Genre: Raunchy Comedy
Premise: In 1967, five years after the events of the original film, it's alumni weekend and Niedermeyer returning from Vietnam visits the Omega house. Dean Wormer arrives to meet the wealthy alumnus, Milton vanderslaag. We find out Delta Tau Chi has been reinstated with the weakest bunch of men possible except for a large football player named Buba. Arriving on scene to wip these weaklings into real men are Boon (recently separated from his wife Katie) and Otter. Soon after, Flounder (now a self-help instructor), Hoover (a lawyer), D-Day (a drug dealer) and Pinto (a political activist) emerge.
Writer: Matty Simmons (National Lampoon's Pucked), Michael Simmons (no known credits), and Andrew Simmons (no known credits)
About: This was delayed after the sequel to American Graffiti tanked, and then was delayed for an indefinite amount of time after the death of Belushi.
I said once that The Lost Weekend was the grand daddy of Social Statement films, well if that's the case then Animal House is the grand daddy of Raunchy Comedies. So is this film as good as the original? The answer is... it tries, but ultimately just feels like a diluted version of the orginal film's greatness. Following the spirit of an alumni weekend, this script can't go home again. It's just a tired retread of the original material. There are rip off's aplenty of the guitar ("I gave my love a cherry") scene, and the horse heart attack scene. There's even a seedy bar scene.
Thank your lucky stars this script never saw the light of day. It cheapens the success of the original film by replaying the same scenarios as before. Second, without Belushi, Animal House is missing most of what made the film hilarious in the first place. There's not even any mention of Bluto's death. (And if John had lived, I'm almost certain he would not have wanted to recapture his role because he had already provided an almost perfect performance). This film fulfilled my wonderings of what a sequel might of been. But, we'll never know. And that's probably not a bad thing. Just rewatch the original and enjoy. Let this script gather dust in one of those underground archives somewhere in Montana.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
[X] Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
Isla Roles: I'd like to believe Isla is still a bit too young to be playing somebody a decade after college graduation.
Tip: This is totally an 80's staple, but still whenever I see it done well I love it, a big competition in the late second/early third act that decides who will be the victor.
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