16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Your kids will probably be bored, March 17, 2007
This review is from: Ultimate Summer Break DVD Giftset (DVD)
I realize that this batch of films is aimed at older teenagers and college kids, not adults over the age of 25. However, you can probably do much better picking out films your kids will watch than this collection. That's not to say that there aren't some great yet silly films in the batch, because there are. Next I describe each film in descending order of quality.
UHF (1989) - This is a great film starring Weird Al Yankovic as a directionless young man whose uncle gives him a rundown TV station to manage. His unconventional programming turns things around for himself and the station.
Cooley High (1975) - This is a great film for all ages, and was the basis for the sitcom "What's Happening", although it only faintly resembles it. It is set in south-side Chicago in the mid 60's, and concerns a group of high school friends that have numerous comic encounters, but there is also some tragedy involved in the plot.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) - The first one was very funny and fresh, and Keanu Reeves will always be Ted as far as I'm concerned, even if he winds up doing Shakespeare at some point. The plot concerns two slackers who are about to fail history that are given some help from a time traveller from the future. The only problem is that it is so steeped in 80's pop culture that your kids may not get half the jokes.
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) - The second one is still funny, it just seems to try harder and not get quite the same comic effect as the first.
The rest of the movies are under the National Lampoon label.
Dorm Daze (2003) - One of National Lampoon's better college farce movies, with the plot set up by a series of silly misunderstandings. The closest thing you're going to get to "Animal House" 25 years after the fact.
Going the Distance (2004) - A Canadian version of Roadtrip. This movie was better than I expected, with a lot of good interaction between the main characters, but still not that great even for a teen farce.
Class Reunion (1982) - This movie had all the ingredients to be funny, but it just bored me, even in 1982. Top that off with all of the 80's and even 70's pop culture references, and I don't think it would do much for today's kids.
The last three movies are just awful - "Movie Madness", "Gold Diggers", and "Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj". I won't even bother to describe them. When I say they're bad, I'm saying they are boring and completely unfunny. If you force your kids to sit through these three films as part of their summer break, they'll be looking forward to going back to school.
The end result is you have three good to excellent films that are all older movies, four mediocre to OK films, and three horrible movies. I think you can do much better at entertaining your older teenagers/college kids than this collection.
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