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• Schematic and predictable. posted on 24 Aug 2009

  Overly predictable, overly formulaic comedy has some amusing gags but also some mildly dramatic moments which feel particularly phony because the whole plot (and its inevitable happy ending) is believable only as a fairy tale. The film is easy enough to digest, but thoroughly ordinary. Note-worthy, extremely winning performance by Sally Kellerman as an attractive literature teacher. (**)

• Rodney Goes Back to School posted on 20 Jul 2009

  Instead of the school teaching Rodney, he does some teaching to the school.
  He teaches how you buy your way through school, until exam time comes.
  It's either study or fail, so he studies to pass the exam day & night, night & day.
  Then the big day comes he passes the exam & helps the swim team win a swim meet.
  In the end it goes to show you can't buy your way through school.
  I would rate this DVD a 8 from 1to10!!

• Take your DVD collection back to school with this classic! posted on 09 Apr 2009

  Rodney Dangerfield's follow-up to Easy Money (1983)is as equally funny as said movie. This time he plays Thornton Melon, a self-mad millionaire owner of a chain of Tall and Fat clothing stores. His son, Jason (Keith Gordon), is up at college, living the sweet life... at least in the phone calls home. He only has one friend, the campus weirdo (Robert Downey, Jr.), and is the lowly towel boy for the swim team. After a divorce with his shallow second wife (involving pictures of her with the butler and a midget), he comes up to the college, and winds up enrolling as the world's oldest freshman. He helps make college life fun for his friends, and winds uop ticking off his finance professor by stealing his poetry professor girlfriend (Sally Kellerman), who vows to make college life a living hell. Can Thornton make it by, even with the trouble he lands in?

  A good, solid comedy with great performances all around, the best by Dangerfield, Kellerman, Gordon, Downey Jr, and Sam Kinison as a crazed vietnam vet-turned-history professor(according to Thornton, "He's a good teacher. He really cares.... about what, I'll never know.") The disc gives you a choic between widescreen and full frame presentations of the film, bot with good video, with little to no grain present. The sound is presented in Dolby Surround 2.0, and sounds great. the only feature is the trailer (in full-frame), and this is a title that screams SPECIAL EDITION. Where is it?

  BACK TO SCHOOL
  (1986, PG-13)

  Thornton Melon: Rodney Dangerfield
  Diane Turner: Sally Kellerman
  Lou: Burt Young
  Jason Melon: Keith Gordon
  Derek Lutz: Robert Downey, Jr.
  Phillip Barbay: Paxton Whitehead

  Director: Alan Metter
  Writers: Rodney Dangerfield, Greg Fields, Dennis Snee (all story), Steven Kampmann, William Porter, Peter Torkovei, Harold Ramis (all screenplay)

  MOVIE: 5
  VIDEO: 5
  AUDIO: 5
  EXTRAS: 2
  MENUS: 3
  OVERALL: 4

• Back to Rodney posted on 09 Apr 2009

  This is a great movie and fairly tame by 1980s standards. You might look at this film as a more intellectual version of ANIMAL HOUSE.
  
  
  This film is a mix of Dangerfield styles. Essentially we have the family man from EASY MONEY combined with his rich eccentric character from CADDY SHACK. The story is simple. Thornton Melon, a hard working self made multi millionaire, visits his son at (the fictional) Grand Lakes University. There he discovers his son Jason (Keith Gordan) is struggling with college life as well as life in general. Melon decides to show his son that he can do anything he sets his mind to do. As such, Melon makes a generous donation to the university and is rewarded with acceptance as a student in the upcoming semester.
  
  Thornton Melon has his own challeges as he is used to having things his own way and eventually realizes that money cannot buy everything. Melon's nemesis is his business science professor Dr. Phillip Barbay. Melon's real life success and experience in business come into conflict with Barbay's pure academic teachings. Barbay rejects Melon as a legitimate student while Melon unwisely refuses to at least pretend to respect his professor's teachings. Adding to the tension is that Melon has eyes for Barbay's girlfriend and peer Dr. Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman). Turner is a woman seeking old fashioned romance and fun, which is something totally alien to Barbay.
  
  Meanwhile Melon's son Jason becomes ever more confused about college. Though he finally makes it onto the school diving team he wrongly assumes his good fortune is solely due to his father's checkbook. Jason is also vying for the affections of his nemesis' girlfriend. By the film's conclusion both men win the affections of their respective love interests, have moved closer as father and son, and emerged from the semester a little smarter.
  
  BACK TO SCHOOL was a belated follow up to Dangerfield's successful EASY MONEY. Its premier in 1986, a full three years after EASY MONEY, meant that it could not ride the successful wave of its predecessor. Basically it was a Rodney Dangerfield movie starting from scratch. The original script called for Dangerfield to come from a somewhat impoverished background thus explaining his street-wise approach to college. This would have been a better link to his previous character Monty Capuletti. The screenplay was later changed to make Thornton Melon wealthy.
  
  BACK TO SCHOOL hosts quite a few great performances by actors in minor supporting roles. Adrienne Barbeau is perfect for her brief but outstanding role as Vanessa Melon. E. Emmet Walsh (Christmas with the Kranks, Fletch) does a good job as the swim team coach. Dangerfield protege Sam Kinison has a very memorable role as a history professor. Let us not forget Ned Beatty as Dean Martin. Also virtually unrecognizable in the film is actor Robert Picardo (China Beach, Star Trek Voyager) as Gorgio.
  
  One of the questions that is never answered in the movie is when this story takes place. The younger Melon, while talking to his father from a phone in the locker room, says that it is during a break -- and thus his apologies for not visiting home during break. From the colorful changing leaves we see that the story logically begins in the early autumn. The exterior shots of the University of Wisconsin also support that the film was lensed in the Fall. One has to question what sort of lengthy college break takes place in autumn? The never explained break allows Thornton Melon to enroll as a freshman in time to begin one of the semesters. Later we see the lush green background by the swimming pool for the scenes shot in southern California. The bottom line is that Melon's visit and subsequent enrollment timeline is of no consequence to the story.
  
  
  BACK TO SCHOOL was the last of the great Rodney Dangerfield films. Although he appeared in various television series episodes and numerous films, his subsquent "Dangerfield" films, such as MY FIVE WIVES, THE FOURTH TENOR, THE GODSON, MEET WALLY SPARKS, and LADYBUGS paled in comparison. Shortly before his death Dangerfield was reportedly involved in preparing a sequel to BACK TO SCHOOL, but it never came to fruition. Remember that a similar circumstance occurred when Dangerfield was to originally reprise his role in CADDY SHACK II, but was dropped from the project.
  
  The internet abounds with reports about a 21st century remake in the works for BACK TO SCHOOL. In my opinion they should never tamper with the original.

• Great comedy posted on 31 Mar 2009

  This is Rodney Dangerfield at his best. There are good contributions from a number of other actors and a funny appearance by Sam Kinison, but Dangerfield is the star. I cannot too highly recommend Back to School--you can even watch it over and over. One of the funniest comedies I've ever watched.

• Dangerfield University Lampoon Still Contains Truth posted on 07 Feb 2009

  "Back to School" is a cherished member of my VHS collection not only because of the late but inimitably immortal Rodney Dangerfield and his outrageous persona, but also because of its laceration of a favorite satiric target - college. "Back to School" came out in 1986 -a year after I graduated from Tufts University- and it nearly perfectly encapsulates (if slightly exaggerates) and skewers college life during the heedlessly hedonistic and materialistic '80s.At first Thorton Melon (Rodney's character in the movie) seemingly has two altruistic motives for applying to college: 1) personal improvement, and 2) desire to help his only son Jason (Kevin Gordon) succeed, especially when Thorton discovers that Jason is not exactly the epitome of the BMOC. However, once he essentially bribes his way into college by convincing the venally avaricious Dean Martin (he, he) to let him endow the Thorton Melon school of Business Administration, high school dropout Thorton apparently has it made. One might argue that this scenario is implausible, but given universities' rapacity for more cash, I could believe they would bend the rules to let wealthy Thorton in.Thorton then proceeds to embody every college student's wet dream - to be the perpetually fun-loving slacker who has the dough to show himself and others an endless good time and buy himself out of any trouble! Again, philistine critics may argue that no college would tolerate Thorton's party-boy person; wouldn't the cops arrest him for the voyeuristic dormitory scene or the out-of-control party scene, instead of reprimanding him or bringing Lite beer (remember Rodney was one of the shills for Lite)? However, "Back to School"'s college satire necessarily must employ a little hyperbole to get its point across.For example, in the classroom scenes with the history professor (the late Sam Kinison) and the business instructor (Paxton Whitehead), the movie does also go a little over the top but also tweaks college for its well-meaning but unrealistically theoretical approach (i.e. head up its a$$ approach) to working and life. Yeah, especially Thornton's take on the corruption and shady dealing it would really take to start a business really do have a germ of truth. Also, the way Thorton "prepares" for his classes -his secretary takes notes for him in class and his research team does his reports and homework- is off the wall but also possesses scientific veracity. I'm sure at Tufts and other colleges, some students never went to class and got others to take notes and do reports. However, (and this is one of my favorite scenes from the movie) only Thornton would heft a report created by his research team and crack, "I dunno; it feels like a "C"; add some more multicolored graphs"." And of course only Thornton would hire Kurt Vonnegut to appraise his own work.Nevertheless, "Back to School" lets Rodney collide with harsh, poignant reality without sacrificing laughs. Thornton is failing his classes; even the professor most sympathetic to him (Sally Kellerman) suspects him of plagiarism. His son Jason angrily refuses to let Thornton's think tank do his astronomy work. Thornton will be expelled unless he passes a multi-part oral exam (!) by all of his course professors. After a pep talk from Thornton's chauffeur (Burt Young) about Thornton's "School of Hard Knocks" life, Jason realizes that just as his dad came to school to show him how to loosen up and enjoy life, he must show his dad how to handle college responsibilities. And isn't that what college is all about - balancing responsibility and fun to have a meaningfully productive experience?Therefore, "Back to School" is more than just an "Animal House" retread. It uses Rodney's older, wry perspective (and those priceless one-liners) to point out both the absurdity and importance of college life. Heck, I would even recommend high school seniors applying to colleges to give "Back to School" a look if only to show them (with a grain of salt, of course) that while college is a worthwhile experience, it's also a unique, unfamiliar world all its own.P.S.: I would advise Cedric the Entertainer to abandon his 2006 remake of "Back to School" as an ill-advised travesty.

• Another Dangerfield Blockbuster! posted on 29 Jan 2009

  Rodney Dangerfield gives a hilarious performance in this gem of a movie as a millionaire who visits his son in college and decides to enroll. The other actors are not perfect, but they are good enough, including future film director Keith Gordon as Dangerfield's son. Robert Downey, Jr. is good as Gordon's best friend. While this movie only gets a B on my scale, Dangerfield gets an A for his brilliant performance in such a funny movie.4 out of 5

• NEW DELUXE TREATMENT IS NOT SO GREAT! CLASSIC COMEDY posted on 21 Jan 2009

  Rodney Dangerfield's classic blue collar comedy is very funny, although I prefer 'Easy Money' to this film, it's still a must have. I have the older edition which is OK, but I was not all that happy with the newest edition to make the upgrade. This film deserves better.

• "I was a lot happier when I was miserable." posted on 04 Oct 2008

  For some reason, I always remember that line. It kind of rings true sometimes, actually. Great comedy, one of the best of the eighties. Dangerfield is terrific, as is the entire cast. Looking at the few negative reviews, they kind of remind me of Phillip in the movie, the boring, jealous business prof. This is a feel-good, funny movie that holds its own against just about any of its kind.

• Pure-Rodney posted on 26 Sep 2008

  Pure Rodney mayhem, when he decides to join college to keep his son from dropping out of school. R.D. is at his best with the wisecracks, insults and jokes. The supporting cast is well suited to keep R.D. entertained. Dean Martin would like to see you ! Great Comedy from the famous one-liner himself.

• Funny movie, beautiful backdrop! posted on 03 Aug 2008

  Ok, I confess, I worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and watched this movie being made. It gave no CLUE how funny it was until I saw the finished product. This is easily the best of the Dangerfield movies, including lots of classic "Rodney" moments and some good work by the supporting actors. Look for Deep Space 9's Terry Farrell ("Jadzia Dax") in a supporting role too. Also, now that I live in California, looking at this movie is like a postcard from home. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was a gorgeous setting for this movie!

• Love Dangerfield posted on 04 Jun 2008

  Hey if you love Rodney Dangerfield's brand of humour you will lap this up. it is never going to win awards or be the subject of any deep film study or discussion but if you looking for a relaxing, funny, non-taxing evening, then you can't go wrong with this.

• Keith Gordon + College + Rodney Dangerfield = Comedy Classic posted on 14 Apr 2008

  Coming three years after making a big splash with his first-ever starring role, in the 1983 Horror classic CHRISTINE, Keith Gordon returned in this, the 1986 Comedy classic BACK TO SCHOOL, starring one of the most beloved comedians of all time, Rodney Dangerfield.

  The story actually begins in 1940, where young Thornton Meloni (Jason Hervey, who would become famous two years later as Fred Savage's older brother on the TV show "The Wonder Years") is being exhorted by his immigrant father to stay in school and not to take over his tailoring business. The kid ends up not listening to him and becomes a high school dropout, taking over the business and changing it to a "Tall & Fat Store" while taking the "i" off the end of his last name and making a fortune. The fifty-something adult Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) is having an awful second marriage to Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau in full vamp mode), but is proud of his college freshman son Jason (Keith Gordon), whom he thinks is in a popular fraternity and on the school's diving team. Soon after arriving for a surprise visit, however, Jason admits the truth that he's not in a frat, is not popular and is, in fact, the 'towel boy' for the diving team. Jason wants to leave school because it's not going the way he thought it would. The tall, beautiful Valerie (Terry Farrell) won't even notice him, and his roommate and only friend Derek (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a complete weirdo with wild hairstyles that appear to change daily. Rich Dad has an idea: he'll enroll as a freshman himself and that will influence Jason to have a better time and to stay in school!

  After pulling some strings, including donating a huge sum for a brand-new School of Business (it is, after all, not everyday that a well-respected university will take on a student who never finished high school, even someone as rich as Thornton Melon), fun-loving Thornton proceeds to throw his weight around, changing Jason & Derek's room into a plaza suite (complete with a hot tub), throwing awesome parties and even romancing his English professor (Sally Kellerman), much to the chagrin of her uptight boyfriend, Business professor Phillip Barbay (Paxton Whitehead), who would like nothing better than an excuse to drum the impudent Thornton Melon out of the university! Meanwhile, Thornton uses his considerable influence on Coach Turnbull (M. Emmett Walsh) to let Jason officially join the squad, which upsets the snobby star diver Chas (William Zabka) who suddenly finds himself competing for his girlfriend Terry, who begins to take a liking to Jason.

  If this all sounds like too much plot for this 96-minute movie, let me just say that BACK TO SCHOOL makes very efficient use of its time (no slow points here), and equally good use of Mr. Dangerfield's comedic talents, that the plot itself is almost secondary to the one-liners Rodney uses in his usual self-deprecating way. Plus, the cameos are real fun, especially Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as himself, being hired to write a paper for Jason about--what else?--Kurt Vonnegut Jr.! The music is very upbeat 80's here (as you would expect for a movie of this type); however, it does mark the film scoring debut for Danny Elfman of Oingo Bongo who appears in the film (as themselves) performing their great classic "Dead Man's Party" (which, incidentally, had been on the soundtrack to WEIRD SCIENCE a year earlier).

  Even if certain occurrences are patently unbelievable, such as the oral exam scene late in the film, BACK TO SCHOOL is so much fun to watch that it doesn't matter what happens, just as long as Rodney's and Gordon's characters win in the end and make us laugh while doing it. It is of definite interest to us Star Trek fans that Terry Farrell would eventually go on to play Lt. Dax on TV in "Deep Space Nine." Also, watch quickly for a cameo by Robert Picardo (who would join the aforementioned Jason Hervey two years later in "The Wonder Years" playing the dreaded Coach Cutlip, then later on joining Ms. Farrell in the Star Trek series in his wonderful role of the holographic Doctor) as the guy Thornton catches Vanessa fooling around with at a big party. Oh, and Sam Kinison is hilarious in a small role, playing himself as a shell-shocked History professor who never quite came out of Vietnam.

  Everybody is great in this mid-80's comedy classic. Lastly, you have to love a Rodney Dangerfield movie that features a university dean by the name of Dean Martin (the always-wonderful Ned Beatty). BACK TO SCHOOL really takes us back to school on what a great film comedy should be. Add this one to your DVD library! Even with the lack of a lot of extras, it's still very much worth it.

  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

• Rodney tries to get respect at school and from his son. posted on 13 Apr 2008

  Rodney Dangerfield plays a billionaire type who enters college himself to help his son become BMOC. While his son, played by Keith Gordon, is not very appreciative of his help at first, he soon gives in and comes out of his shell. A fun movie with some good comedic moments..Look for a gorgeous Terry Farrell and other good performances by Sally Kellerman Rober Downey Jr and especially Sam Kinison as a slightly enthusiastic history teacherOn a scale of one to ten...7

• Dead Man's Party posted on 07 Apr 2008

  Back to School is one of those 1980's staples, as well as Rodney Dangerfield, that helped me get through the teenage years of my life when I grew up in that decade. This film had an interesting mix of stars and many one-liners that made for a memorable comedy and a good time overall; there was also a decent amount of serious moments that made the movie that much better than the usual comedic fare. Rodney is at his best as a successful businessman going back to school(college)to be with his son, played a bit pretentiously by the ordinary Keith Gordon, who seems to force a tough guy accent even though he's really nerdish, but I digress. I would say this film has aged fairly well, considering it's from 1986, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Easy Money. The characters/actors were interesting, especially Robert Downey, Jr., Adrienne Barbeau, Ned Beatty, Burt Young, and Sally Kellerman. Add a cool college atmosphere, along with the great Rodney one-liners, and we have an unforgettable film from a time before cell phones and internet.

• back to school posted on 15 Jan 2008

  [[A
  SIN:B000QQKVY8 Back To School (Extra-Curricular Edition)]]
  my husband just loves silly movies.The sillier the better.

• Greatest of All-time posted on 24 Dec 2007

  For as long as I can remember I have been a Rodney fan. Nobody does it like the tie-twisting, constantly sweating, overly depressed Dangerfield. The one-liners in this movie are unbelievably funny. The cops bringing beer to the party, classic. There is NO comedy out there better than this. Rodney Dangerfield is the King of Comedy, and will hopefully remain that way for a long time.

• A great temporary cure for the blues posted on 07 Dec 2007

  Rodney delivers the goods here. I mean, let's face it, he was the ONLY reason to watch Caddyshack. He is one doggone funny guy. The one liners here are great and there are plenty of 'em. Plus you get to see Robert Downey Jr. in an early role as a wigged out college guy (now that he's a, you know, very conservative adult, catch this movie to see how much he's really changed).

  Yeah, OK, so maybe it's not exactly credible that a gorgeous babe like Sally Kellerman would fall for a goofy overweight guy like Rodney, but then again, he's loaded. And what babe would turn down a loaded guy, even if he's chunky? But he shows a lot of heart here which is what makes this work.

  Rodney (Thurman Melon, short for Meloni--I guess he didn't want to reveal his Italian ancestry) never finished college--actually, he never went to college. So he accepts a challenge from his college-age son to go to the same school his son attends to show how hard it is--or isn't. We find out that Thruman was a diving champ in high school and he gets to prove it in the story. Plus he belts out a great rendition of Twist and Shout.

  You also get to see Oingo Boingo when they were at the top of their game do a few numbers. (For those of you unfamiliar, they were a great party rock band from the mid-80s to the early 90s.) Thurman is married to catwoman Adrienne Barbeau who, despite her obvious, shall we say, endowments, is mean-spirited (Rodney loves to have a mean-spirited woman in his flicks; check out Geraldine Fitzgerald in Easy Money). But she fools around once too many times and the marriage is bust.

  Off to school Rodney (uh, I mean Thurman) goes which is where he meets Sally Kellerman's English professor with whom he's smitten immediately.

  It's predictable, but a lot of fun. Rodney is one of the very few guys around who really makes me laugh. Pretty hard thing to accomplish, but he does the job. So if you're feeling low, stick this in your DVD player and for at least 90 minutes or so you can relax and laugh a lot.

• This movie should inspire us all to go back. posted on 22 Nov 2007

  When Thornton Melon was a young lad, his hard working father told him that he was a Melon and could do anything, but with out a formal education he was nothing. But Thornton instead went into business and made a fortune. Today he has a son and told him that he also is a Melon and can do anything. He sends his son to collage to get a formal education. Soon he finds his some can use some help and that tempered with a divorce spears Thornton to finally get the education he missed.
  
  Rodney has been in many films. However this is the one I will always relate him to. Aside from his one liners and "I get no respect" gags he does a good job of bring out the best (and worst) abut collage. I will admit that he does not look like Bing Crosby in "High Time" (1960); however we have just as much fun watching him adjust and then do one better.
  
  On of my favorite parts is when he has Kurt Vonnegut Jr. doing his homework; that is called delegation.
  
  
  One annoying part of school is when someone says there is so much "picture framing material" and asks how do you make a picture twice as wide as it is high? People usually measure the picture for the frame. So when the professor said let's build a factory and Thorton Melon asks what are you going to make? I about fell off my seat.
  
  
  Caddyshack

• Surprisingly Great posted on 31 Oct 2007

  I was amazed at how entertained I was when I sat down to watch this older movie!!I usually don't get into the older 80's movies because I usually just don't find them that funny, being that I am more of a child of the 90's but when I caught this one on TV the other day, I didn't stop laughing. Even though the movie is from 1986, the comedy in it is surprisingly hip to even today's generation. I have not really caught much of Rodney Dangerfield's work and I was not a fan of Caddyshack, but everyone it was at the top of their game in this movie!!!If you haven't seen it, rent it and if you have seen it, buy it!!!!!!!