{"id":6697,"date":"2024-10-23T13:32:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6697"},"modified":"2024-10-23T13:32:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:32:51","slug":"fraternity-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/23\/fraternity-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraternity Vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Fraternity Vacation<\/strong> (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, nudity, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Frawley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Lindsay Harrison\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brad Fiedel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul Ryan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 3, 1985 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Geoffreys, Sheree J. Wilson, Cameron Dye, Tim Robbins, Leigh McCloskey, Matt McCoy, Amanda Bearse, John Vernon, Nita Talbot, Barbara Crampton, Kathleen Kinmont, Max Wright, Julie Payne, Franklyn Ajaye, Charles Rocket, Britt Ekland, Denise Beaumont, Frances McCaffrey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m conflicted about the teen sex comedy Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. On the one hand, its central premise about two rival frats betting $1000 on who can score first with an attractive woman is sleazy. By today\u2019s standards of behavior, their actions would be considered criminal and possibly prosecutable. On the other hand, it has a sweet story about a na\u00efve, awkward nerd named Wendell Tvedt, a self-described \u201clate bloomer\u201d more interested in astronomy than girls. He\u2019s played by Stephen Geoffreys (Evil Ed from Fright Night), an actor whose appearance and mannerisms bring to mind a young Jack Nicholson. His character is the nicest guy in Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. He makes it watchable. If not for him, this movie would be fairly bleak.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For whatever reason, the opening scene of Fraternity Vacation<\/strong> is shot in black and white. Maybe it\u2019s meant to draw a contrast between snowbound Iowa and sunny Palm Springs where the main action is set. In any event, it establishes that Theta Pi pledge Wendell is heading off to enjoy spring break with his frat brothers-to-be Joe (Dye, Body Rock) and Mother (yes, that Tim Robbins!). It\u2019s not an ideal situation for them, but since Wendell\u2019s parents are funding the entire trip and his cousin has a condo there, they\u2019re willing to make the best of it. In addition, Wendell\u2019s dorky dad (Wright, ALF) offers to have a hot tub installed in the frat house if they get his son laid.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With that, the three guys set out for sun and fun in Palm Springs. Why not Ft. Lauderdale? It depends. In the movie, it\u2019s because of a storm. In reality, it\u2019s cheaper to shoot a movie closer to Hollywood. Pick one or both, it doesn\u2019t matter. Once there, Joe and Mother get Wendell a quick makeover (cue 80s movie montage!) while rival Theta Epsilon boys Chas Lawlor III (McCloskey, Just One of the Guys) and J.C. (McCoy, Police Academy 5 & 6) devise a nasty prank involving their girlfriends. Basically, they get them to behave like hookers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plan is to lure Joe and Mother to their room with the promise of sex. They make out for a bit. The girls take off their tops then ask to use the bathroom. While in there, they make sure the guys overhear them talking about having herpes. When they return, the guys don\u2019t want to have sex anymore and try to get out of it with some dumb excuse. That\u2019s when Chas and J.C. pop out and shout, \u201cWelcome to Palm Springs, you a-holes!\u201d Ha, ha, ha.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, Joe and Mother realize that Wendell\u2019s high-powered telescope can be used to gaze at more than constellations. That\u2019s how they first spot Ashley (Wilson, Dallas), a beautiful but aloof woman who seems sad about something. She also becomes the object of the aforementioned bet. In order to score, the guys come up with schemes to lure her into the sack. Joe pretends to heartbroken and suicidal over a recent break-up while Chas poses as a personal trainer and best-selling author. Basically, they treat this poor innocent girl like trash. There\u2019s nothing funny about that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then there\u2019s Wendell. He\u2019s totally inexperienced. By that, I mean he\u2019s a virgin. In fact, he\u2019s never had a girlfriend. His pals try to teach him the finer points of picking up girls at a bar. What initially looks to be a disaster turns into a win when Wendell leaves with a cute girl named Nicole (his Fright Night co-star Bearse). It doesn\u2019t matter how, but the guys come to believe Wendell scores with her even though he didn\u2019t. He likes Nicole, but sadly it turns out that she\u2019s a class-A whack job who loves to date guys that will piss off her overprotective father (Vernon, Animal House). BTW, Dad also happens to be the police chief and an A-1 prick. Poor Wendell, he doesn\u2019t deserve this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I realize that much of Fraternity Vacation<\/strong> is unsavory. What happens to Ashley during the course of the movie is known in legal terms as attempted rape. It happens not once, but twice. There\u2019s no way this movie would get made today without a whole lot of blowback from PC warriors and feminists. As such, it\u2019s important to place Fraternity Vacation<\/strong> in context. It came out in the age of Porky\u2019s, a time when the prevailing attitude in Horny Teenager movies was \u201canything goes\u201d. It was still sleazy, but there wasn\u2019t an outcry over it. I don\u2019t see the point in condemning a movie as colossally dumb as Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. Why lend it dignity it doesn\u2019t deserve?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Geoffreys is truly the heart of Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. In the midst of all the sleaze, Wendell\u2019s a sweet breath of fresh air. One of my favorite scenes has him practicing to ask Nicole to attend his Astronomy Club banquet. He decides not to include his chances at winning an award because it\u2019ll make him seem too cocky. Alas, he\u2019s also a nerd which means he has to be the butt of a few jokes like when he falls off a roof, lands on a neighbor\u2019s balcony with his pants down and spends the night in jail. He ends up being driven home by two hookers he defended from \u201cChief Buttface\u201d. Of course, Joe and Mother misinterpret the situation and think they\u2019ve created a monster. Okay, that is funny.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What\u2019s there to say about the other performances? Wilson is actually quite good as Ashley, the victim of a cruel bet who calls the guys out on their bad behavior and the lies they tell each other about what went down with her. Seeing her running off in tears afterwards is actually kind of heartbreaking. Might I also add that Wilson is gorgeous? Well, she is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although their characters aren\u2019t exactly likable, the actors playing the frat boys are pretty good. I\u2019ve liked Dye since he played Nicolas Cage\u2019s buddy in Valley Girl. Who would have guessed Robbins would go on to win an Oscar (Best Supporting Actor, Mystic River)? McCloskey excels at playing arrogant characters. With a name like Chas Lawler III, the guy has to be a pretentious dick, right? McCoy shows promise with what little he\u2019s given to do. Vernon played so many bad guys, he could do it on autopilot by the time he made Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. A cool supporting cast also includes Charles Rocket (the guy fired from SNL in \u201981 for blurting out the f-word on live TV), comedian Franklin Ajaye (Car Wash), sexy Britt Ekland (The Wicker Man) and Nita Talbot (Chained Heat).<\/p>\n

\u00a0It deserves mentioning that the girlfriends of Chas and J.C. are played by Kathleen Kinmont (Halloween 4) and Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator). At least I think they\u2019re their girlfriends. They disappear for a large portion of the movie. It\u2019s like they don\u2019t even matter after they take part in that demeaning prank devised by their so-called boyfriends. If they both weren\u2019t such airheads, I\u2019d like to know what they thought of the bet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m writing so much about a movie as inconsequential as Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. I saw it a number of times in the 80s; it played on cable a lot. I also saw it twice at the movies, once on a double bill with Tomboy. It\u2019s not what I would call a good movie but I still like it. Blame it on my fondness for New World Pictures. The soundtrack isn\u2019t too bad. It has plenty of bare boobs. It ends on a nice note; I\u2019ll definitely give it that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s directed by James Frawley, of all people, who also gave us the quintessential childhood classic The Muppet Movie. How does one go from Kermit and Miss Piggy to T&A? That I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s as elusive a question as how two guys smart enough to get into college are stupid enough to believe that two girls they literally just met want to screw them. The thing is you don\u2019t ask that kind of thing while watching Fraternity Vacation<\/strong>. It\u2019s idiotic but fun if you can get past the scuzz factor.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fraternity Vacation (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, nudity, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Frawley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Lindsay Harrison\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brad Fiedel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul Ryan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 3, 1985 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Stephen Geoffreys, Sheree J. Wilson, Cameron Dye, Tim Robbins, Leigh McCloskey, Matt McCoy, Amanda Bearse, John Vernon, Nita Talbot, Barbara Crampton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Fraternity-Vacation-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6905,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697\/revisions\/6905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}