Picking up where Animal House left off, here's my thoughts on the Tim Matheson led campus comedy, Up The Creek.
Up against the cheating Aryan bastards of Ivy University, the crazy soldiers of Washington Military Institute and the blonde beauties of Vanity College, the only advantage Lepetomane have is the smart-ass charm of Bob McGraw. Essentially playing the an older, lazier version of the character he played in Animal House, Tim Matheson is teamed with Stephen Furst as Gonzer (another Animal House alumni), Dan Monahan as Max (best known for Porky's) and Sandy Helberg as the nerdy Irwin (a founding member of the comedy troupe The Groundlings, Helberg is notable for being the father of the future king of the nerds, Simon Helberg, AKA Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory).
There is one more notable cast member, as Heather Merriweather from Vanity U and the object of McGraw's affections, Jennifer Runyon, better known to the entire world as "Ghostbusters Girl".
Up The Creek is a largely forgotten entry into the campus comedy genre, overlooked in favour of the almighty Animal House, but it's definitely worth seeking out. It may be nearly halfway through the film before they even get near a stretch of water and the outcome of the race may be obvious from the get go, but the other teams are populated by such ridiculous bastards that you can't help but get behind the Lepetomane team.
It sticks to a formula, ticks all the boxes and every single main character is a cliche (the fat one, the nerdy one, the cocky one, the other one), but do you know what? As collegiate jocks versus oddballs comedies go, it's not bad. It even had a suitably '80s rock anthem to go with it, courtesy of Cheap Trick.
Save from obscurity? Yes.
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