Movie Madness

Dreadful! This is the kind of movie you wonder how the cameras ever started rolling. Aside from anyone getting a paycheck, you can't imagine why it was ever completed. It must have been in the can for months while they figured what to do. No point in ever watching except for seeing again that a great cast can do nothing with a terrible, terrible script. You wouldn't laugh on a dare watching this. I agree with the previous contributor who stated his is much worse than "Plan 9." The fact is big Hollywood films like this that don't try are much worse than the small no dollar indies that are making an effort. This is why even an Ed Wood is better than trash like this film or say "Endless Love." Perhaps the unfunniest comedy ever made. As Widmark says at one point, "Kid, you can really be boring."

This barely watchable film was a bit of an ordeal to sit through. None of the segments are good, but at least the first one was mildly amusing, and the middle one was somewhat imaginative. The final one was just plain brutal, and after sitting through two weak comedic shorts, the third one was truly painful to watch. Even by the low standards of a National Lampoon movie, this one seemed especially boring and joyless.

"National Lampoon Goes to the Movies" is the worst movie ever made, surpassing even the witless "Plan 9 from Outer Space." At least that movie was just inept; the Lampoon film, on the other hand, is both inept and mean. Once upon a time, movies used to respect their audiences' intelligence. This one, however, holds a fetid, rotting carcass up to our faces -- and then tries to rub our noses in it.

Another reviewer on this site wrote that the only good parts of the movie are the nude scenes; and I agree, Misses Ganzel and Dusenberry do flash a bit of flesh, and very nice flesh it is. But the directors seem not to realize that even T&A needs a good story to surround it. There's none of that here.

Perversely, the film makers save the worst for last. The third of the three segments is the ugliest of the trio. In this vignette, Robby Benson plays an eager-beaver young police officer reporting for duty on his first day on the job. He is paired with a weary, cynical oldtimer played by Richard Widmark. For just a moment, we are given hope that this film will end triumphantly. Surely, we think, the youngster's spunky attitude will rub off on the cynic and change him for the better.

Forlorn hope! Instead, the cynic wins the day -- and the youngster's spark is doused forever. "National Lampoon Goes to the Movies" and heads right for the toilet, asking us to follow it down the drain. Nominally, this is a comedy. But where's the humor?

A spoof on the movies, that looks at a growing movie, a revenge type movie and a buddy cop movie. Usually I open a review with a plot summary – with this film it would be pointless to try and summarise the plot in a meaningful way….the writers certainly couldn't do it!

Instead of a plot or a story we have three sketches that are only notable for how unfunny they manage to be. None of them manage to get beyond their original lazy setup, often they aren't even jokes – instead we are just given the situation and expected to find it funny. I never laughed once – not even a smile…..and I was in the mood for a silly spoof! The titles reveal what to expect – a childish, crude, rude and stupid focus.

The cast contains some `names' – Robert Culp, Christopher Lloyd, Rhea Perlman, Richard Widmark and a few others, but none do well. All of hamstrung by rubbish dialogue. It's almost sad to think that they made this film, thinking audiences would be roaring with laughter!

Overall this is absolute trash, it didn't get a cinema release and to me is the definition of pointless. Even by the low, low standards of the National Lampoon stable – this is rubbish.

This film was suppose to be the follow-up to ANIMAL HOUSE. But it sat on the shelf for a while and finally went straight to cable. As a longtime fan of National Lampoon magazine I was eager to see the film (the shelf period should have warned me). And when I finally did see it I was very disappointed. Aside for a few moments of gratuitous nudity, this film has nothing going for it at all. The 3 segments just lie there with no other purpose than to say "ha ,ha, ha isn't this funny". How they managed to get veteran actors Robert Culp and Richard Widmark to appear in this junk is beyond me. Lampoon has gone on to make other films. Some good ones (VACATION, CHRISTMAS VACATION) and some stinkers (CLASS REUNION, THE DON"S ANALYST, DAD'S WEEKEND OFF) but this film has to be the worst from a franchise that was once at the cutting edge of contemporary humor.