Oxford Blues

Nick De Angelo (Rob Lowe) is a self-possessed valet in Las Vegas. With the help of an older woman and a lucky night in the casino, he gets enough money to chase after Lady Victoria Wingate (Amanda Pays) in Oxford. He gets accepted at Oriel College but Victoria is already involved with rower Colin Gilchrist Fisher (Julian Sands). The rowers are at the top of the social hierarchy. The brash Nick steals a boat and leaps into a race coming in second to Colin. Nick joins a team coxed by Jersey girl Rona (Ally Sheedy).

Brash Nick is fun and compelling. However, he goes overboard at times like when he first meets Rona. She doesn't deserve it and it makes him look like a bully. I love Rob Lowe but Nick can be off-putting at times. Some of the British villains are too cartoonish. The worst part is that Amanda Pays is too much of an ice queen. It's one of her early roles and she is terribly stiff. It would have been a better rom-com if Nick goes off with Rona instead. Rob Lowe has plenty of charisma but that isn't enough to save this.

This is an excellent film with fine acting throughout. While the initial plotline might be slightly unlikely, the interactions of the main character while at Oxford are the real point of the movie, despite his initial reason. It is interesting througout the movie with a variety of well-rounded characters. The movie is well balanced between the action and excitement of the competitive scenes with the drama and romance at the heart of the story.

Back in the day, Rob Lowe was devoid of talent (as were many of the notorious Brat Pack members) but had that certain something that made people (mostly teens) want more. He was a very marketable commodity at the time, so what better role to give him than something that has already been done (i.e. little money spent writing, pre-production as possible before his fame expires as we all remember it did in the form of a threesome with two underage girls).

He can't act like Meryl Streep but he can deliver lines adequately and professionally; he is not so horrible that it is not watchable, and the story line is cute. Overall not an oscar winner but watchable. Some of his Brat Pack friends had big hits with their solo movies such as Ally Sheedy in Short Circuit, Emilio Estevez in Young Guns, etc.

This film in my opinion shows Rob Lowe for teenager fans. The rest lacks of script, hooks, actings, even the history is plain and uninspired. The nice guy travel to England to know the girl of his dreams and the British despised him (In Oxford) but he succeed. Also the British characters are boring, tedious, predictable. I don't want to spoil but it's only a film to remember the eighties and Rob Lowe and Ally Sheedy (Maybe the strongest point). The rest can't be much more accomplished and has some real flaws... specially on the script aspect. The scenes of rowing towards the river and competitions are the best of this movie. Only for fundamentalists of Rob.

During his career Rob Lowe has been compared as the Brat Pack throwback to some of the matinée idols of the Studio era. That comparison was sealed when he did Oxford Blues a more suggestive remake of the MGM classic A Yank At Oxford which did so well for Robert Taylor back in the day.

The same basic plot is retained for Oxford Blues from the original film. Rob with a little help from computer hacker brother Chad in an unbilled part, gets himself a transfer from the University of Nevada to matriculate. Funds for the trip and the tuition is won at the Las Vegas crap tables. And Rob even gets a Ferrari, courtesy of divorcée Gail Strickland, most satisfied with the extras that Rob provides for her when he's not parking cars. Stuff back in the day MGM would not show with Robert Taylor.

If you thought Taylor was a fish out of water at Oxford back in the Thirties, he's nothing compared to Lowe here. Oxford is a place steeped in tradition and Lowe's casual attitude really irks a lot of people from head man Michael Gough on down.

Worse than that he's got a casual attitude towards his sport of rowing. There even in their suits and gowns, the rowers are the jocks that rule in that place.

Though there are certain things that don't change. When Lowe is challenged to a 'sconcing' contest, he knows what chugfest is all about.

Like in the original Rob's caught between two women, matriculating student Ally Sheedy, fellow brat packer from America and Lady Amanda Pays who's well known nobility who occasionally winds up on the gossip pages. She's got a fiancé in the person of Julian Sands, but that doesn't deter Lowe one bit.

Another good role in Oxford Blues is that of Julian Firth who plays Lowe's roommate and a person who is in some wonder of Lowe's casual American ways. Farther down the cast list in a minor part as another Oxford student is Cary Elwes who would be a movie name in a couple of years.

Like the previous film when MGM filmed A Yank At Oxford on location there, Oxford Blues is also filmed at Oxford and I must say the place doesn't look like it changed much in almost fifty years. Then again a place steeped in tradition like Oxford isn't expected to change. Not even for Rob Lowe.

As for Rob himself, he carries off the part of Nick DeAngelo in the best hero/heel tradition of that other matinée idol of yore, Tyrone Power.