Class Reunion

This movie is one of my favorites!

All of the characters are hilariously developed and the actors who play them do a wonderful job. I've loved this movie since I was a kid and every once in a while I quote from it or think of one of the characters (my favorite being Delores).

It's a shame that more people haven't heard of this movie. It's somewhat hard to find but if you seek it out it is well worth it!

If you're looking for unique characters, a twisted plot, and low brow laughs,than this is your movie. It's entertainment, pure and simple, and if you are a haughty critic that is looking for substance, please go elsewhere. Not everything can be "Jane Eyre"(but than again, "Jane Eyre" could never make you laugh). FUN MOVIE.

National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)

1/2 (out of 4)

Really awful horror-comedy starts off in 1972 when a man has a cruel prank played on him. Flash-forward ten-years and it's the high school reunion and before long people involved in that prank are being murdered.

Wow, what a really, really awful film this is. Obviously NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE was a huge hit and a flat-out masterpiece but this film crashed and burned with fans and critics and it's not too hard to see why. There are all sorts of problems with this movie but the biggest can be aimed at John Hughes screenplay. This was his first solo screenplay credit but I must say it's quite awful but thankfully he would quickly turn that around and it would lead to some classic comedies.

The biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It's obviously spoofing some of the slasher movies of the era but nothing is really done with this. You've got a killer with a paper bag over his head and that's it. The murder sequences are all bland and boring and there's certainly nothing creative going on. Even the comedy elements are a big disappointment because there's nothing creative going on here either. I mean, one of the running gags deals with a lunch lady picking up the food with her hands. Really? When you've got a "spoof" that isn't funny and doesn't have anything going for it you're just left with a dead movie that drags even with its short running time.

It should be noted that there aren't any Saturday Night Live members here. Gerrit Graham, Michael Lerner and Stephen Furst are all good actors but they're given very little to work with. There are a couple very small gags throughout the film but certainly not enough to keep you entertained. Chuck Berry shows up for a quick sequence but the film doesn't have any "fun" with him as he basically plays a couple songs and disappear.

All in all, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CLASS REUNION is a film that has pretty much been forgotten and it's easy to see why. The Lampoon guys would eventually get back on track but this film here is just a complete misfire from start to finish.

I remember seeing this on cable a year or so after it was released - maybe in 1983, when I was 13 - and even with my mindset back then I didn't think much of it. Mind you, back then I was watching all sorts of dumb movies back then. Slasher flicks, teen sex comedies, stupid gross-out b-movies. Heck, back then I found the 1981 movie Student Bodies amusing (still do). National Lampoon's Class Reunion always struck me as, at best, mildly amusing to my 13-year-old brain.

For some reason, I bought a VHS copy of it in the 1990's and continued to watch it once in a blue moon. Several years ago, I bought the Kino Lorber dvd release because I just HAD to have it finally in widescreen. But why?

I dunno. Although a very early slasher movie spoof, Class Reunion isn't gory in the least. Although rated R, Class Reunion far as I can remember doesn't have any rough language re: the f word. Nor does it have any nudity other than a brief side-boob shot.

What it does have are a lot of dumb jokes and a sensibility carried over from the 1970's Lampoon era. The characters include a couple of Cheech & Chong wannabe stoner-types who smoke dope and can't remember anything. One of the more memorable roles features Zane Busby playing a formerly handicapped student who made a deal with Satan to become not handicapped. Steven Furst (Flounder from Animal House fame) turns up as the class slob. One of his lines is "I see London, I see France, I see so-and-so's underpants"...I mean, it's literally that type of elementary school playground humor on display throughout the flick. Chuck Berry shows up and sings 'My Ding-a-Ling'...a couple of people in the cast I've seen in other movies featuring SNL alumni, but for the most part most of the cast are people I'd never seen before nor would go on to see in much else.

All I can say is that this lowest common denominator (and now in 2023 VERY dated movie regarding the humor) flick has inexplicably grown on me over the decades. Inexplicably meaning I'm at a loss to explain as to why since I STILL don't find it particularly amusing (it's not like I enjoyed it much 40 years ago and am giving it the ranking I am for the sake of nostalgia). In point of fact, it's fairly undistinguished in nearly every way...not violent in a gory way, not revealing in a horndog sense, mildly humorous at times at best. So, like I said, it's an R-rated horror spoof that neither scares nor amuses.

Must be some reason I've seen it perhaps 40 times over the last 40 years, but darned if I can figure out what that reason is.

Gerrit Graham is a great actor....but he can not star in a movie. Much like football, Gerrit has the talent to run the ball in for a touchdown but can't. However, he is a guarantee 3 points every game. Here, Gerrit is good but does nothing as the star of the movie. The entire cast has there moments, but nothing worth keeping your attention for an entire 90 minutes. The movie at times seems too low budget to be anything great like Animal House or Chritmas Vacation. The story is pure humor, nothing but quick and sometimes witty fart jokes that only make you laugh for a second or two. Nudity is added just for pure laughs, nothing terrific. All in all, it is a quick comedy with nothing to show for it. The movie starts out good with a potential story but ends quick and corny.