Jan. 07, 2003 - 2:19 pm
i saw a preview for this before one of the movies i've watched within the past week and thought, "man, i can't believe i've never seen Animal House." so i picked it up from the library. you constantly see references to this. especially if you've been a freshman in college and gone to one of those notorious poster sales. they incessantly have the poster of John Belushi with the word COLLEGE on his chest, and his face looking sort of baffled and scared.
this movie is a comedy about a fraternity that lives the epitome of crazy college life. getting drunk constantly, playing pranks, failing classes, sleeping with girls, and almost getting kicked out of school. it's written by Harold Ramis, so you know it's going to be hilarious at times. and then John Belushi plays a large role in the film as well. i don't think i'm really that familiar with John Belushi's work other than what little i've seen of the old SNL reruns. he's totally hilarious in this film though and steals the show from everyone else. yeah, the rest of it is funny, but it wouldn't be a film that matters if it weren't for him.
John Belushi is basically a big idiot that is constantly getting drunk and when he's not thinking about alcohol, he's thinking about women. he's basically a caveman. i think my favorite scene is where he's trying to cheer Flounder up after the car has been totaled. he doesn't say anything, just starts making goofy baby faces at him trying to get him to smile. then he crushes a beer can on his head. when that doesn't work, he grabs a glass bottle, opens his mouth in a wide smile, and smashes the bottle on the side of his own head...maintaining the smile throughout. that had me rolling. then there's the scene where he breaks the hippie guy's guitar when he's singing about his girl who "gave him a cherry that had no stone." he breaks the crap out of the guitar and says "sorry." and then shrugs his shoulders as if he didn't know what came over him.
this is definitely a classic comedy from film history that people love, and this one's actually justifiable. it seems like most of the time when i go back and watch "the great comedies" that i find listed in places, they're not really that funny to me. this one works though. i guess just in general it's hard to write a joke that will still be funny decades later. humor changes so rapidly. it's like technology. i would tend to think that comedy seems to be more circular though. maybe it's more like pop music than technology.