Up the Creek (1984)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Fantastic!

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Tim Matheson is in rare form here. His cocky, brash, and free-spirited attitude keeps a smile on your face the whole time he's on screen.One of my favorite parts is when Tim is jumped in the parking lot outside of the bar. He's knocked out when his friends find him. They try to get him to come to, but then he starts swinging punches and knocks the crap out of one of his friends. When he gets his wits about him he says,"they got you to"? :) Hard to pick one moment because this film delivers laughs for 90 straight minutes. It's well-written, and well-acted for the genre.The soundtrack is great; out-dated but fantastic. This movie doesn't shy away from what it is... an 80's 'B' 'Boob-comedy' as I like to call them. This is one of the best - maybe THE best. Maybe not as nostalgic as Porky's or Animal House, but it's still at that level on the comedy meter.Never a dull moment. The fun runs like the river, and you'll be hooked from the opening sequence. A true cult-classic that deserves another viewing if it's been a while, and if you're a comedy fan whose put off finding this little gem - shame on you.HIGHLY recommended goof-ball comedy. 84/100One of the most sought-after out-of-print VHS to never get a DVD release. These VHS tapes(in good shape) can go for $25-$50.

A year following this frolicking party film, Tim Matheson would ask Chevy Chase to kill him in FLETCH. Chase was supposed to play the role of OTTER in ANIMAL HOUSE (before John Landis objected, not wanting his film to be a SNL skit), a role that made Matheson, a former child actor who was growing into various filler roles (like MAGNUM FORCE), famous. In FLETCH, Matheson is in his forties, a dapper businessman. Here he's a college student, and actually looks much younger than in FLETCH but way too old to be a student. He's one of four slackers stuck in a purgatory college sent on a river rafting race, a win garnering them not only free degrees but a chance to defeat the bad guys: a quartet of perfect looking blonde dudes.Here we have a wacky adventure that spends the first half partying on land and the second half partying downstream. It's splendidly vapid entertainment from start to finish, providing terrific action shots along the roaring rapids. Stephen Furst, another ANIMAL HOUSE alumni, flounders as a fat guy who likes to eat. Dan Monahan ("Pee Wee" of PORKY'S fame) is included but adds little more than a smiling face to the mindless goings-ons throughout. And Jennifer Runyan is fitfully pouty and pretty as Matheson's conquest.

First off, one must put aside the characters played by Matheson and Furst. Matheson reprises his role from Animal House as the "ladies man" who somehow always gets the girl, and always does so with a swagger, smoking, and drink in hand. He also gets beat up by the "preppy squad." It worked much better in Animal House, but he manages to pull it off for most of this movie. Furst, on the other hand, I have no idea what he's supposed to be as Gonzer. Copying Belushi's Bluto from Animal House? That's what comes to mind at first, and a few times throughout the movie, and truthfully, he just does not pull it off. No one can do it the same way, and each time I have seen it tried in various movies it has failed. So Gonzer is just some college guy coasting through life, though this time it's with food and his best friend (in this movie), Irwin. I got a sense from a scene from the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World where we have the scene where Gonzer sniffs out his kidnapped friend and chants, Irwin, Irwin.... This movie is your basic college romp with the usual elements. Getting drunk; cheating, no matter what, in order to win; girls taking off their tops; and the usual round of bad guys, who as always never win, since we all want to see the underdog win. Speaking of dogs, if it were not for Chuck, and his voice (done perfectly by the very talented Frank Welker), I would have rated this movie a lot lower. Every scene with Chuck is absolutely hilarious. But overall, the movie was too formulaic, but that's okay, since sometimes movie-goers just want to watch something that does not require too many brain cells. Though this movie might end up killing some... Since there is so much going on, and 2 sets of perfectly good "bad guys" (the military group is a hoot to watch, especially the 4 cadets), and we have some good footage of actual white-water rafting, this movie turns out to be not that bad. Silly, yes. Entertaining, yes. Something to discuss afterward, no.

Why would somebody make a comedy movie that's not funny? Maybe they changed directors mid-stream, or there was a death among the principal technicians and someone else had to edit or whatever. But, this movie is just not funny; even though the script keeps telling you how side-splitting it is, and how you're enjoying it more than you did "Animal House" or "Porky's". Even worldly sophisticates like George Plimpton or Wm F. Buckley like slapstick, sophomoric sex jokes and watching drunk frat-boys being jerks as much as the next guy. We keep looking for some in this poorly-done piece of crap and are more disappointed than the first audience that saw "Plan 9 From Outer Space." The worst scene of the film sticks with me, two beautiful girls enter a nightclub full of elligible dudes and no other women (yes, the story is supposed to be about a whitewater-rafting trip!); they looks about feigning sexual hunger and one of them says "Take NO prisoners". Like the rest of this awful film: is that supposed to be funny? Or sexy? You just feel sorry for the actors, technicians and investors while you're miffed at the directors and producers.