Class of 1984.

Review #2213: Class of 1984.

Cast: 

Perry King (Andrew Norris), Merrie Lynn Ross (Diane Norris), Timothy Van Patten (Peter Stegman), Stefan Arngrim ("Drugstore"), Michael J. Fox (Arthur), Roddy McDowall (Terry Corrigan), Keith Knight ("Barnyard"), Lisa Langlois (Patsy), Neil Clifford (Fallon), Al Waxman (Detective Stewiski), Erin Flannery (Deneen), David Gardner (Principal Morganthau), and Linda Sorensen (Mrs. Stegman) Directed by Mark L. Lester (#324 - Commando)

Review: 

"Class of 1984 was prophetic in terms of high school violence. I never imagined how disastrous that situation would become over the years. But at the beginning of the film, it does say that it's a warning to America: that this will be happening everywhere."

Sure, why not another movie involving punks. I suppose it makes sense to go with the film that helped pave the way for stuff like Firestarter and Commando. Cleveland native Mark L. Lester had graduated from Monroe High School in the San Fernando Valley before starting his career with a handful of B-movies directed such as Steel Arena (1973) before eventually getting to "less B-movie studio" stuff such as Roller Boogie (1979). Anyway, he had an idea for what became this film by a trip back to the Valley to see his old high school and what he saw from the students of the now. As such, he got Tom Holland to work on a first draft of what became the script before others came along. Lester, alongside Holland and John Saxton, were credited for the screenplay with Holland being credited for the story, although others such as Barry Schneider did work on the film (specifically punk dialogue) but requested no credit. Really the film is just inspired by the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, if crossed with a bit of A Clockwork Orange. Holland had been an actor in a variety of parts for the past decade before becoming a film screenwriter with this and The Beast Within in the same year of 1982. Eight years after the release of Class of 1984, Lester returned to write (alongside C. Courtney Joyner) and direct a follow-up with Class of 1999, albeit with a completely different cast and, uh, now featuring robots for teachers.

Sure, let's just assume the opening title card makes sense in calling the film "based partially on a true event". What we have here is a movie that basically takes things by the horns for a manic muddle of a time (94 minutes) that you can see coming in some of the beats that matter for a crime thriller with plenty of contradictions fit for its target in what it calls punks, complete with a performance by Teenage Head (after an opening song by Alice Cooper). As a production shot in Canada, you've got a mix of actors where McDowell (as the most experienced) ends up doing the best of the whole bunch, with Van Patten perhaps being just a bit above King in the second tier. There is just something quite curious that comes from a sequence involving McDowell getting students to learn biology in clearly the sanest way he believes possible: holding a gun to them, for which McDowell shows that he was not merely a guy there for show. King does fine with the material, but I find the descent (whether that means dealing with cops) far more interesting than the elements involving teaching or family. Go figure that the most noted actor among the youth was Fox (who had a handful of television appearances and exactly one film appearance before this) and not Van Patten, who does sell those times when one really wonders what kind of sociopath can play their hand in commanding attention. Granted, the group around him are not as particularly convincing, but I suppose that is how it goes when it comes to playing it simple with punks at the forefront of doing things for the sake of things (like making people take their clothes off or getting to stab folks in a ruckus).

Really the film rides on just how much you go with the ending. After a whole film of punks getting what they want as the goons they are, it goes right in to revenge flick for its climax, which at one point sees a guy getting his hand sliced off before a totally-not ironic title card for the ending. On the one hand, sure, totally sounds about right for a vigilante film. On the other hand, it really seems more appropriate to call it a movie where a man has been descended into a pit of hell by the punks that had been terrorizing him. It probably isn't a surprise that Lester is proud of his film to the point where he has called it "prophetic" in that aim to do Death Wish in a high school (and when it comes to punks among the society, 1983's Suburbia probably does it a tad better). I'm not sure how much of that belief is applicable when it comes to this film and the decades that followed its release, but regardless of that fact, the movie is mostly entertaining enough in the long run to inspire a look for being a boiling time for those interested in that sort of thing.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Meatballs.

Review #1846: Meatballs.

Cast: 

Bill Murray ("Tripper" Harrison), Harvey Atkin (Morty "Mickey" Melnick), Kate Lynch (Roxanne), Russ Banham (Bobby Crockett), Kristine DeBell (A.L.), Sarah Torgov (Candace), Jack Blum ("Spaz"), Keith Knight (Larry "Fink" Finkelstein), Cindy Girling (Wendy), Todd Hoffman ("Wheels"), Margot Pinvidic (Jackie), Matt Craven ("Hardware" Renzetti), Norma Dell’Agnese (Brenda), and Chris Makepeace (Rudy Gerner) Directed by Ivan Reitman (#026 - Ghostbusters, #031 - Ghostbusters II, #243 - Stripes, #487 - Twins, #1278 - Legal Eagles, and #1503 - Dave)

Review: 

Admittedly, it is the recognizable names that give the film more credit more than anything in the world. For one thing, the movie was written by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, Janis Allen...and Harold Ramis (Blum and Goldberg, like Reitman, had gone to camp as a kid). Ramis, if you remember correctly, was one of the writers for Animal House (1978), the mega-hit gross out comedy that happened to have Ivan Reitman as co-producer (friends of good films will remember that he actually started as a producer with Shivers four years prior) because his attempts at directing were turned down because of his lack of experience. Ramis stated later that he worked on Meatballs for just a month, being recruited as a script doctor by Reitman because he had a good relationship with Bill Murray, who Reitman wanted to star in a project that he raised a million dollars to make. Of course, Murray did not commit to actually showing up on set to film until the day they started shooting. All of these factors would result in a movie that ended up being the first major box office hit from the country of Canada (with distribution by Paramount Pictures), as made by John Dunning's Cinépix (which became Lionsgate Films years later). Reitman, who had directed two previous films with Foxy Lady (1971) and Cannibal Girls (1973), would see his career change forever because of the success of the film, with Reitman, Ramis, and Murray each working with each other on several films over the next couple of years. 

You don't have to beat around the bush here with this movie, it is just an okay experience buoyed by the talent of Bill Murray. Even saying it is the second cousin of Animal House is just window dressing to the fact that it just has a moderate amount of success with basic innuendo with all the stops one expects from a season of summer. Look, I never went to summer camp, but I think one could vicariously enjoy what they see from "movie camp", so there's a point. This is the kind of movie where "It just doesn’t matter if we win or we lose” can be a mantra with wry conviction, where the result doesn't matter because the experience is what counts at the end of the day (i.e. not losing is a win). Of course, Murray is the reason anyone will watch, because this is his spotlight. The Evanston native had been featured on The National Lampoon Radio Hour (1973-74) and Saturday Night Live (1977-80). However, this was his first feature film role that saw him get bigger and better roles (going from Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979) to Stripes (1981), for example). His rebellious persona is the spark of life the movie needs to make it work out the right way, because he is the only one that keeps your attention with how energetic he proves in the simple art of bucking the trends of the time; as Harold Ramis once put it, he is "an outcast by choice". His detached confidence is generally paired with Makepeace, who inhabits the usual aspects of the young adult movie with adequate timing. Granted, Atkin is an okay straight man for the rest to pick on, but they just use him for sight gags with him waking up in strange places more than anything, while Lynch just plays causal partner to Murray in the bare minimum of chemistry. The others fall in line with basic descriptions that go from the nerd to the awkward kid, et cetera, et cetera; no one does terrible there, mostly because it isn't hard to play a camper when Murray is right there. As a whole, this is an average movie, filled with predictable aspects that will remind one of refrigerated comfort food: if you're into what it wants, pop it in. Reitman and Murray would cultivate better things together that would use solid craftsmanship from its director and solid rebelliousness from its star for bigger and better things. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.