A bona-fide comedy classic

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2008)

Following the success of "National Lampoon's Animal House" a couple of years earlier Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney struck comedy gold a second time with this classic that once again pitted the slobs against the snobs.
The cast is dynamite. Chevy Chase was at the top of his game as zen golfer Ty Webb, Bill Murray was equally memorable as demented assistant greens-keeper Carl Spackler, the one and only Rodney Dangerfield basically played himself with predictably hilarious results and rounding it out was Ted Knight, who effortlessly oozed smarm.
The storyline is rambling but that doesn't matter much. It's the jokes and the interplay between the actors that fuels the movie. It was no surprise to learn that there was a lot of improvisation going on on the set. The sole scene shared by Chevy Chase & Bill Murray is sheer genius through and through. Still, a more coherent story would have benefited the film.
There is one thing I'm not crazy about, though, and that is the music. 'Songs by Kenny Loggins' doesn't have the same ring today as it did about thirty years ago. That being said, "I'm Alright" isn't bad. I do wish, however, that the filmmakers had gotten Elmer Bernstein to handle the music like he did for "Animal House".
In the end, I give the all-around edge to the precursor, "Animal House", but this one is a worthy successor. Too bad Doug Kenney didn't live to see the end of the year or we might have seen more comedies of this caliber during the '80s.