Screwball Academy

My review was written in July 1987 after watching the film on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

"Screwball Academy", its title having nothing to do with the film, is a weak example of the string of similarly monikered Canadian comedies vainly attempting to duplicate the success of the Bill Murray hit "Meatballs". Picture entered production in summer 1983 as "Loose Ends", with director John Blanchard credited at that time, though final credits attribute direction to "Reuben Rose", presumably a play on words on the production company Rose & Ruby).

Colleen Camp perks matters up a bit portraying a director fed up with advertising (which she finds exploitative) who ventures to Wagatno Beach to do a feminist low-budget feature film. Her efforts interfere with the plans of pop culture evangelist Bishop Wally (played by pic's co-producer Damian Lee with an intentionally phony-looking mustache) to flee to the island just ahead of federal investigators.

Requisite nerd for this attempted beach party film is Pete Spence as a 17-year-old brought up in Wally's Divine Light church.

Pic's satirical elements are weak and much of the material has become dated, as in references to 3-D filming (still cooking back in '83). Some extraneous nude footage (not involving any of the principal thesps) seems tacked on.

In the 1980s, Canadian B movie producers made a number of comedies with the word "ball" in their titles ("Screwballs", "Goofballs", etc.), this movie being one of them. Besides using the word "ball" in their titles, all these comedies had another thing in common - they were really bad. It's a real mess, as if production had to go ahead without getting the script ready first. The various plots are slow and rambling - it takes about a third of the movie before everything is set up, and there are long portions of the movie where characters are offscreen for an incredibly long time. The comedy is also pretty lame, more often than not being incredibly soft instead of being more aggressive. The movie is so lacking in punch you can't get hostile towards it - you will just sit there with a completely puzzled look on you face. By the way, there is no academy of any kind to be found in the movie.