A bit of a disappointing entry from Savage Steve Holland, after the wacky promise of "Better Off Dead" and "One Crazy Summer." There's nothing wrong with the movie. It's quite as good as, if not a cut above, a lot of the teen/high school/college movies going around theaters in the 1980s. I hoped it might be a wacky satire on the struggle to get into college -- a kind of "Johnny Be Good" with laughs and biting satire, which "JBG" lacked.
Instead, the movie is a comparatively straightforward effort from Holland, perhaps because he was not the original director but inherited a mess from someone else.
Corey Parker makes an engaging lead. He lacks the aplomb of John Cusack, Holland's previous star, but he does a good job as a guy who is unlikely to get into either the college or the girl.
The girl is played by Lara Flynn Boyle ("Twin Peaks") in a surprisingly funny role. The girls in movies of this ilk usually are the ones who have it together. In "How I Got into College" Boyle's character starts off having it together but it starts coming apart early and only gets worse.
Anthony Edwards ("Revenge of the Nerds")is a disappointment . It's not really his fault. He's stuck with a blah role that comes off blah. There isn't much he can do but play it straight. The cast surrounding Edwards, including Charlie Rocket playing one of his patented jerks, does not often interact with the rest of the characters in the film. A subplot involving Tichina Arnold is rewarding but too serious for anyone expecting an in-kind followup to Holland's previous movies.
The biggest disappointment is that the snooty, exclusive college comprising the hub of the picture is treated with reverence. A place like that might have been ripe for Holland's brand of satire. The movie might have been even better if it revealed the small college as a cliquish club, and represented the struggle to make it as ultimately futile. Instead, entry into the club is treated as a prize worth winning.
Still, the movie has lots of humorous touches, whether from the writers or from Holland. A marathoner puffing on a cigarette while he runs. Curtis Armstrong (a Holland regular) as a Bible-college spokesman (warning, targeted to be offensive to religious sensibilities). And the whole preppy-girl story arc. Oh, and Phil Hartman in a tiny role. And the biggest laugh I got came from the pay-off about the girl with the orthodontic head-set.
If you've seen Mr. Holland's opuses "Better Off Dead" and "One Crazy Summer" and hope for more of the same, you're mostly out of luck. This is a relatively intelligent, serio-comedic, treatment of the struggle of teens to find an institution of higher learning, which occasionally deviates into unexplored Savage Steve territory.
Instead, the movie is a comparatively straightforward effort from Holland, perhaps because he was not the original director but inherited a mess from someone else.
Corey Parker makes an engaging lead. He lacks the aplomb of John Cusack, Holland's previous star, but he does a good job as a guy who is unlikely to get into either the college or the girl.
The girl is played by Lara Flynn Boyle ("Twin Peaks") in a surprisingly funny role. The girls in movies of this ilk usually are the ones who have it together. In "How I Got into College" Boyle's character starts off having it together but it starts coming apart early and only gets worse.
Anthony Edwards ("Revenge of the Nerds")is a disappointment . It's not really his fault. He's stuck with a blah role that comes off blah. There isn't much he can do but play it straight. The cast surrounding Edwards, including Charlie Rocket playing one of his patented jerks, does not often interact with the rest of the characters in the film. A subplot involving Tichina Arnold is rewarding but too serious for anyone expecting an in-kind followup to Holland's previous movies.
The biggest disappointment is that the snooty, exclusive college comprising the hub of the picture is treated with reverence. A place like that might have been ripe for Holland's brand of satire. The movie might have been even better if it revealed the small college as a cliquish club, and represented the struggle to make it as ultimately futile. Instead, entry into the club is treated as a prize worth winning.
Still, the movie has lots of humorous touches, whether from the writers or from Holland. A marathoner puffing on a cigarette while he runs. Curtis Armstrong (a Holland regular) as a Bible-college spokesman (warning, targeted to be offensive to religious sensibilities). And the whole preppy-girl story arc. Oh, and Phil Hartman in a tiny role. And the biggest laugh I got came from the pay-off about the girl with the orthodontic head-set.
If you've seen Mr. Holland's opuses "Better Off Dead" and "One Crazy Summer" and hope for more of the same, you're mostly out of luck. This is a relatively intelligent, serio-comedic, treatment of the struggle of teens to find an institution of higher learning, which occasionally deviates into unexplored Savage Steve territory.