Up the Creek

source: Up the Creek

Tim Matheson easily carries this "Animal House" follow up comedy. You get a nice dose of his sarcasm, a white water rafting competition, a dog that plays charades, a tad of nudity, good looking outdoor photography, and several inspired hilarious moments. Comparing "Up the Creek" to some other teen romps, I would have to say that it holds up quite well. "American Pie" I rate 6.5, " Animal House" 8.0, and "Up the Creek" 6.0. I'd rank it slightly better than something like "Malibu Bikini Shop" 5.5. The film is fast moving, and rarely a moment goes by without something outrageous happening. It also seems to have aged quite well, since most of the movie takes place in the woods and on the creek. I was surprised how much I liked it. - MERK

What can I say? Good music. Cheesy acting. Silly script. This has to be one of the best Animal House Rip-Offs...and I don't mean that as an insult. Even by today's standards the movie has pretty good pacing and an awesome soundtrack. The movie has enough gags and comedy that will definitely not disappoint anyone who is a 80's movie junkie. As like other reviewers, I am just amazed more people don;t know about this film. Check out the YouTube video of Up the Creek by Cheap Trick to whet your appetite. What a great flick!

Up the Creek (1984) ** (out of 4) Tim Matheson, Dan Monahan, Stephen Furst and Sandy Helberg are the four dumbest students at an overly dumb college. One day the four are brought together by the Dean and offered free Majors if they compete in a white water rafting contest and win it. Soon the four rejects are doing battle against a bunch of preps. Some people say that the films from the 80s are some of the rudest and dumbest of any decade in history. With horror films you had mindless slashers and with comedies the teen sex sub-genre was one of the biggest. Both genres seemed to have new films coming out weekly and if you're a fan of those genres then you know there are some great titles as well as some really bad ones. UP THE CREEK was rather smart as it got cast members from both NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE and PORKY'S and brought them together. So, if the film a winner? I'd say no. I'm not sure what it is but to me this is one of the unfunniest comedies to come out of the teen sex genre. I'm not going to say this is an awful movie because it's slightly entertaining but I've always been shocked at how it held my attention despite containing very few laughs. Whereas most sex comedies went for outrageous and dirty jokes that's not what UP THE CREEK does. While there is some nudity the majority of the film goes for really stupid laughs with a lot of them aimed at a military school who are constantly trying to destroy things. None of that stuff is overly funny and the film really drags in spots. Again, the lack of any real laughs really hurts things. The casting of the four dummies is quite good, although all of them are playing the type of roles you'd expect. Matheson is the good looking guy constantly looking out for women. This of course is the same role he did in ANIMAL HOUSE. Furst, also from that film, basically does nothing but eat. Monahan plays a horny guy and Helberg is the alcoholic. We also get Jennifer Runyon who of course is easy on the eyes. UP THE CREEK at least gets a rather catchy tune from Cheap Trick but outside of this there's really not too much going for the film.

A year following this frolicking party film, Tim Matheson would ask Chevy Chase to kill him in FLETCH. Chase was supposed to play the role of OTTER in ANIMAL HOUSE (before John Landis objected, not wanting his film to be a SNL skit), a role that made Matheson, a former child actor who was growing into various filler roles (like MAGNUM FORCE), famous. In FLETCH, Matheson is in his forties, a dapper businessman. Here he's a college student, and actually looks much younger than in FLETCH but way too old to be a student. He's one of four slackers stuck in a purgatory college sent on a river rafting race, a win garnering them not only free degrees but a chance to defeat the bad guys: a quartet of perfect looking blonde dudes. Here we have a wacky adventure that spends the first half partying on land and the second half partying downstream. It's splendidly vapid entertainment from start to finish, providing terrific action shots along the roaring rapids. Stephen Furst, another ANIMAL HOUSE alumni, flounders as a fat guy who likes to eat. Dan Monahan ("Pee Wee" of PORKY'S fame) is included but adds little more than a smiling face to the mindless goings-ons throughout. And Jennifer Runyan is fitfully pouty and pretty as Matheson's conquest.

So many funny one liners and great characters. A blended cast of some side characters from Porky's and Animal House... I still love this movie more than any of them. Lots of funny moments and really good dialog amid the humor. Sure it is cheesy too... but that is the nature of an 80s comedy. This is one one of the few 80s comedies I never tire of and like to watch once a year or so. Some adult moments and mild nudity in spots, but otherwise really based more on funny situations than leaning on those aspects which were clearly in at the time. Great casting too, everyone fits their parts well.

Early-1980s T&A humor at it's best (or worst). Okay, this is one of my guilty pleasures. This is definitely NOT deserving of my ranking of 9 out of 10 in the grand scheme of things. This is stupid, moronic, stereotypical, razor-thin plot,... basically every negative the actual movie critics use to crucify this movie is correct. The difference --- I LOVE IT!!! There are times in life where you just gotta throw out all the proper movie rules and just live vicariously through silly, dopey characters on-screen. The characters are funny, the settings are beautiful, the women are lovely, the dog is smarter than his masters... I could go on. There is no reasoning other than to say this movie always makes me feel good when I watch it. That's all I ask of this silliness. The story of four college dimwits blackmailed into representing the worst university in the America in a collegiate raft race against Ivy Academy, the Military Institute, etc... Basically, tiny David against the bleach-blonde, well-funded and egotistical Goliaths of the early-1980s. The poster when it came out called this "Animal House on the river". They aren't far off. They even employed two "Animal House" alums - Tim Matheson and Stephen Furth (Otter and Flounder). It's a raunchy, silly comedy where the raft race takes the background to the drinking, partying, and girl-chasing so prevalent in this generation of college party movies. I used to recommend this movie to college guys back in the late-80s/early-90s at the video store knowing they'd be drinking and laughing through the entire thing. This movie was designed for people who were not using their brain cells. It's just a fun movie with very little plot to follow. Grab your beer, sit back, and let loose. If you're watching this movie for any other reason than listed above, you'll be disappointed. VERY similar to "Strange Brew" and their awesome followers. It's a blast!! I bought this movie a few years ago on DVD when I found out it was available. Thank goodness since I'd already worn out two VHS copies over the years. Now, it has JUST been released on BluRay. I'm waiting for my copy in the mail. I do understand there is a new retrospective on the BluRay with some of the cast and casting director. That alone is worth the price. If you love silly, stupid, early-80s T&A films with zero plot and just a fun ride, this is one of the best of that generation. As a "real" movie, this can't rank more than a 3 or 4 (maybe a 5 simply because of the well-known cast). But as one of my favorite movies of all-time (no kidding!), I'd rank this a 9 out of 10. Now if Chuck the Dog SPOKE his lines instead of using charades, we'd be talking a 10 out of 10. I mean a line has to be drawn somewhere. :-)

This is college fun at it's best. Great bunch of guys and girls in a raft race. Full of drinking, sex and competitive humor. Love it. Classic. Tim M. and the fat guy from Animal House and Pee Wee from Porky's are in it. If you love 80's cheese, you will love this movie. It is entertaining all the way through and very hilarious!!

Up the Creek is right up there with my most liked movies. I'm crying for a DVD. What kind of sense of humor doesn't think "Take no prisoners" wasn't funny when the gals are "going after It." The bazooka shooting at the noisy crow was funny. There is funny rolling over funny in this movie but maybe some of it is too sophisticated. Tim gets invited to Jenifer's room and after hellos she, lying on the bed in a loose robe says, "Why don't you slip into something more comfortable?" Tim retorts, "I didn't brig anything more comfortable." She says pouting, "Well, how about me?" That is not only funny it might also be the hottest line I have ever seen in a movie. Sparks are popping all over the place like the gal cheerleader producing interest in the bored stands. I don't take this movie seriously except in the sense it is seriously entertaining.

This movie was mostly shot in the "RoadRunner" cartoon style with the students from the Military Institute playing the part of "Wile E. Coyote". Most of the time when they tried to impede our (intrepid?) naive heroes, their traps back fire. The counterparts of the military guys are the "preppy" guys whose gags always hit their marks(our heroes), but despite being bombed, kidnapped and beaten (literally) they dont seem to slow down our heroes. The final revelation of our heroes that maybe others in the race are just as determined to win, or prevent them from winning, gives hilarious results from beginning to end. Oh yeah, this is a great movie to "drink along with", while you laugh out loud.