"Up the Creek" is a glorious entry in that genre known as the 1980s sex comedy. It's actually pretty funny at times, thanks to good gags in the script by Jim Kouf ("Stakeout"). It's got gorgeous gals (and bare breasts), likable heroes, priceless villains, and some very nice wilderness scenery. You really can't ask for anything more.
Some aging graduates of "Porky's" and "Animal House" play our leads, a bunch of indolent guys goofing their way through their protracted life at college. It turns out, they're the worst college students in the entire U.S. of A.! Their angry Dean (John Hillerman in a quick cameo) says that he will give them degrees PROVIDED that they win an all-important inter collegiate raft race that the Dean hopes will earn some respect for his place of higher learning.
Led by amiable lady's man Bob McGraw (Tim "Otter" Matheson), our heroes do battle with some cheating, conniving preppies (among them Jeff East of "Superman: The Movie") and some military school cadets commandeered by a vengeance minded nut (Blaine Novak) angry over being disqualified from the race.
Also along for the ride are Dan "Pee Wee" Monahan, Stephen "Flounder" Furst, lovely Jennifer Runyon ("Ghost Busters"), James Sikking ('Hill Street Blues'), Julia Montgomery ("Revenge of the Nerds"), and Jeana Keough ("The Beach Girls"). However, it's Jake the dog who easily steals the movie, especially in a delicious scene of charades. (You can tell that the dog is actually voiced by a human actor, in this case Frank Welker.) The movie opens brightly, as someone tries in vain to silence a chattery bird, and delivers enough titillation and, ultimately, outright destruction, to rate as a good time. It's hard to go wrong when the rocking title theme song is belted out by Cheap Trick. Everything is (mostly) comfortably predictable, and easy to take.
Eight out of 10.
