Post by StevePulaski on Jan 31, 2017 13:40:49 GMT -5
National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)
Directed by: Michael Miller
Directed by: Michael Miller
The high school class of 1972 holds a reunion ten years later in National Lampoon's Class Reunion.
Rating: ★★½
The first thirty minutes of National Lampoon's Class Reunion feel like a high school reunion if they were more emotionally honest. The opening credits prompt some of the most consistent laughs in the film, as we watch a yearbook's pages turn to the often vulgar nicknames, descriptions, and accolades obtained by members of the Lizzie Borden High School Class of 1972. What unfolds is meeting these goofy societal rejects as they speak openly and honestly with one another in a way you've only dreamed of mouthing off to past loves, old bullies, and friends you forgot you had.
The remainder of Class Reunion, unfortunately, isn't as funny as the first act suggests. The film marks the first screenplay written by John Hughes, who would go on to write such cherished classics as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and many other films that would likely nudge this particular one far out of his memory. Hughes ostensibly finds himself self-conscious about his initially dialog-driven screenplay falling prey to boredom, as he tries to invite horror and mystery elements into the picture late in the game that do not work. It's a film that winds up having three genres fighting for insufficient time to be adequately conceptualized.
The film revolves around the classmates of Lizzie Borden High School, as they mingle in 1982, ten years after their graduation. One of the constants at the party is the bougie yacht salesman Bob Spinnaker (Gerrit Graham), whose snide remarks work to offend or agitate most of the partygoers. There's the famous "class-tease" Bunny Packard (Miriam Flynn), who still finds her way with the men, poor Gary Nash (Fred McCarren), who can't get anyone to remember his name, and the plain but accomplished Cindy Shears (Misty Rowe). Hughes draws these recognizable stereotypes just the way they should be and that's broadly and uncharacteristic outside of a sentence-long explanation. Not only does this material work best for a satire, but if you're going to make a comedy revolving around high school reunions, you might as well stick to the simplistic in the way of characters to make connections and dialog more biting.
At first, it seems that's all Hughes wants to do. He pairs these unlikely and unsavory characters up with one another and it's as if he's writing the dialog as they're speaking it. He creates a surreal environment unlike any I can think of, and under the National Lampoon umbrella, it fits the company's 70s-centered thesis of being a pop culture and humor staple quite well. But when Hughes brings in Walter Baylor (Blackie Dammett), the unstable class alum who was left tormented by the senior prank a decade ago, the body count begins as Walter plans to off the class of 1972 that rendered him so emotionally scarred.
It's at this point where Hughes and director Michael Miller seem very desperate for events to occur. The dry-wit and wry sensibilities of the screenplay was getting to be a bit too much, and a darker, less formidable Animal House needed to take place as a result. With the introduction of this plot, the film begins to meander more than it did, trying to balance out its brand of comedy with horror elements and ultimately not succeeding as well as it could. This is because Class Reunion already had a great premise and approach from the opening minutes; it didn't need the Walter Baylor subplot, and consequently, suffers because of it.
It's wild, it's crazy, it's cult-favorite material, but it's not always solid comedy.
National Lampoon's Class Reunion belongs to a bygone era where party movies and ribald comedies, even in their most manic, still had a bit of a mannered quality to their premises. Consider Porky's, which balanced its raucousness with a bit of character-interest in the beginning, while Class Reunion favors verbal banter over shock and awe, at least for the first half hour. The drawback to the latter is that it doesn't stick to what it so effortlessly articulates, but if nothing else, I feel it made Hughes trust his instincts in his future projects. And look at him now.
Starring: Gerrit Graham, Fred McCarren, Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst, Shelley Smith, Michael Lerner, Chuck Berry, Misty Rowe, and Blackie Dammett. Directed by: Michael Miller.