Customer Reviews

Up the Academy [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of those obscure but hilarious movies from the 1980's that was only seen on late-night cable, or in very badly edited form on the USA Network, with "Student Bodies" or "Jekyll And Hyde Together Again". I remember wanting to see this on video, as I noticed that Ralph "The Karate Kid" Macchio was one of the guys on the box (and I was only ten!). Watching it, this was one of the funniest movies I had ever seen, and though it's pure corn, it's still an unsung piece of treasure from that era.
By the way, the 1987 video reissue is the original cut of the film, with the "MAD" Magazine and Alfred E. Neuman references still intact (they were excised in certain prints of the film). One other weird thing is that Ron Liebman wanted his name taken off the film, but the movie isn't THAT bad! Also, one interesting quirk is that at the end of the movie, the credits scroll down the creen, instead of up (the only other I can think of that does this is "Repo Man").
For the guy who wanted to know whatever became of Stacey Nelkin, she's lately been doing cartoon voice-overs and stuff like that. Her being in some very bad movies after this one (notably "Halloween III", "Going Ape" and "Yellowbeard") surely didn't do much for her career, which was a shame, as she was a major hottie in this one. I especially like when she's wearing that haremoutfit, but the part where she takes off her top is really nice (hotcha!).
So, if you want something that's hilarious, bawdy, offensive and just pure cheesy early 80's fun, get this!

This movie was a howl!Whenever I encountered any diffaculty in my 6 years in the R.O.T.C/National Guard I would always think back to this flick for comic relief.Major Von Liceman was hilarious!This movie had a great soundtrack too,and was way ahead of its time.

This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. There's not much more to say. The other reviews are dead on about this one. I just wish it was on dvd!

This was a great peice of work that kept me laughing and quoteing lines for days. I also have to say that it was filmed in and around my home town. The gas station attendent, Chester, is the sheriff in my home town. Great work Ken!

yeah, well it's stupid and immature... but it's a fun movie. I'll watch it over and over just to catch 3 or 4 of my favorite scenes. the best gimmick is the wind blowing every time Leibman's character is approaching. the person who produced this movie must have been high at the time, but i thank him for the times my friends and i could gather around the television at 3am and enjoy a good laugh. it also has a pretty rockin late 70's soundtrack.

I would say that without a doubt, this is the best movie ever made. It is hilarious from start to finish and it has a little bit of everything. So many hilarious lines I can only name a few: "SAY IT AGAIN! " - "DOIN' THE BEST I CAN SGT. PATTY!" - AND RODNEY VERVEGARD, ENOUGH SAID! With characters such as Maj. Vaughn Liceman, Rodney Vervegard, and Sgt. Patty, it amazes me that this movie has such a bad rap. It should have been an Oscar contender in my opinion. 5 STARS!

It's great, I love it! This is a comedy classic that belongs on the top shelf with Animal House, Caddyshack, Airplane, Yellowbeard, Kentucky Fried Movie, Vacation, and Used Cars. Up The Academy is loaded with non-stop one-liners and gags, and it never slows down. Certainly one of the top ten funniest movies ever, in my opinion.

There are lots of funny movies around but this one "stands out like a turd in a punchbowl"! This movie has so many great one liners that you can't count them all. And the use of stereotypes is so blatant that a movie like this couldn't be made today without severe repraisal from the PC police. "Something About Mary" comea close, though. The zeal with which Ron Liebman plays the part of evil camp commandant Maj. Vaughn Liceman is a wicked delight! I admit I may be biased towards this movie as it holds a certain feel and nostalgia for my high school days of the early eighties. And, hey, the soundtrack can't be beat. The action moves along quickly as the boys scheme their way to liberation from the evil commandant. You can feel the suspense (and laughter) buliding towards the climatic soccerfield scene. I will never get tired of this movie. Jim-Bob says "check it out"!

After National Lampoon's success with Animal House (1978), MAD Magazine tried its hand in movies with this film, titled Up the Academy (1980). The Result? It was considered so bad MAD Magazine's founder William Gaines actually paid Warner Brothers to remove any references to MAD Magazine upon release to home video. So why does the reference to Mad appear on the DVD release? Well, seems Time Warner has since bought MAD Magazine, and reinstated all previously removed references (seems your money was well spent, Bill)...directed by Robert Downey Sr. (Putney Swope, Greaser's Palace), the film features Wendell Brown (Dreams Don't Die), Tommy Citera (Forty Deuce), Hutch Parker (credited as J. Hutchison), and Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid, My Cousin Vinny), in his very first film. Also appearing is Ron Leibman (The Hot Rock, Norma Rae), Tom Poston ("The Steve Allen Show"), Ian Wolfe (The Terminal Man), Harry Teinowitz (The Package), Antonio `Huggy Bear' Fargas ("Starsky and Hutch"), Stacey Nelkin (Halloween III: Season of the Witch), and former Bond girl Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me).

As the movie begins we meet four teenage boys, all troublemakers and delinquents, whose families are preparing to send them off to military school. There's Chooch (Macchio), who apparently has no respect for his mobster roots, Eisenhower `Ike' MacArthur (Brown), a pot smoking son of Baptist preacher who can't keep his hands off his stepmother, Oliver (Parker), who knocked up his girlfriend Candy (Nelkin), threatening his father's mayoral candidacy, and Hash (Citera), the son of a wealthy sheik and persistent pickpocket. As the boys arrive at the Sheldon R. Weinberg Military Academy they soon find themselves in a world of suck under the watchful eye of a sadistic, narcissistic, psychotic sleaze named Major Vaughn Liceman (Leibman). After a few run ins with Liceman, the boys get a new roommate named Rodney Ververgaert (Teinowitz), a nasally, chubby, snickering, arsonist who's fairly annoying, but seems to share a common bond with his bunkmates in their hatred for Liceman. Anyway, the boys, sans Chooch, sneak out to visit a neighboring school for girls called the Mildred S. Butch Academy, so Oliver can visit Candy, but the foursome gets busted as they return. Not only that, but Liceman's got compromising photos of Oliver and Candy, which he uses to blackmail the boys threatening to use them to mess up Oliver's father's mayoral bid. The boys retaliate by setting Liceman up, with Candy's help, during a mixer, and obtaining their own embarrassing photos, resulting in a sort of standoff. Eventually Liceman and the boys come to an agreement, one that includes whoever wins the soccer game set to be played between the faculty and the students on the upcoming parents weekend will get all the photos, but seeing how the faculty has never lost, the boys will have to come up with a plan to settle Liceman's hash once and for all...

Where William Gaines ultimately failed in keeping the MAD Magazine (the magazine had virtually nothing to do with the content of the film) name off this film, actor Ron Leibman succeded, as you'll not see him listed anywhere in the credits, promotional materials, or even the theatrical trailer. I'm unsure his specific reasons for his requesting this, but I've read it had something to do with a falling out he had with producers (seems there was more than one person who didn't wish to see this film released). It's kind of funny as Leibman's performance as the main antagonist is probably the most memorable of the film. Anyway, where Animal House succeded, Up the Academy failed miserably (it's not that people just didn't like the film, but they actually hated it). My opinion on the matter, besides the fact Up the Academy had not one tenth the charm or humor of Animal House, was that while Animal House was set at a university, something a large number of people could relate to, Up the Academy is set at a military academy, something a lot of people probably couldn't relate to...there's lots of other faults too, like the weak writing, unlikable main characters, unfunny situations, and so on. But despite all that, I still somewhat enjoy this film ever since I saw it on cable back in the early 1980s. Why? It's hard to explain...perhaps the salacious humor, which is fairly politically inncorrect, appeals to the juvenilistic tendencies I still harbor. Upon watching the film again last night a number of the crude gags didn't hold up as well (the senile, flatuent commandant) , but there were some that made me laugh. One of the funniest parts for me occurred during the mixer dance, as Major Liceman is trying unsuccessful to pick up on some female officers from the visiting girls academy. He'd come up to one of them, make some innoculous small talk, and then slip in some weird, fetistic request involving rope and feathers which would usually elicit a "What the fudge?" response from the women. Another hilarious bit was Tom Poston's ultra effeminate character of Master Sergeant Skip Sisson. He wasn't in the film that much but whenever he popped up, it usually made me laugh. It wasn't so much the homersexual overtones that made me laugh, but the fact they were so exaggerated. The most memorable bits of dialog come from Liebman's character, the first being the phrase `Say it again!', one he often use on cadets who forgot to address him as `sir', and another occuring as Hash the Arab has a run in with Liceman, the latter chastising the former for wearing his Arab headdress and claiming it's `not regulation and it makes you stand out like a turd in the punchbowl.' Liceman uses the `turd in a punchbowl' reference a couple of times, after which someone, while at the mixer, actually puts a turd in the punchbowl. A couple of other positive aspects include Barbara Bach and Stacey Nelkin, both of whom have minor roles but look amazing. Bach plays an instructor specializing in cleavage and phallic armaments while Nelkin plays Candy, Oliver's buxom and easy on the eyes girlfriend. While this film is rated R, it's not due to any nekkidness, but mainly because of language. Another aspect of the film I really liked is the soundtrack, which features performances by Blondie, Cheap Trick, Sammy Hagar, Iggy & The Stooges, The Kinks, Nick Lowe, and Lou Reed, to name a few. All in all the film is mainly a curiosity, one that probably won't appeal to most other than a handful of those, like myself, who caught it on cable during their misspent youth.

The picture on this DVD release, presented in widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic, looks remarkably good, much better than I would have expected (heck, I wasn't even expecting a widescreen release), and the Dolby Digital stereo audio, available in both English and French, comes through well. There's not much in the way of extras other than subtitles in English, French, and Spanish, and a theatrical trailer, which includes various shots of a statue of MAD's spokesman Alfred E. Newman in military garb, ones that weren't included in the film's release.

Cookieman108

I grew up more with Porky's,Revenge of the Nerds among others,So When I decided to watch this on Netflix cause it was from the 80's,I made a bad decision,It has it's funny moments but the Audio/editing is off,the plot is there but the final product just can't hack it to me. I really like though The Kid getting the Corvette,Although if you pay attention he's looking at a 1980 Corvette brochure and the car itself when he is in it later on is a 1978/1979.
The Caddy is cool,the gun Instructor Lady Is beautiful with a nice rack,And Antonio Vargas makes brief funny appearance with hardly any dialogue.