Back To School – Extra-Curricular Edition (MGM DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Like Dana Carvey, Rodney Dangerfield is among the greatest of comic talents who could never convert his talent into a feature film.  Back To School (1986) was one such attempt by Orion Pictures to see if a comedy with the unrespected one could work.  It was not a big hit, but people remember it as much for its release as how it was aggressively promoted.  He goes to college to stop his son from leaving as him marriage crumbles, but it becomes more like Animal House Junior thanks to him and madness follows.

 

Dangerfield gets some great one-liners in from the script he co-wrote with several parties including Harold Ramis (who did not direct), but it never coheres into a laugh-riot comedy it had the potential to, especially with Burt Young, Sally Kellerman, Keith Gordon, Robert Downey Jr., Adrienne Barbeau, Ned Beatty, Kurt Vonnegut and the late, great Sam Kinison.  It does serve as a time capsule, however, which is reason enough for MGM to give it special edition treatment.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft and shows its age, but the print is not in bad shape, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 upgrade of the old Dolby A-type analog sound is pushing it, but is better than the mono alternatives in other languages included.  Extras include stills, TV spots, featurette on Dangerfield, one on Vonnegut and two on the making of the film.  All in all, they may be almost more entertaining than the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo