Getting Wasted (1980)

As one of the other commentators has mentioned, the first thing I thought of when I saw this film was POLICE ACADEMY. GETTING WASTED feels like a dry run for that '80s classic: it involves the rookie cadets at a military academy involving themselves in '60s counter culture and the usual sex and drugs of that decade.It's also an unsurprisingly forgotten film, unsurprising because in reality it isn't very good. The jokes and humour are lame and predictable, and none of the characters are well defined or particularly likable. There are no big name actors or future stars here, just a mess of folk who never aspired to greatness.I was also surprised at how restrained this film is. Comedies from this era are usually raunchy and padded out with copious nudity from the ladies, but there's none here (unless the version I saw was edited for TV). The drug jokes are tame and there's no real plotting or drama; just a series of loosely-linked situations playing out for supposed laughs that never transpire.

I don't consider this film anti-establishment since the establishment is 90% anti-war and has been since the seventies. In the sixties they were indeed the underdog but who would know that - since they're the only ones who make films and since we don't get any movies showing the other view, I can't see the logic of calling them underdogs or revolutionaries any longer. In my opinion, they are the establishment... but I digress. In the first scene as the main character is being driven by his mother (who looks the same age) down the street, he is looking at hippies as if he'd just woken up from a coma; as if the sixties "counter-culture" just happened to appear out of nowhere. The classic protest song "For What it's Worth" is playing, and at this point you know what you're in for... an agenda with party animals thrown in; or perhaps its a party animal movie with an agenda thrown in. Either way it's a horrid film but I enjoyed it profusely, because I adore bad films. The primary cast consists of Brian Kerwin, who was in one of my favorite sitcoms "Sheriff Lobo", Stephen Furst who was in one of my favorite comedies "Animal House" (which is also one of the best comedies ever), Ken Michaelson who was in my favorite hour long TV series, "The White Shadow", and Cooper Huckabee who co-starred in "Funhouse", a Tobe Hooper film which I considered much better than the one about the chainsaw. The plot is simple. A bunch of military academy teenagers (played by dudes in their late twenties) rebel against the teachers of the academy. That's it in a nutshell. Along the way you get to listen to great music from the likes of Buffalo Springfield, you get to watch a lady microwave a dog, guys smoking pot and banana peels, a hippie with a dead parrot on his shoulder, and a beautiful woman with a colorful painted van watching whales migrating and getting plenty hot. David Caruso, who is the main picture of the only available DVD, and who they try to trick us into thinking is the main character, has a two minute scene as a friend of Kerwin who helps him light tires and throw them onto the road. An exciting scene, especially since none of the tires rolled more than two feet after being pushed out of the moving truck. During the dog-microwave scene, when all hell breaks loose, there is a TV show playing the likes of Wally George, where a conservative villain chews out an enlightened hippie student, that seems more entertaining than the movie itself. If you like bad movies, this one is for you, but the DVD quality is poor, even worse than "Truck Stop Women", another favorite Z-film which I recently purchased. The most annoying thing though is the curse words are cut out. And I believe some other scenes from the original film were deleted as well. To me, this is more of a crime than bad quality. If it's cheap enough, buy it. It won't let you down unless you're expecting something worthwhile and meaningful: two ingredients I usually despise.

I saw this one for the first and last time on late-night TV in 1987. This remark might be asking for it, but this movie was my answer to Animal House (which I never got too attached to). As far as I can remember it, a group of teenagers at a military academy ignore the faculty and the "gung ho" students, and make friends with a group of "hippies" (though they're more understated than the usual movie kind, which is why I use quotation marks). The one part I didn't like was a bizarre scene about a cat and a microwave (a famous urban legend, I think). Instead of being a dark comedy scene, it was a completely serious scene (as I remember), but EITHER WAY, it seemed pointless. (Although with an idea like that, serious is at least more ORIGINAL than comical, in spite of what people seem to think.) The main seriousness of the story had the characters dreading the idea of reaching draft age, especially with the other characters' influence. Another thing I do remember is that the "period" songs were worked into the movie in a pretty clever way, unlike countless period movies, which really POUR them on. (Like "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan during the banana smoking scene, which had some point to it.) The one character that really stays with me was one nicknamed "Choo-Choo", because his hobby was trying to sabotage the local train tracks. It was a kind of therapy, because he'd been a cadet himself, and he'd been tied to the tracks as a prank. I just saw in these listings that David Caruso was in it. I've never seen an entire "N.Y.P.D." or "C.S.I.", but hearing that is a whole other thing.

Great, if you like low budget cult like trash and the like. Generally adolescent humour. Check it out if you can. I've watched it a couple of times, taped off tv, and I would watch it again. I thought it was funny!