Rebeldes da Academia

back in my high school days in Salina Kansas, they filmed something called "The Brave Young Men Of Weinberg" locally, and the film crews were rather prominent for weeks. eventually, we learned that the film was "Up The Academy", and was a bit ummm, "lower brow" than we had been led to believe.

I had to see it, since I was there, and the local audiences seemed less than pleased at the showing. I was 17, and thought it was a rather artless attempt at a post "Animal house" type of comedy, right down to the fart jokes.

Watched it many times since, and my opinion has mellowed a bit. it's dumb, but at times it catches a bit of the "mad" magazine humor, at least as well as most "Mad TV". Ron Liebman might hate it, but he is nearly perfect, and unforgettable. For me, my favorite moment would have been a brief scene on Santa Fe avenue, where I had parked my car, while I was buying some guitar strings. Too bad my Pinto's brief appearance, usually seems to get cut for TV. haven't seen the new DVD, but if my old pinto is visible, they've got a sale.

A stale "misfits-in-the-army" saga, which half-heartedly attempts to be both surreal (the foreign subtitles) AND vulgar (the flatulence gags), but just ends up being a mix of many different kinds of humor, none of them followed very successfully. Barbara Bach, the Bond Girl from "The Spy Who Loved Me", has only two or three brief scenes. What a waste! (*1/2)

Okay, go back almost 40 years and I would say this was hilarious, but we all mature into adulthood, and this movie sunk into the abyss yet not totally wrecked.

We meet The Karate Kid (Ralph Macchio) for the first time here, but the rest of the cast...except Ron Leibman, Stacey Nelkin, Tom Poston, and Ian Wolfe...have all vanished from existence, or Planet Hollywood. So that must have been the reason why the movie is so unfunny today. Teenage sexual angst just doesn't turn me on, slightly worth a ha! anymore. Now I know too why Leibman excised his name from the credits...he "stood out like a turd in a punchbowl"! - do you blame him?.

Again, rack this as one of the funny ones that went unfunny over age and time.

I saw "Mad Magazine's Up the Academy" when it was first released in 1980. Just after I saw it, I read that the editors and publisher of Mad Magazine disowned the flick. In fact, I understand that the scenes of the guy in the Alfred E. Newman outfit have been cut from the movie. Also I read that supporting player Ron Leibman was so disgusted with the movie he had his credit removed. This movie had high school kids masturbating in the classroom, references to "hot beef injection" and many, many, MANY other scatological and sexually perverse goings on. Its nonsensical filth disgusted everyone who saw it in 1980.

In other words, "Up the Academy" was a visionary creation, 20 years ahead it's time.

Of course, this certainly doesn't mean it was any good.

I remember seeing the ads for this on TV and thinking it looked hilarious but unfortunately I couldn't see it due to the fact I was too young. So like a lot of movies that were denied me at a young age, I made it my mission to see it later on in life. Some of those movies, like, "The Life of Brian" and "Videodrome" were worth waiting for. Unfortunately others, like this one, weren't. And you know it's bad when Mad Magazine, the people that made it, put a large disclaimer in their magazine that they disavowed it. It was so poorly received that I don't think it ever got a proper release to home video and when movies like "Queen Kong" got a proper release, you know this one was destined for the junk pile of history.

There's an.... art to making sophomoric movies and it doesn't involve just putting a whole bunch of stereotypes into a blender and hoping what comes out is good. Take a look at "Animal House" which is an apt comparison as that's what they were going for. It's considered a classic in part to the actors that took part in it but also the direction, the script and the fact that they didn't try to do too much with it. This movie however just seems to want to throw everything they can at the screen and hope that something works.

Four boys are sent to a military academy all for different reasons and shenanigans ensue. There's the barber that just so happens to be blind giving bad haircuts. There's one of the officers that happens to be gay and like young boys. There's the sexy female instructor that teaches them about armaments in very sexual terms. In other words they tried really hard to be "Animal House" but didn't get hat made that movie the success it was.

In short this is a bad movie made to cash in on a more successful movie but without knowing how to do it in the first place.