Campus Man

It would be hard to come up with a more innocuous film than this one (unless it were animated!) Inspired (somewhat) by a true story, it concerns Arizona State college student Dye trying to miraculously come up with $10,000 worth of tuition money in 30 days. Fortunately, for him, his roommate and long time friend (Lyon) is chin-on-the-floor attractive and is the star diver, complete with a rippled, sculpted body. He decides to create a pin-up calendar for women, featuring men from all the sports at ASU. However, he faces a few hurdles along the way, not the least of which is placating the mysterious man (O'Keefe) who lent him the start-up money. Meanwhile, magazine editor Fairchild has her eye on Lyon for her own reasons (surprisingly non-sexual ones!) The whole film is accented by a bouncy '80's soundtrack and a parade of atrocious, but fun clothes and hairdo's. Dye (who would later make a splash on "Touched By an Angel") is basically a poor man's Andrew McCarthy throughout, but has a few decent moments. Lyon is breathlessly pretty, but hopelessly bland. He often resembles a pumped-up James Van Der Beek. Wilhoite turns in her standard reliable, quirky performance. Delaney is called upon to do very little except be nice. Fairchild is expectedly campy, but surprisingly less bitchy than she's usually called on to be. She's a whirlwind of huge hair, ugly pastel make-up and monstrous, shoulder-padded get-ups. The film is very trite, pat and simple, but does manage to pull off a surprise or two. Much of the dialogue is rotten, though. The beefcake factor is mostly completed by Lyon who is frequently shown diving in his teensy swimsuit (the front of which is also coyly edited out or cropped out much of the time.) There is a montage of "hunky" (mostly moussed and pretty) models posing hilariously for the calendar and a shower sequence that shows the butts of two men that no one cares about. No one should be offended by anything in this movie, but also not very many people will be glued to the screen. It's very light, very good-natured and eventually, pretty forgettable.

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

Need I say more

If you're like me and really like movies from the '80s, this is a great choice! It's about a business student that gets the idea to produce a calendar full of guys & market it to the female population of the Arizona State University and beyond. It's a comedy throughout, but then gets sentimental towards the end, which makes for a different kind of teen comedy. The atmosphere, and characters of the movie are fun. As far as the fashion end of it, if you are looking for a movie that features some of the biggest, & most teased hair from the '80s, this movie will not fail to satisfy. Back in the '80s, I had never heard of this movie before, it seemed like it was released in limited markets. I caught it on TBS countless times in the early '90s & have recently added this fun '80s flick to my collection. It would be nice to see it released on DVD in the future.

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. (*)

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.