Getting Wasted

As one of the other commentators has mentioned, the first thing I thought of when I saw this film was POLICE ACADEMY. GETTING WASTED feels like a dry run for that '80s classic: it involves the rookie cadets at a military academy involving themselves in '60s counter culture and the usual sex and drugs of that decade.

It's also an unsurprisingly forgotten film, unsurprising because in reality it isn't very good. The jokes and humour are lame and predictable, and none of the characters are well defined or particularly likable. There are no big name actors or future stars here, just a mess of folk who never aspired to greatness.

I was also surprised at how restrained this film is. Comedies from this era are usually raunchy and padded out with copious nudity from the ladies, but there's none here (unless the version I saw was edited for TV). The drug jokes are tame and there's no real plotting or drama; just a series of loosely-linked situations playing out for supposed laughs that never transpire.

Great, if you like low budget cult like trash and the like. Generally adolescent humour. Check it out if you can. I've watched it a couple of times, taped off tv, and I would watch it again. I thought it was funny!

Although there was several scenes of casual drug use here, the title seems off putting. The story concerns itself with teen Brian Kerwin being one last chance by going to a strict military school. Of course, a lot of his fellow students are more interested in goofing off than in discipline, setting up the comic scenes, including an elaborate scene of the boys trying to get high by smoking bananas. It's obvious influence is "Animal House"-it has Stephen Furst as the overweight loser-with added crudity and toilet humour, which are drawbacks. But where it scores is in the creation of the last 1960s. The treat of Vietnam is brought up a few times, and the general feeling of discontent is evident, personified in the hippie girl Kerwin befriends. She and her far our pals provide a tie-dyed contrast to the straitlaced academy. And then there's the music. Beginning with "For What It's Worth", every tune is a classic. Even the live band at a party have soundalikes for Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. Will a little more care, this could have been a winner. One clunker of a scene involves a cruel joke about a dog in a microwave, totally incongruous and unfunny. Apart from that, this has many worthy scenes, and a pretty good cast

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.

Despite a low budget, this no frills unpretentious made-for-TV movie I found to be very enjoyable. It's silly and mad-cap. I found it refreshing when I watched it on a late night satellite channel. It's a pity there aren't more like this.

The cast gel together well and the direction and editing are reasonably slick. It was produced at a time when made-for-TV movies were often better than what was at the box-office.

Don't listen to those who say it's a load of rubbish - it isn't! It captures the period nicely and there is a clever use of some of the best songs of the time. I'd like to get the DVD, but it doesn't do the movie justice by all accounts.