Up the Academy

When you have a comedy franchise as massive as Mad magazine, it seems that surely there must be some movie they could get out of it. This is that movie and it ended up being the only movie that ever had the Mad name on it. Actually, it doesn't even count as that. The creators of Mad magazine did in fact have their names removed from this film and have disowned it. I remember reading about this on Cracked.com where it said one of the movie's main jokes is that there's a pedophile. They honestly must not have seen the whole thing as that's barely in the film at all.

The creators admitted that it was influenced by "National Lampoon's Animal House", another movie based on a comedy magazine. At least their magazine didn't last as long. The movie mostly suffers from having really unlikeable characters and dumb jokes. The general guy farted twice and didn't even do it a third time! I've still seen far worse movies and I wish the creators of those ones would disown them too. I just saw no satire or parody factor in this at all. *1/2

This is an early "gross-out" movie, where most of the comedy comes from kids going through puberty. It is kind of a teenager soft-core porno spoof without sex or nudity. It is a bit offensive and a bit gratuitous, but not that much to be upset or satisfied with it.

I liked the irrelevance of it. It doesn't bother to attack the idea of a military academy, but just treats it as an absurdity from the beginning. I like the fact that it doesn't have any kind of sentimental development where the kids learn to appreciate their school at the end.

Unfortunately, the plot is pretty mindless with four diverse students defending themselves against a rather bullying and vicious militaristic instructor (Ron Leibman). The best moments are just absurd, fast gags that are justpointless and silly. For example, Barbara Bach wears a loose fitting shirt that almost shows her nipples as she instructs students in handling military weapons. We never learn why she would want to turn on her male students in this way, but we do see the students panting and there is the suggestion that they are masturbating. Obviously, this is a male fantasy with little possibility of ever happening in reality.

I think it is sad that the film was so poorly received that it effectively ended Robert Downey Senior's feature film-making career. He does direct with a carefree, fun style and makes the best out of a mediocre script. A film he did about a dozen years after this, "Hugo Pool" is much better and worth seeing.

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.

I used to LOVE this movie as a kid but, seeing it again 20+ years later, it actually sucks. Up The Academy might have been ahead of it's time back in 1980, but it has almost nothing to offer today! Movies like Caddyshack and Stripes hold-up much better today than this steaming dogpile. No T&A. No great jokes except for the one-liners we've all heard a million times by now.

I recently bought the DVD in hopes that it would be the gem I remembered it being. Well, I was WAY off! The soundtrack had only 2-3 widely-recognizable hits (not the smash compilation others had mentioned) and the frequent voice-overs were terrible. The only thing that was interesting, to me, was predicting what the character's lines were before they said them. Yep, I watched this movie that much back then!

The only reason I am writing this review is to give my two cents on why this movie should be forgotten, sorry to say. :(

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.