Number 651 on the top 1000 films of all time is John Landis' comedy Animal House.
National Lampoon's Animal House follows the antics of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity as they cause chaos at Faber university. Their members include freshmen Lawrence "Larry" Kroger (Thomas Hulce) Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) lothario Eric Stratton (Tim Matheson) president Robert Hoover (James Widdoes) and drunken idiot John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi.)
This was quite possibly one of the worse comedies I've seen in a while. During the 109 minute runtime, I think I only smiled once or twice. There was no laughing in the aisles for me. Rather I was rolling my eyes so far back into my skull that you would think I was possessed. Christ, it was tedious rubbish.
It didn't help that the characters were all insufferable and indistinguishable from one another. I couldn't tell them apart. Not that I really cared. They were all so annoying from the new pledges to the experienced members and even the teachers were annoying. It reminded me of The Breakfast Club where I didn't have one memorable character to root for.
Maybe it's because I'm a damn limey, but I've never understood the American obsession with fraternities. They just seem like an excuse to get drunk and act like little dickheads all while being hidden under the bullshit facade of brotherhood. At least that was the case here.
Yet it wasn't even funny. So much of the humour seemed to be that typical, crude American rubbish. This was especially true of John Belushi whose performance here was a thousand miles away from his winning performance in the The Blues Brothers.
I just hated this film so much and it's best that we leave it there.
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