Back to School

Directed by Alan Metter, Back to School follows wealthy businessman Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) as he sets out to encourage his son’s (Keith Gordon’s Jason) floundering college career by enrolling alongside him. It’s a seemingly foolproof premise that’s employed to watchable (if far from spellbinding) effect by Metter, as the filmmaker, working from Steven Kampmann, Will Porter, Peter Torokvei, and Harold Ramis’ screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced comedy that rarely becomes the knee-slapping effort one might’ve anticipated (and expected) – with Dangerfield’s predictably larger-than-life performance standing as one of the picture’s few consistently entertaining elements. (It’s worth noting, too, that the cavalcade of familiar faces, including Burt Young, M. Emmet Walsh, and Robert Downey Jr, within the supporting cast buoys one’s dwindling interest on a fairly regular basis.) There’s little doubt, ultimately, that the relatively disappointing atmosphere stems from Metter’s odd refusal to wholeheartedly embrace and exploit the film’s less-than-subtle setup, as the whole thing is, for the most part, devoid of the sort of broad and unabashedly goofy set-pieces generally associated with movies of this ilk – which, when coupled with a decent yet forgettable final stretch, cements Back to School‘s place as a passable endeavor that could (and should) be so much better.

**1/2 out of ****