Campus Man

"Campus Man" isn't quite sure what kind of a movie it wants to be. It appears to be a comedy at first glance but that is rather deceiving. In fact, it would've played a lot better if it had been more serious in tone. The "funny" parts are typical 80's cheesiness and aren't very witty. The plot involves an Arizona State University student who owes $10,000 in tuition and has 30 days to come up with it. He decides to produce a male athlete calendar in order to try and make enough money to pay his tuition and hopefully have some left over. Of course, things don't go exactly as planned and trouble ensues. Uneasy mix of comedy with some serious issues makes "Campus Man" an uneven disappointment. A harmless time filler, however, if you can catch it on TV. 3/10

I'm perhaps not as familiar with the works of Miles O'Keeffe as I should be,and really have seen moist of his work in the early part of the 80s.However,notice his character in this film.Correct me if I'm wrong,and it seems that quite a bit of his other,later film roles are duplicating this personna.Quiet,attentive,laconic,focused,intense,with a hostile edge.There's a persistent,if subtle menace to Cactus Jack.He's sexually magnetic,well-defined without being enormous,accurate,and a man of action and violence.Miles has turned into Clint Eastwood.

It would be hard to come up with a more innocuous film than this one (unless it were animated!) Inspired (somewhat) by a true story, it concerns Arizona State college student Dye trying to miraculously come up with $10,000 worth of tuition money in 30 days. Fortunately, for him, his roommate and long time friend (Lyon) is chin-on-the-floor attractive and is the star diver, complete with a rippled, sculpted body. He decides to create a pin-up calendar for women, featuring men from all the sports at ASU. However, he faces a few hurdles along the way, not the least of which is placating the mysterious man (O'Keefe) who lent him the start-up money. Meanwhile, magazine editor Fairchild has her eye on Lyon for her own reasons (surprisingly non-sexual ones!) The whole film is accented by a bouncy '80's soundtrack and a parade of atrocious, but fun clothes and hairdo's. Dye (who would later make a splash on "Touched By an Angel") is basically a poor man's Andrew McCarthy throughout, but has a few decent moments. Lyon is breathlessly pretty, but hopelessly bland. He often resembles a pumped-up James Van Der Beek. Wilhoite turns in her standard reliable, quirky performance. Delaney is called upon to do very little except be nice. Fairchild is expectedly campy, but surprisingly less bitchy than she's usually called on to be. She's a whirlwind of huge hair, ugly pastel make-up and monstrous, shoulder-padded get-ups. The film is very trite, pat and simple, but does manage to pull off a surprise or two. Much of the dialogue is rotten, though. The beefcake factor is mostly completed by Lyon who is frequently shown diving in his teensy swimsuit (the front of which is also coyly edited out or cropped out much of the time.) There is a montage of "hunky" (mostly moussed and pretty) models posing hilariously for the calendar and a shower sequence that shows the butts of two men that no one cares about. No one should be offended by anything in this movie, but also not very many people will be glued to the screen. It's very light, very good-natured and eventually, pretty forgettable.

If you're like me and really like movies from the '80s, this is a great choice! It's about a business student that gets the idea to produce a calendar full of guys & market it to the female population of the Arizona State University and beyond. It's a comedy throughout, but then gets sentimental towards the end, which makes for a different kind of teen comedy. The atmosphere, and characters of the movie are fun. As far as the fashion end of it, if you are looking for a movie that features some of the biggest, & most teased hair from the '80s, this movie will not fail to satisfy. Back in the '80s, I had never heard of this movie before, it seemed like it was released in limited markets. I caught it on TBS countless times in the early '90s & have recently added this fun '80s flick to my collection. It would be nice to see it released on DVD in the future.

Campus Man was a decent late 80s college flick. Todd Barrett, a lick, amateur businessman who, for some reason always tucked his pants into his socks, learns that he is denied a scholarship the day after the loan deadlines. He needs to come up with ten thousand dollars for tuition or risk getting thrown out (the financial counselor said the official term was expulsion...but doesn't that conjure up connotations of wrong-doing outside of defaulting on tuition?).

So, he decides to produce a calendar featuring some of the University's athletes, which he would then sell on campus. In order to do this, of course, he needs twelve thousand dollars as start-up capital. And, being unable to convince formal institutions to do this, a strange pool hall fellow of the name Cactus Jack (who advertises on phone booths of all things) lends him the money. What follows next is a series of misunderstandings and miscalculations that threaten his chances of paying back the rather irritable Cactus Jack, but also potentially ruining the diving career of his close friend, Brett Wilson.

'Campus Man' lacks some of the 80s predictability because it throws more curve balls than may be expected and at least strives for some creativity here and there. Although, the two leads (John Dye and Steve Lyon) sometimes got in these weird silent movies where they looked like they wanted to jump each other. But, there is a pretty steady pace of story, plus and excellent soundtrack (featuring Michael Sembello's "Rock Until You Drop" which some might from 'The Monster Squad').

Recommended for your lazy afternoon 80s viewing pleasure.