Animal House (1978)

Animal House (1978)

A legendary, groundbreaking and influential comedy that will be around for a long time. Animal House has been ripped off, copied or borrowed from by almost every college comedy (and many normal comedies) made since. While watching you’ll see scenes from Van Wilder, Old School, Road Trip, Porky’s, Accepted, and so on.

The story seems like a clichéd and replayed story but that’s because now, 30 years after, it is, however for its time it’s very original. The writing and characters are hilarious and the acting is better than in most college comedies. Although Tim Matheson, Peter Reigert, Thomas Hulce and all the other more main characters are all funny in their own way and all give good performances this film would have been nothing without John Belushi. Belushi is more of a minor character but steals the film with his hilarious lines, facial expressions and actions. The way he chooses to deliver his lines add even more humor to the already funny writing.

Animal house is one of the last comedies to come out before the 80s ruined comedies, and oddly enough it is partially Animal House’s fault. I'm not saying that all 80’s comedies are bad, but I feel most are. Porky’s, Police Academy, Weird Science, Real Genius, etc, they’re all seem to be the same style and not very funny but are still considered classics. Even the 80s comedies I do enjoy like Airplane and Caddyshack still have the same feel to them but are just funnier. Many of the films (still through the 90s and 00s) force nudity in to films where it is unnecessary and doesn’t add any humor usually. Animal House sort of brought on that kind of comedy, but did it better than almost all of them, even the nude scenes are funny, not just there to bring guys in.

Its truly a influential film, let alone comedy. Although it may be the responsible for inspiring some terrible films over the years, it has also inspired some of the best. It should be remembered and honored as one of the most important comedies of the 70s and of film history.

9/10