Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Rodney Dangerfield was just shy of 60 when Caddyshack blew him up from a popular comic into a household name. Dangerfield was reportedly so new to movies that on his first day of shooting on Caddyshack, he broke into a sweat and started trembling because no matter how hard he played his material, no one was laughing. Another actor had to explain to him that on movie sets, no one’s really supposed to laugh.
Caddyshack wasn’t immediately the comedy landmark it is now known of today, but it raised Dangerfield’s profile enough that he became ubiquitous in households across America, a momentum that he parlayed into a series of movies ranging in quality and response from positive to…well…Rover Dangerfield.
Best known and best-liked of that run is Back to School, in which Dangerfield plays a self-made millionaire who decides to follow his son (Keith Gordon) to his prestigious college. When he learns that his son is close to dropping out, Dangerfield vows to go through the courses with him. Hijinks ensue.
The cast also includes Sally Kellerman as Dangerfield’s English professor/love interest, Burt Young as his chauffeur/bodyguard, Robert Downey Jr. as Gordon’s flamboyant roommate, William Zabka as a William Zabka-esque bully, plus smaller turns by Adrienne Barbeau, M. Emmet Walsh, Sam Kinison, and Ned Beatty.
Next Week’s Pick:
School has started, leaves are changing, and there’s a taste of frost in the morning air. That’s right, boils and ghouls, it’s time once again for our Trick Or Treat series.
Four weeks, four films. Endless terror.
First up is It Follows, which takes the “you have sex, you die” ethos of many horror films to a whole new extreme.
It Follows is available to stream on Netflix Instant.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
The Team
It’s commonly held that Back to School is a classic 80s comedy and maybe it is… but I’ve never thought much about it. Dangerfield never bothered me but he also never resonated. Even in films I remember growing up with and loving like Caddyshack, he’s typically one of the weaker spots.
I’d like to revisit this when I’m more in the mood for this type of broad comedy; but, as it goes this time around, it didn’t do much for me. There are laugh out loud moments, sure, but it’s hard for me to be impressed by this one with so many great comedies from the same era. It’s not a waste of time, but it’s also not a film I’ll return to often. Perhaps one day it’ll grow on me more, but for now it’s really just “not bad”. (@ThePaintedMan)
Back to School is an absolute classic from the golden years of the 80’s. After killing in Caddyshack, Rodney Dangerfield takes this lead in this collegiate comedy. Once again, he’s rich guy out of water, having enrolled in college, following his son (played by a pretty unlikable Keith Gordon who was having quite a moment after starring in Christine and The Legend of Billie Jean.)
The cast is absolutely stellar. Sally Kellerman is both perfect and completely out of place as the classiest of all English professors. Robert Downey Jr. plays the goofy friend, but might have the funniest overall performance. Burt Young is Rodney’s chauffer and pretty much reprises his role as Paulie from the Rocky movies. And when it comes to 80’s teen villains, there’s no one like William Zabka of Karate Kid fame. He’s as good as a swim-team bully as he is at martial arts.
There are some seminal moments in Back to School, including the Triple Lindy dive Rodney pulls off, but nothing beats the scream-riffic performance of Sam Kinison in his best big-screen appearance. Seeing him yell in Dangerfield’s face as he rants about what’s wrong with the world is absolutely epic and worth a watch just for this scene. There’s also a musical number by Oingo Boing, featuring the now ubiquitous composer Danny Elfman. In a decade of great comedies, Back to School holds its own. (@rodmachen)
It literally kills me to say this, but…I agree with Justin. Like Bill & Ted, I found Back to School less overtly funny than just overall amicable, but lacking the positive, sweet-hearted vibes that Keanu, Winters, and the whole gang brought to Bill & Ted. Instead, we get Rodney Dangerfield, and while Rodney Dangerfield can be effective on film, it’s almost always the product of filmmakers building a support system around Rodney and using him judiciously. Here, they clearly just pointed a camera at him and let Rodney roll. If that’s your thing, then hey great, but I quickly wearied of his schtick and unfortunately, that’s really the only card the film has to play. Keith Gordon as Dangerfield’s son and Robert Downey Jr. as Gordon’s best friend both turn in interesting work, and they’re good enough together and apart that I think I would’ve rather watched those town bungle through an adventure together, as opposed to just doing reaction shots to whatever bug-eyed lunacy Dangerfield happens to be doing during that scene. Honestly the only cast member who drew consistent laughs out of me was Ned Beatty as the dean, and when Ned fucking Beatty is your comedy heavyhitter, you got problems.
Back to School is mercifully almost completely free of the sleaze that has rendered big swaths of 80’s comedy unwatchable these days, but it’s also lacking in any kind of personality or distinguishing features. Not a terrible film, but not one I expect to retain any memory of going forward. (@theTrueBrendanF)
Back to School is an immensely enjoyable comedy, but one that I think several of us are having trouble finding something to say about — perhaps because it doesn’t have much to say. There are undercurrents of the importance of family, standing up for your friends, and believing in yourself, but ultimately this is mostly a vehicle for Rodney Dangerfield to do his schtick, which is to say lots of quippy insults, casual rudeness, and bug-eyed expressions.
But all things considered, this is probably the best vehicle for him to do his schtick. He’s in a bunch of movies (many of them awful), but this is perhaps the only film with the simple hat trick of Rodney at his comedic best, in the starring role, in a movie that makes the most of his kind of laughs. The incredible cast is packed with amazing actors, comics, and cameos including Burt Young, RDJ, Ned Beatty, M. Emmet Walsh, William Zabka, Sally Kellerman, Danny Elfman (!), Sam Kinison (!!), and Kurt Vonnegut (!!!). Sometimes a movie is simply a great time, and that’s reason enough. (@VforVashaw)
Next week’s pick: