What can I really say about National Lampoon’s Animal House that has not been said already? This is an all time classic, one of the movies that started the gross-out comedy boom, and to this day, it is one of the best college comedies of all time. There are some movies that are deemed classics, but when you watch them for the first time years after they came out, they do not click with you the same way they did with the original generation that saw these movies as they were new.
How to Download National Lampoon’s Animal House
National Lampoon’s Animal House was released on July 28, 1978. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like the film, check out what we have to say about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989).
The Movie Review
I did not see National Lampoon’s Animal House until the 90s during my early teen years and out of all the classic comedies of the 70s and 80s that I saw during my teen years. National Lampoon’s Animal House and Porky’s are the two that I feel clicked with me the best and made me realize the very first time I watched them why they were classed as all-time classics. Even to this day, I can watch this and Porky’s and still laugh at the jokes and scenes I have seen tons of times before.
The Story
The story of Animal House has been pretty much copied by many other college movies over the last few decades. We have this party frat house called the Delta House and they get into all kinds of trouble on campus and they are on the hit list of the stuffy Dean, Dean Wormer. Wormer is not the only pain in the butt of Delta House. There is also the super uptight and pretty, rich boy frat house, Omega House, which Worner enlists to help get rid of Delta House.
John Belushi as Bluto
This is such a fun movie with so many crazy and what are probably classed as offensive scenes by today’s standards. The movie is most notable for John Belushi as Bluto. Bluto is the ultimate college hero, with his big beer belly, and his perfect delivery, he is the ultimate college party guy that we all wished we were or at the very least knew. This is THE John Belushi role and it is a real shame that he left us so soon.
I have loved watching many of the interviews with the rest of the cast and how they talk about how he improvised some of the most iconic scenes in the movie. The famous “I’m a zit” scene was just something Belushi decided to do and John Landis told the camera guy to just stay on him!
A Talented Cast
While National Lampoon’s Animal House is most certainly John Belushi’s finest hour, this movie has a great cast, with many actors you will recognize from already established actors like Donald Sutherland to people who were just starting their careers like Kevin Bacon. Everyone delivers here and you just know that this movie must have been one hell of a wild ride for everyone that was involved in making it.
Does the Movie Hold Up?
This is one of those classic movies that well and truly holds up, I saw it for the first time over a decade after it was initially released and fell in love with it right away. They did a 4K release of National Lampoon’s Animal House a few years back and it is great. The visual and audio upgrade make it a worthy addition to anyone who loves to upgrade their favorite movies to 4K, although, I will say they could have put a few new extras on there as what is here is just the same stuff that was on the Blu-Ray.
Perhaps Dean Wormer is wrong and fat, drunk, and stupid is an ok way to go through life!
