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218 comments in total

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83 out of 90 people found the following comment useful :-
Often imitated, never duplicated., 25 May 1999

Author: Hermit C-2 from Marietta, GA, USA

You'll have to excuse me and some of the other proponents of 'National Lampoon's Animal House' if we seem a little defensive about the movie. That's because it's often not recognized as the superior comedy classic that it is. Instead, too often it is lumped in with the multitude of inferior films that it inspired, which is totally unfair.

Some of the conventional wisdom about 'Animal House' is absolutely right, though. John Belushi does give a bravura performance that is reminiscent of the great comics before him like Chaplin, Keaton (Buster, not Michael), the Marx Brothers, etc., and he does it with a wonderful economy of words. His character of "Bluto" Blutarsky is often emulated and imitated but many times the persons doing so have no idea what it was that made him and his performance so great.

Tim Matheson as "Otter" and his other frat house buddies were also prototypes that were much imitated too, and again often without success. Otter was the quintessential smooth talker, always working an angle on everybody, especially the ladies. When a woman tells him that his lovemaking wasn't that great, he cocks his head, points a finger at himself and mouths the words, "not great?" in mock disbelief. Before Tom Hanks got "Big" he made a career out of playing this character. Also John Vernon set a standard for straight men with his portrayal of the beleaguered Dean Wormer, plagued by his "zoo fraternity."

Not all of the movie's humor aims low, by any means; some of it is quite sophisticated. (Yes, you read it right.) The screenwriters and director John Landis did a great job evoking Kennedy-era America and they found a lot to laugh at. This comedy is an unqualified classic by the simplest definition-- it makes you laugh, long and loud.

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84 out of 116 people found the following comment useful :-
If your review is too long...., 15 July 2004

Author: dchristrev from El Segundo, CA

you probably don't like teen sex comedies anyway. If you write more than 10 lines about this classic, you are taking it way too seriously. This is the King of Teen Sex Comedies, period. Anything that follows is/was a pretender or copycat. And I'll never understand why someone would spend so much time and space critiquing a film they don't like, from a genre they obviously don't appreciate. Virtually every actor plays his part realistically. I still get a huge kick out of Belushi's speech about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor. Or "Do you mind if we dance with yo dates? Or "mine is bigger....my cucumber." Lots of classic lines. Just enjoy it!

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49 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
What started it all- and still the best, 3 June 2000
Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

This is the best college comedy ever made. Nothing has ever come close to comedic perfection, and never will again. The early bird director John Landis directs this film into greatness bringing stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce, Mark Metcalf and Donald Sutherland to the screen in brilliance. True, this film is just about a bunch of misfits defying authority in a campus of 1962, but that's what makes it so good, and original. Belushi, Metcalf, and others bring many of the laughs here, but it is mainly it's reputation that brings this film into hilarity. A landmark in cinema comedy. By the way, screenwriters Harold Ramis and Chris Miller originally were going to make this a film about Charles Manson called Laser Orgy Girls, so thank god Douglas Kenney came in and straightened this out to the right part.

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52 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
Blueprint movie, 8 January 2005
Author: jlon from Dublin

The inspiration for all of those Road Trip/American Pie/Old School movies. DVD review.

A group of no-grade students gets kicked out of college only to seek revenge on the Provost.

Seminal comedy from the '70s that contains one hilarious scene after another. Not that this makes any sense and the story is practically non-existent. Lovely Allen is the female student waiting for her irresponsible boyfriend to grow up. Sutherland is the couldn't care less English teacher. Furst is the fat guy who gets picked on because of his size. Belushi is the mad but tragic character to be found on his own at parties, trying to grab attention. Hulce is the new entrant to the fraternity who gets involved with a thirteen-year old girl! Vernon is the spiteful college head who kicks the heroes out. Bloom is his sexy wife who gets involved with one of the students. There's also Otis Day and his Knights playing a great version of "Shout". Practically every scene from this movie has been ripped off by recent comedies.

Animal House is the original and the best.

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38 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
Laughs are on the "House"...., 24 August 1999

Author: George Litman from Marietta, OH USA

Every successful movie has its myriad clones and imitators, but none of them ever come close to what made the original so good.

That's certainly true of "Animal House".

The laughs are all solid, especially when the main focus is in toppling the stoic pillars of decency and normality with a battle cry of "food fight!".

Pledges Pinto (Hulce) and Flounder (Furst) are good soldiers, making us laugh with their desire to fit in at first then, finally, to succumb to the madness and pillage and destroy with the other Deltas, led by Bluto (Belushi), who waylays all in his path.

No subsequent attempt to cash in on the "Animal House" success has ever made good in toppling the once and future king of the mountain. Who has ever come close to creating a creature as lovably destructive as Bluto Blutarsky? What other college movie's dean ever made Dean Wormer seem like an easygoing, laid-back guy? What college movie scene comes close to the introduction of the Deltas? The toga party? The horse in the Dean's office? The road trip? The final parade? The....

Well, space is limited but you get the idea.

Ten stars, and a crushed-beer-can-on-the-forehead salute to all involved with the subversive garbage that is "Animal House".

More power to you.

And remember, knowledge is good.

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34 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
This one gets a 4.0 for sure!, 1 May 2004

Author: pendragon679 (pendragon679@earthlink.net) from North of Columbus, OH

John Landis's directorial debut, and John Belushi's first starring role make this screw-ball comedy about college life in the early 60's a must-see. I saw this picture for the first time when it was released to theaters and laughed my buns off; it still holds up today, almost 30 years later.

Every actor in the show gives a bravura performance, with stand-out debuts by the likes of Thomas Hulce, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Bruce Davidson, and others. In addition, there's a sense throughout the picture that we all knew these guys at one time or another in our lives. Shoot, I think I may have BEEN one or two of these guys at some point in my life. Of course, the picture revolves around Belushi's terrifically over-the-top Bluto Blutarsky; but you simply can't ignore characters like Boone, Otter, Niedermeyer, Gregg Marmalade, and my personal favorite, D-Day.

The writing on this picture is really far better than the loosely-structured plot first indicates. Each character is introduced neatly at their entrance; and, by extension, the other characters are set up by the entrances of their surrounding characters. For instance, when we first meet Belushi's character, he's holding a schooner of beer in one hand and drunkenly taking a leak on the Delta Tau Chi lawn. Right away, we know what the rest of these guys are going to be like. Then, when D-Day makes his entrance, driving his hawg through the front door and up the stairs to play the William Tell Overture on his throat before pulling a beer out of his jacket and popping the top, our fears are confirmed. Meanwhile, we get to meet the uptight, repressed, and mildly facsist other frat through similar vignettes. Kevin Bacon is particularly hilarious in his initiation ("Thank you, sir! May I have another?").

John Landis made his debut with this picture, and what a debut it was! His camera follows each of the characters and events at near breakneck speed, giving the audience little time to recover from one laugh before getting slapped in the head with another. Lots of natural lighting, and sharp, steady pacing with smooth transitions keep the story moving. Refreshingly, the film doesn't rely on over-the-top special effects to hold our attention. Then again, is there really any place for SFX in a picture like this?

The whole picture is one long laugh, from beginning to end. If you're a college grad, you'll forget what it was really like to have to work hard, study, and generally bust your tail to graduate. If you haven't yet gone to college, this picture will give you all the wrong ideas. On the other hand, you've gotta see this one, if for no other reason than to learn all the right (and wrong) things to do at a college party.

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33 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Maybe Can't Really Be Appreciated Anymore, 11 November 2002
Author: pattersonsmith

If you have only seen this movie on TV, you have not really seen this movie. One of the best movie experiences of my life was seeing this movie in the theater with a full house of college students. I have never heard an audience laugh so hard, and I was laughing with them. That experience can never be recaptured. I don't know why this movie doesn't make the midnight movie tour in college towns. That way it might have some of the same impact. Also when it came out in 1978 it is hard to explain how big John Belushi was unless you were there and saw it first hand. It's still funny on the small screen, but only if you see it uncut. Never watch it on a network, they cut out most of the jokes!

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27 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
National Lampoon's finest cinematic moment., 18 December 2001

Author: jckruize from North Hemis

Tasteless, politically incorrect and absolutely laugh-out loud hilarious, with a cast that's a Who's Who of later stars, including Peter Riegert, Tom Hulce, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Kevin Bacon, etc.

It's bittersweet watching the brilliance of John Belushi in this, his finest hour. Every twitch of his beady eyes, every jiggle of his mighty beer belly, every line of dialogue delivered with just the right amount of bluster or sneering sarcasm -- this guy was a bona-fide comic genius. He was taken from us far too soon.

Director John Landis orchestrates the escalating hi-jinks with masterful comedic precision, Elmer Bernstein contributes a very funny mock-grandiose score, and veteran character actor John Vernon provides a wonderful arch-villain as the toweringly evil Dean Wormer.

There are almost too many comic highlights; pick your own favorite. My candidates: Bluto's rousing speech about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor, Pinto's Good & Bad Consciences battling over whether he should take advantage of his passed-out date, and Otter picking up the dean's wife in the supermarket vegetable aisle.

Watch for co-writer Doug Kenney as 'Stork', suspected of brain damage. Another Saturday Night Live alumnus, along with Belushi and Harold Ramis, he died in a hiking accident in Hawaii not too long after the movie's release. Heartfelt thanks to him and Belushi, as well as everyone else involved in this classic, for providing us with so many laughs.

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22 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Sick, depraved, juvenile, disgusting, lewd, perverted......, 24 June 2000

Author: Sonatine97 (sonatine97@hotmail.com) from Birmingham, England

Yep, it must be Animal House!

The classic frat comedy of all time. A simple story of college life for a bunch of delinquents who seek solace with a an endless supply of beer, toga parties and loads of young girls.

It doesn't matter that the Delta House (the home of said delinquents), continually fail to pass their exams, for them sex & booze is all what life is about.

The movie is a perfect vehicle for Saturday Night Live star, John Belushi, who is allowed to show off his considerable talent as the biggest sicko of the Delta bunch - check out his impression of a Zit!!

But he is well supported by Tom Hulce, and surprisingly Donald Sutherland as the hippy professor with wayout theories.

Able actor, John Vernon, plays the Principle of the college and often the butt of the Delta House: finding a horse in his office is a classic piece of farce!

All in all, the film hangs together very well with a good script and superb visual jokes. John Landis must have a wild college life himself when he made this.

***/*****

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
This is what started all the movies like Old School, 26 October 2005

Author: observationalist from United States

Animal House was the milestone that instigated movies like Old School, and it is still (and most likely aways will be) the best. I am not saying that Old School and the like were bad, they were fantastic comedies, but Animal House was the original.

All the characters are eccentric and drunken maniacs, and the adventures of their fraternity are hilarious. I don't have much to say about this movie, but it must be seen to understand where i am coming from.

the only other thing i have to say is that I wish that John Belushi could have done more besides the few other films he was in. He died too soon, he had himself one good career going.

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