I take pride in not fast forwarding through movies, even if they’re horrible.
But sometimes too much is just too much. I have no idea why does this movie exist, and I do not really even care.
80s-o-meter: 3%
Total: 0%
Category: 1980
#104 Wholly Moses! (1980)
Dudley Moore’s biblical comedy Wholly Moses ends up being an incoherent collection of mixed puns and as such feels more like a prolonged Saturday Night Life sketch than actual movie.
80s-o-meter: 1%
Total: 32%
#74 Without Warning (1980)
Early eighties Predator seems plain goofy at first but gets better every minute as it progresses – and in the end with its eery atmosphere manages to be surprisingly one of the best B-movies of the year 1980.
80s-o-meter: 61%
Total: 79%
#34 Up The Academy (1980)
Before slowly fading into oblivion during the nineties, the Mad Magazine was an institution in USA starting already from the fifties, and peeking its popularity in the eighties. They were known for their cartoon parodies of TV Shows and movies and getting your movie parodied in the magazine was a huge honour.
Then they made their own movie. Or rather; gave Warner Bros rights to use their name and their mascot Alfred E. Neuman to market a comedy that had basically nothing to do with their magazine.
You already guessed it, the movie was a stinker. In fact, it was such a failure that Mad’s publisher William Gaines openly sent out apologies for getting involved and paid WB $30,000 to remove all references to MAD from the movies TV and home video releases. Similarly the actor Ron Leibman, who had a big role in the movie as the baddie academy officer, insisted his name to be removed both from the movie credits and all the promotional materials. Ouch.
Looking the movie back now it’s not a total disaster, but clearly the direction with the script was lost well before they started filming. It has some limited entertainment but falls short of funny and is one of those forgotten classics that deserve to remain that way.
80s-o-meter: 55%
Total: 31%