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	Class Jacqueline Bisset, Rob Lowe Good Times Video, 2001 average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Lewis John Carlino's film has moments of insight, taking a few well-aimed shots at the vaguely sinister network of private-school life. In the first reel it neatly subverts the bullying scenario that threatens when the geeky Jonathan arrives at the school, while offering the briefly intriguing sight of Lowe in scarlet bra and pants. And there's a subplot of deceit and complicity that both strengthens and threatens the friendship that rapidly forms between Skip and Jonathan. In many ways, though, the most interesting element of the picture--Skip's relationship with his dysfunctional family--is left unexplored. Jonathan's deflowering and subsequent interludes are merely titillating. And Bisset's Ellen, a desperately sad character, becomes superfluous once the revelation that she's the "teacher" sets the boys' friendship on the path to fraternal solidarity. --Piers Ford

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Is This Supposed To Be A Comedy Or A Drama? Please Advise

In this movie we see Andrew McCarthy playing a Major League Geek by the name of Jonathon who dosen't have much success with women.Poor guy. His best friend Skip, played by Rob Lowe gives him $100 to go to the Big City where hopefully he can lose his virginity!!! Gee. I wish I had such a good friend back when I was in High School. Jonathon heads straight for the Singles Bar and makes a fool out of himself but he meets an attractive woman played by Jacqueline Bissett who has an Acute Anxiety Disorder and self medicates using alcohol. Then predicatably she and Jonathon have sex although one has to wonder if she would be attracted to him if she was't in a Severe State Of Intoxication!!!( I learned that phrase from watching Judge Judy). This movie is very jarring due to it's constant shifts between Human Drama and supposed Comedy. I give this movie 5 stars because I have always liked Ms. Bissett although I never met anybody as good loking as her (that is while I was sober)in any Singles Bar that I used to frequent.

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Excelent.

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"You look like a pretty sensitive turd to me."

The mid 80s...sadly, the biggest event during this period in my life was the introduction of cable into my household, and all the cathode tubular promise it held...I actually skipped school one day to stay home and watch The Road Warrior...it was totally worth it, but I'm not recommending any of you youngins' out there to follow my lead...remember, as Mr. T said, `Only a fool skips out on school!'...well, maybe he didn't, but it does sounds like something he'd say, right? As one just coming into his formulative teen years, it afforded me, among other things, the opportunity to see all kinds of naughty, naughty movies (thank you Cinemax, or as we called it, Skinamax) primarily due to the fact this was before the time of programmable parental control features...the only control feature back then was the chance of your mother coming downstairs and beating you silly for watching something she didn't approve of...anyway, this was how I first saw the film Class (1983), a movie I watched again last night for the first time in about 20 years. Directed by Lewis John Carlino (The Great Santini), the film stars Rob Lowe, whom we saw three years earlier dealing with the crisis of being a schoolboy father in an After School Special aptly titled `Schoolboy Father', Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin), in his screen debut, and Jacqueline Bisset, who, in my opinion, is responsible for single-handedly introducing the wet T-shirt fad from her role in the film The Deep (1977). Also appearing is Cliff Robertson (Charly, Three Days of the Condor), Alan `Cameron' Ruck (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) along with a number of now famous actors for whom this was their first film, including John Cusack (The Grifters), Virginia Madsen (Electric Dreams), Casey Siemaszko (Biloxi Blues), and Lolita Davidovich (Blaze).

McCarthy plays Jonathan Onger, a highly intelligent, yet awkward and introverted young man from a modest (poor) family with dreams of attending Harvard Law School, and is on his way after receiving a scholarship to a prestigious prep school. On arriving, Jonathan meets his roommate in Franklin 'Skip' Burroughs IV (Lowe), whose basically the exact opposite of Jonathan in that Skip is charming, outgoing, well groomed, polished, and just generally sure of himself to a fault...oh yeah, he also comes from an extremely affluent family (which you could have probably guessed given a name like that). Anyway, Jonathan has a difficult time fitting in (not helped by a very public practical joke played on him by Skip on the first day), but finds a certain amount of respect after he turns the tables on Skip, basically giving as good as he got...the two become fast friends as Jonathan helps Skip with his scholastic difficulties while Skip helps Jonathan with his social inadequacies. After an incident at the sister school while planning an upcoming dance, Jonathan isn't allow to attend, but Skip convinces him to got to nearby Chicago for some much needed action, which he does, and how...in that of a vibrant, attractive, classy, sophisticated, older woman named Ellen (Bisset), who initially takes pity on the poor schlub, eventually molesting him in an elevator (pity sex...it's a beautiful thing). Anyway, the two spend the weekend together, after which Jonathan returns a hero to his fellow classmates, inundated with a newfound respect. The relationship continues hot and heavy, and we can see Jonathan is falling in love (guys generally fall in love with the first woman they get it on with), but Ellen's only interested in a fling, and after learning Jonathan's actually a high school student (he made himself out to be a college man), she quickly takes off, leaving him depressed and heartbroken...and then things get better, as Jonathan finds he's been accepted into Harvard...but things quickly go down the proverbial toilet as certain events take place, including, but not limited to, an investigation at the school regarding widespread fraud...with circumstances threatening Jonathan's friendship with Skip along with his academic future...

First of all, if you're coming into this movie expecting some flesh, you're probably going to be disappointed as Bisset never bares all (very little, in fact), as the only scene displaying anything features Virginia Madsen suffering from a serious wardrobe malfunction eerily reminiscent of the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Superbowl fiasco. This was kind of a strange film in that respect, as it started of with the seeming intent of being sort of a teen sex comedy, but changes course about halfway through dealing with material of a more serious nature (which ends up getting severely slighted). The transition was smooth, but didn't go unnoticed. One thing that surprised me a little was that while the characters were essentially stereotypical, there was little animosity towards Jonathan from his wealthy peers in terms of his coming from a comparatively poor family...yeah, they didn't care for him much in the beginning, but that was more from the fact he was a nerdy dink than anything else. Overall I did enjoy this film, despite its inadequacies, as the actors managed to add dimensionality to what could have been very shallow characters, but there is a sense of unreality in terms of Jonathan hooking up with Ellen as it provided false hope to those of us males who saw this at an impressionable age, believing that there were actually incredibly beautiful, vivacious, wealthy, older women out there looking to have intimate relations with gawky, awkward, naïve, inexperienced teenage boys...perhaps there are, but I never met one, and neither did any of my peers. Jonathan was presented as an extremely pitiful character (especially in terms of being a target of a few practical jokers), but I found it hard to accept Ellen would willingly pursue him the way she did, despite any amount of pity or alcohol (later we find out she might be mentally deranged, which could explain a lot). This isn't a putdown towards Mr. McCarthy, but more towards the unrealistic aspect of the story...but then again, Hollywood relies on suspension of disbelief from its audiences (sometimes too much), so if you can get past this, you'll enjoy the movie a whole lot more. One really strange aspect was the abruptness of the ending...seems like there should have been more story...

The picture, available in both widescreen (1.85:1) and fullscreen pan & scan formats, looks very good, but the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio felt a little soft, specifically during the dialog (oddly, the music came through loud and clear). There's nothing really in terms of special features, unless you count an original theatrical trailer, which I don't (to me that's a standard feature, and not an extra).

Cookieman108

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Problems with Tone, but the Comedy Works and the Leads are Appealing.

Looking at "Class" again more than 20 years after I first saw it, I found it a better movie than I remembered. I could only recall a mediocre teen dramedy starring two Brat Packers, but this script is as smart and funny as it is flawed. Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) is a working class young man who attends a posh prep school his senior year in hopes of getting into Harvard. His introduction to Vernon Academy is a humiliating prank played by his rich roommate Skip (Rob Lowe), but after a few bumps, they become fast friends. Determined to help Jonathan out with the ladies, Skip packs him off to a pick-up bar in Chicago one weekend. In spite of his clumsiness -or because of it- Jonathan meets an exciting older woman named Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset), and they begin an affair. But Ellen eventually discovers Jonathan's age. And Jonathan discovers that Ellen is Skip's mother.

The prep school antics really are funny, not just tired sophomoric jokes. The scene of the Vernon Academy dance committee's disastrous meeting with their counterparts at nearby Foxfield girls' school is among the funniest slapstick I've seen. I like the rapport between Jonathan and Skip, characters from disparate backgrounds who share an easy-going nature. And Rob Lowe was looking his best in 1983. Andrew McCarthy looks pasty but still charming. I either never noticed or had forgotten the film's clever jabs at ideologues on both ends of the political spectrum. The leftist rich girls theorizing about the problems of the poor are hilarious. They're counterbalanced by the laissez-faire businessman who insists upon protectionist trade. "Class" is definitely not intended to be political, but it doesn't ignore what's going on in the periphery or underwrite those scenes.

"Class" has a confused tone after Ellen's identity is discovered, however. The change is abrupt and vacillates between the comic and the serious for the rest of the movie. The film seems not to know quite what it's trying to be at that point. I think that introducing Ellen's problems into the story was probably a mistake. It would have been better had she not had a personality change but simply acted as a person caught in an awkward situation would. But the comedic elements of "Class" are good, and Jonathan and Skip are an enjoyable duo.

The DVD (MGM 2000): The disc is 2-sided, with a full screen pan and scan version on one side and widescreen format on the other. The only bonus feature is a theatrical trailer. Subtitles are available in French and English. Dubbing available in Spanish.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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