Up the Academy

When you have a comedy franchise as massive as Mad magazine, it seems that surely there must be some movie they could get out of it. This is that movie and it ended up being the only movie that ever had the Mad name on it. Actually, it doesn't even count as that. The creators of Mad magazine did in fact have their names removed from this film and have disowned it. I remember reading about this on Cracked.com where it said one of the movie's main jokes is that there's a pedophile. They honestly must not have seen the whole thing as that's barely in the film at all.

The creators admitted that it was influenced by "National Lampoon's Animal House", another movie based on a comedy magazine. At least their magazine didn't last as long. The movie mostly suffers from having really unlikeable characters and dumb jokes. The general guy farted twice and didn't even do it a third time! I've still seen far worse movies and I wish the creators of those ones would disown them too. I just saw no satire or parody factor in this at all. *1/2

This is an early "gross-out" movie, where most of the comedy comes from kids going through puberty. It is kind of a teenager soft-core porno spoof without sex or nudity. It is a bit offensive and a bit gratuitous, but not that much to be upset or satisfied with it.

I liked the irrelevance of it. It doesn't bother to attack the idea of a military academy, but just treats it as an absurdity from the beginning. I like the fact that it doesn't have any kind of sentimental development where the kids learn to appreciate their school at the end.

Unfortunately, the plot is pretty mindless with four diverse students defending themselves against a rather bullying and vicious militaristic instructor (Ron Leibman). The best moments are just absurd, fast gags that are justpointless and silly. For example, Barbara Bach wears a loose fitting shirt that almost shows her nipples as she instructs students in handling military weapons. We never learn why she would want to turn on her male students in this way, but we do see the students panting and there is the suggestion that they are masturbating. Obviously, this is a male fantasy with little possibility of ever happening in reality.

I think it is sad that the film was so poorly received that it effectively ended Robert Downey Senior's feature film-making career. He does direct with a carefree, fun style and makes the best out of a mediocre script. A film he did about a dozen years after this, "Hugo Pool" is much better and worth seeing.

I think this movie is really funny. Especially the part where all the cadets sit around in the dorm making fun of Major Vaughn. It's so funny because its true! I know - I went to a military school just like the Sheldon R. Wienberg Military Academy. This is the best work that Ralph Machio has done since Eight is Enough. Everyone should rent "Up the Academy" today!

I first caught the movie on its first run on HBO in (probably) 1981 and being 15 years old I thought the movie was hilarious. I remember NOT seeing the Alfred E. Neuman depictions shown in the theatrical trailers. When MAD Magazine satired the movie and abruptly halted half way through with apologies from the "usual gang" for lowering themselves to satire such a piece of crap, I just assumed they were poking fun at themselves, which I'm sure they were, but to seriously find them ( and Ron Liebman ) so embarrassed to remove their names from any credits, I was quite surprised. Surely there are many worse movies to be associated with. Watching the movie on video now (at age 32) with the MAD references restored, I still get a kick out of it. And being a Ron Liebman fan (Hot Rock, Where's Poppa?) I think it's his crown jewel of performances (SAY IT AGAAAAIN)

I remember seeing the ads for this on TV and thinking it looked hilarious but unfortunately I couldn't see it due to the fact I was too young. So like a lot of movies that were denied me at a young age, I made it my mission to see it later on in life. Some of those movies, like, "The Life of Brian" and "Videodrome" were worth waiting for. Unfortunately others, like this one, weren't. And you know it's bad when Mad Magazine, the people that made it, put a large disclaimer in their magazine that they disavowed it. It was so poorly received that I don't think it ever got a proper release to home video and when movies like "Queen Kong" got a proper release, you know this one was destined for the junk pile of history.

There's an.... art to making sophomoric movies and it doesn't involve just putting a whole bunch of stereotypes into a blender and hoping what comes out is good. Take a look at "Animal House" which is an apt comparison as that's what they were going for. It's considered a classic in part to the actors that took part in it but also the direction, the script and the fact that they didn't try to do too much with it. This movie however just seems to want to throw everything they can at the screen and hope that something works.

Four boys are sent to a military academy all for different reasons and shenanigans ensue. There's the barber that just so happens to be blind giving bad haircuts. There's one of the officers that happens to be gay and like young boys. There's the sexy female instructor that teaches them about armaments in very sexual terms. In other words they tried really hard to be "Animal House" but didn't get hat made that movie the success it was.

In short this is a bad movie made to cash in on a more successful movie but without knowing how to do it in the first place.