no vomiting... it's positively the cleanest campus comedy ever made. Too bad it's also so trivial and innocuous. It does have a standout feature in Miles O'Keeffe as Cactus Jack. He almost lifts the film out of it's general lifelessness. He's so ruggedly handsome that it's almost supernatural and his character is like some amalgam of Clint Eastwood and the Marlboro Man. Otherwise, it's pretty slim stuff based on a pretty slim premise.

Campus Man was a decent late 80s college flick. Todd Barrett, a lick, amateur businessman who, for some reason always tucked his pants into his socks, learns that he is denied a scholarship the day after the loan deadlines. He needs to come up with ten thousand dollars for tuition or risk getting thrown out (the financial counselor said the official term was expulsion...but doesn't that conjure up connotations of wrong-doing outside of defaulting on tuition?).

So, he decides to produce a calendar featuring some of the University's athletes, which he would then sell on campus. In order to do this, of course, he needs twelve thousand dollars as start-up capital. And, being unable to convince formal institutions to do this, a strange pool hall fellow of the name Cactus Jack (who advertises on phone booths of all things) lends him the money. What follows next is a series of misunderstandings and miscalculations that threaten his chances of paying back the rather irritable Cactus Jack, but also potentially ruining the diving career of his close friend, Brett Wilson.

'Campus Man' lacks some of the 80s predictability because it throws more curve balls than may be expected and at least strives for some creativity here and there. Although, the two leads (John Dye and Steve Lyon) sometimes got in these weird silent movies where they looked like they wanted to jump each other. But, there is a pretty steady pace of story, plus and excellent soundtrack (featuring Michael Sembello's "Rock Until You Drop" which some might from 'The Monster Squad').

Recommended for your lazy afternoon 80s viewing pleasure.

considering the talent that was on hand, (John Dye, Morgan Fairchild, Miles O'Keefe, Kim DeLaney, etc ) the director Ron Casden, kinda sorta fell into a comedic hole! This was a local Arizona shot film, which is kind of cool seeing some of the old places, businesses, apartments, resorts restaurants, bars etc, but this story is kind funny but the main character John Dye is a nice, annoying guy.

Don't get me wrong, I like John no doubt, so it's got to be Casden that missed the marks here. Steve Lyons was pretty much a loss as a bad actor on top. Considering that he was a major supporting role in Campus Man. I remember the posters from the theater from 1987, and it cracks me up. Everything about this ' flick' seemed to just kind of go ah-rye. The acting was gone right after the directing and then the story, etc. I laugh, because I own the DVD and I don't intend to sell this one anytime soon. The funniest part of this movie is, that I would rather watch this, over Brosnan in "Die Another Day" (2002). Probably because it's Arizona, back in the great eighties!

I recommend this for college type, sitting around on laundry day type comedy , I rated it a 2, because of the classic old scenery. It's still fun to pass the time with though. In small edition there was a couple great song tracks in the movie by the Robert Cray band, that set off a cool and rude mood, although there was a lack of good scoring through out the whole story. (*)

I'm perhaps not as familiar with the works of Miles O'Keeffe as I should be,and really have seen moist of his work in the early part of the 80s.However,notice his character in this film.Correct me if I'm wrong,and it seems that quite a bit of his other,later film roles are duplicating this personna.Quiet,attentive,laconic,focused,intense,with a hostile edge.There's a persistent,if subtle menace to Cactus Jack.He's sexually magnetic,well-defined without being enormous,accurate,and a man of action and violence.Miles has turned into Clint Eastwood.

If you were in college in the late 80's, you should appreciate this film. Plus Kim Delaney is hot. Great tunes, great clothes, wonderful haircuts, big hair for the gals. God I miss those days.

Yeah, it was cheesy, yeah it was a stupid plot, but that's what the 80's was all about.

Partying, good tunes, no political correctness, great movies.

Who else wishes they had a time machine????

The Brat pack.

Miami Vice

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