Going Greek

A modern day version of Animal House with all the funny antics of the Greek Fraternity and Sorority life on a college campus. Lots of laughs. The story goes well and is fun to watch. The film is well put together for a first time director Justin Zackham. The cast of characters work well together.

Let's get this straight up front: "Going Greek" does not deviate from the college-sex-party genre first established by "Animal House." Nor does it rise about fare like "Old School" or "American Pie." However, without the benefit of marquee names, "Going Greek" unearths a gem that is seldom found in most of the dredge released these days by National Lampoon: comedy. "Going Greek" is genuinely funny, with a fantastic no-name cast and terrific story to boot. If anything, the film is more akin to "PCU," another cult college film made way before Jeremy Piven joined an "Entourage" and John Favreau launched "Zathura."

And who knows? Maybe wider audiences will someday know the names Dylan Bruno and Dublin James.

Check it out.

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son.--Dean Wormer, "Animal House".

Movies like "Going Greek" show how really, really difficult it is to make another film as good and inspired as "Animal House".

First, you need to have a good script. This doesn't.

Then you need to have a funny cast. This doesn't.

Then add in an inspired director who can find and enhance the comedy. Justin Zackhan ain't it.

Maybe if the people watching this film are as trite, loud, drunk and stupid as the characters in it, they might find this film amusing, but I doubt it. I found "Going Greek" to be a sad, formulaic waste of time.

The makers of this movie should have known they were in trouble when they hired Chris Owens to be the tough guy, rather than the geek. Did they honestly think that viewers would think of him as anything other than a complete idiot? And I am not just basing it on the Sherminatior. I am basing it on the fact that he clearly is a complete geek. In reality, he would NEVER get in a fraternity (which REALLY makes a person sad.) let alone be one of the big men in it.

The rest of the movie was equally as poorly made. Predictable, unfunny, and just plain painful to watch. This movie is not worth even 5 minutes of the viewer's time.

Does this movie take itself seriously? Meaning, seriously as a comedy targeted on young audience? While I know the (self imposed) limitations of American campus comedy and know what to expect from such a movie, I must say, that only a few moments were worth a laugh (and I can take even cheesy or perverse jokes).

The point is, that many moments probably were meant to be laughed on, but in the same time they were pretty sad... Sad in a way, that the movie, without its end (that I don't want to reveal for those who might want to watch this movie "seriously" as it is) could be pretty illustrative sociological study of the American youth, or even of the birth of many specific pathological features of the American society.

Bearing all the possible inhumane hazing, torture, ridiculous rituals, laws of the mass, do-what-group-does mentality, declaring machismo and pure male chauvinism as "tradition", or self-destructive alcoholism as "culture" ... for what? "Being part of"? "Helping friend being part of"? The motivation of characters is not very believable - considering the amount of dignity they are willing to sacrifice, with absurd indifference.

With all this said, the movie might be pretty good serious study of the college fraternity mentality system - evoking the despair from any well-known tragedies, invoking lot's of anger in viewer. But in this sense, it lacks something like catharsis. One can see, how genre framing can deform our view of certain situations. We try to laugh on what is really a matter of anger and sadness.

Thus, one has a feeling, that all this inhumanity is just fun, part of wonderful students life, something to be consumed and laughed on ... and forgotten. As this movie should be.