I ragazzi dell'accademia militare

This 1980 title was part of the movies included in the "Toga Party" set put out by Brentwood. Having had viewed most of the others in the collection, I decided to watch this one because of Brian Kerwin (Torch Song Trilogy) and Cooper Huckabee (Funhouse). First person recognized is Ronnie Claire Edwards (The Walton's Corabeth Godsey) who plays Brad's (Kerwin) mother. Others in the cast is Stefan Furst and David Caruso but where the hell is he? He plays someone called Danny but I never could figure out which one he was. Anyway, it was an interesting flick with the exception of many blank spaces that looks like reel changes, so I decided to order the movie by itself, thinking there might be additional scenes that were deleted, and hopefully a better quality print. Guess what? Yes, the DVD I found was also released by Brentwood and is exactly the same - running time, blank spaces and C-grade quality. Had I known this copy was also from Brentwood, I would have saved money by not ordering. And for in-store sales promotion, they even put a more recent picture of David Caruso on the cover - hoping face and name recognition will entice people to buy.

I watched it when I was 18. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I hadn't gotten truly wasted up to that point. I went on to live a life, getting properly wasted as often as possible in my 20's.

I watched it again when I was about 35, I thought it was crap.

I was thinking about this film the other day, so it cannot be that bad. Made an impression on me at least.

I am 46 now. I no longer get wasted. I'd watch it again, for free, off the TV if it came round.

Be safe, kids. Keep it legal.

Plenty of wild-party-flicks came out in the wake of ANIMAL HOUSE, and GETTING WASTED -- trading college for a military academy -- co-stars Stephen Furst, literally the biggest geek in HOUSE and one of many pot-smokers here that are... well... GETTING WASTED (or more like pretty buzzed)...

And when new guy Brian Kerwin shows up in the bunkhouse... after being driven to the academy while Buffalo Springfield's counter-culture anthem For What It's Worth plays... he gets along with the local cadets instantly, especially cool guy Cooper Huckabee and second-string sidekick Ken Michelman...

What's lacking is tension, or anyone (or anything) to rebel against since the officers running the school are pointless, and during random excursions to the beach-dwelling exterior... the late-1970's pretending to be the late-1960's... there's one forced love interest, a couple of wacko acid-heads and a gang of 11th hour bullies...

Yet the good times still roll, even though -- backed by a jukebox of other classic-rock artists from Donovan and Canned Heat -- these kids are out to rebel anyway possible but... set during the generation when GETTING WASTED was commonplace... it's hard to tell the cadets from the hippies: or for their pivotal differences to matter.

I saw this one for the first and last time on late-night TV in 1987. This remark might be asking for it, but this movie was my answer to Animal House (which I never got too attached to). As far as I can remember it, a group of teenagers at a military academy ignore the faculty and the "gung ho" students, and make friends with a group of "hippies" (though they're more understated than the usual movie kind, which is why I use quotation marks). The one part I didn't like was a bizarre scene about a cat and a microwave (a famous urban legend, I think). Instead of being a dark comedy scene, it was a completely serious scene (as I remember), but EITHER WAY, it seemed pointless. (Although with an idea like that, serious is at least more ORIGINAL than comical, in spite of what people seem to think.) The main seriousness of the story had the characters dreading the idea of reaching draft age, especially with the other characters' influence. Another thing I do remember is that the "period" songs were worked into the movie in a pretty clever way, unlike countless period movies, which really POUR them on. (Like "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan during the banana smoking scene, which had some point to it.) The one character that really stays with me was one nicknamed "Choo-Choo", because his hobby was trying to sabotage the local train tracks. It was a kind of therapy, because he'd been a cadet himself, and he'd been tied to the tracks as a prank. I just saw in these listings that David Caruso was in it. I've never seen an entire "N.Y.P.D." or "C.S.I.", but hearing that is a whole other thing.

First time I saw this movie was late one night on a pay cable station, sometime in the mid-'80s. For much of the running time I thought I was actually watching a lost film from the late '60s! It's that authentic. Only the appearance of Stephen Furst from "Animal House" gives way the era this film was made in. All the actors are excellent in their portrayals. The action mostly centers on a group of military school cadets. It was obviously modeled after "Animal House" right down to the presence of Stephen Furst in a lead role, only without the sharp writing of that film. Or the budget. But that also works in this film's favor, lending it an authenticity, that like I said, had me fooled for a while. Watch this with "Purple Haze" for a taste of what the era was like.