Review of Back to School (1986) by Tamara S — 27 Feb 2010

I've seen some of this movie before on TV in all of it's edited and commercial interrupted glory, but never from beginning to end. I had been told several times that this was Rodney Dangerfield's best work and after watching a biography on him, I was keenly interested in finally watching the movie. Some of the funniest lines delivered were from Dangerfield which sounded less scripted and more like he was doing his stand up routine and made it feel more fluid for him and his delivery.

Rodney Dangerfield's character is a man who made his way into the world without college and, despite the school telling him what does and doesn't work, he shows that what he knows applies much better in how the real world works. Be it delegation of time management (paying people to do his homework) or opinions of how businesses actually work (i.e. greasing the palms of politicians) or that showing you don't have to be violent to an aggressor (especially if you have a paid bodyguard), he is the man with the answers. The teachers all of their quirks, especially Sam Kinison's character who talked history about the wars that he was in, which really gives some more hilarity that Dangerfield is considered the least competent in the room.

While an excellent movie and Rodney Dangerfield gave a wonderful performance, I found myself truly interested in what Robert Downey Jr.'s character (a social outcast and happy for it) was going to do next to upset the jock-caste system. He didn't detract from the plot and he wasn't a driving role to the story, but any time he wasn't in the room, I felt that he might be up to no good and wondered what that might include.