National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982) 20th Century Fox/Comedy RT: 85 minutes Rated R (language, comic violence, gross jokes, crude sexual humor, nudity, vulgarity, lots of pot smoking) Director: Michael Miller Screenplay: John Hughes Music: Peter Bernstein Cinematography: Phil Lathrop Release date: October 29, 1982 (US) Cast: Gerrit Graham, Michael Lerner, Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst, Misty Rowe, Blackie Dammett, Fred McCarren, Zane Buzby, Mews Small, Shelley Smith, Jacklyn Zeman, Barry Diamond, Art Evans, Jim Staahl, Anne Ramsey, Marla Pennington, Randy Powell, Chuck Berry. Box Office: $10.1M (US)
Rating: ***
National Lampoon’s Class Reunion was the magazine’s first major theatrical release after the mega-successful Animal House (1978). National Lampoon’s Goes to the Movies (1981) doesn’t count as it was never released theatrically. Needless to say, Class Reunion is nowhere near as good as Animal House. It’s a poorly made movie that’s actually kind of funny if you watch it in the right frame of mind.
This spoof of slasher movies is set at Lizzie Borden High School where the class of ’72 has gathered for their 10 year reunion. They’re hiding a terrible secret that’s about to come back and bite them in the ass. At a graduation party, they played a cruel prank on class wimp Walter Baylor (Dammett, Lethal Weapon) who went insane as a result. They arrange for Walter to have sex with a girl who turns out to be his twin sister, something he finds out right in the middle of a hand job. That’d drive anybody to the nuthouse.
In true slasher movie fashion, the bodies start piling up while everybody parties. Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Young (Lerner, Harlem Nights) arrives to inform them that Walter has escaped from the mental institution and is running loose at the reunion. It’s up to his former classmates to hunt him down and stop the killing. That’s about all there is to the plot. There’s nothing really complex about Class Reunion. It’s basically a series of crude gags, toilet humor and sexual humor.
Class Reunion contains some pretty outrageous characters, none of whom are believable for a second. In addition to Walter, who runs around wearing a dress and a paper bag, there’s Bob Spinnaker (Graham, Used Cars), the obnoxious class president who leads the search party for Walter. There’s Bunny (Flynn, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), the stuck-up and moronic class tease. Iris (Small, Man on the Moon) is blind and hard of hearing; she spends most of the movie roaming the filthy halls of the high school looking for her guide dog. Hubert (Furst, Animal House) is fat, gross pervert who always has something dirty to say. Chip (Diamond, Bachelor Party) and Carl (Evans, Fright Night) are the class potheads who are so addle-brained from years of heavy drug use that they barely remember they were best friends in high school. Dolores Salk (Buzby, Up in Smoke) used to wear ugly leg braces, but her condition went away after she sold her soul to the devil. Meredith (Smith) is the class bombshell who was voted most likely to marry for money. She certainly lived up to that expectation. Everybody suspects that Egon Von Stoker (Staahl, Spies Like Us) is a vampire. Could it be the fangs? That’s usually a dead giveaway. Nobody remembers class nobody Gary Nash (McCarren, Xanadu). As you can see, the class of ’72 had some unique characters in it.
Anne Ramsey (Throw Momma from the Train) is the old lunch-lady called out of retirement to serve disgusting food to the guests. The cafeteria contains shelves of large cans that read “Creamed S***”. Ha, I knew it! That’s the mystery meat the cafeteria served at least once a week! I don’t think I’m leaving anybody out. Oh yeah, there’s also an appearance by musician Chuck Berry, who performs a few of hits on stage (“It Wasn’t Me”, “My Ding-A-Ling”). That’s my favorite part of the movie.
Okay, I’m not going to lie, Class Reunion is absolutely stupid! I don’t think there’s one intelligent character in the whole movie. Everybody talks and behaves like morons. That’s surprising, especially in a screenplay written by John Hughes (Vacation, Sixteen Candles). Just like in any one of the slasher flicks being spoofed, the characters spend a lot of time walking around in place they shouldn’t- dark hallways, empty classrooms and other places any intelligent person wouldn’t go.
A lot of the humor is extremely gross. It’s sophomoric, crass, obnoxious, perverted, disgusting and just plain idiotic! Nevertheless, I found myself laughing and chuckling at Class Reunion, definitely for all the wrong reasons. It’s the type of comedy that makes jokes at the expense of handicapped people (like Iris) and makes no apologies for it.
The movie itself isn’t particularly well made. In fact, it’s safe to say Class Reunion is extremely bad on that level. It’s still funny. It’s the kind of movie best watched stoned. It appears to be made for potheads to giggle at while they satisfy a major case of the munchies. I wasn’t stoned when I watched it, but the whole thing is just so damn stupid and idiotic I couldn’t help but sit there and laugh (when I wasn’t smirking). If you’re in the mood for something utterly mindless, brain dead and stupid, Class Reunion is for you. If nothing else, it’ll make you appreciate your high school graduating class even more.
