An American Werewolf in London

John Landis, 1981 (8.3*)
For me this is Landis’ best film, in spite of Animal House and Blues Brothers. I think partially because I don’t like vampire, werewolf, or horror films and he was able to make a werewolf movie that I did enjoy, and it actually seemed the best paced of those three films. It also stars the lovely Jenny Agutter (Walkabout), a plus for any film, and has an acceptable performance for once by David Naughton as the title character, a visiting tourist who gets bitten by a werewolf. Dominick Dunne is hilarious as a recent victim and constantly deterioriating ghost who refuses to leave the scene, and keeps pestering Naughton’s character relentlessly. When Naughton tells him he reeks, Byrne replies "what do ya expect, I'm dead!" Very good special effects, they kept it simple and told a classic horror tale that you might find in the 19th century, but with much better available film technique than the classic bw horror films.
PS - Hey, whatever happened to Jenny Agutter?

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Animal House

a.k.a. National Lampoon’s Animal House
Dir: John Landis, 1978 (8.1*)

This film had its moments, but was really pretty inconsistent overall. Noted for John Belushi’s extravagence ("food fight!") as Bluto, but the story really centers on freshman pledges Tom Hulce ("Pinto", which, in the screenplay, came b/c he had a speckled 'willie'!) and roomie Ken Dorfman (Stephen Furst) joining Belushi’s low-rent fraternity of animals (run by Tim Matheson), who are in so much trouble that Dean Wormer says of them "they’re on double-secret probation", and about to be booted from campus if there are any more infractions found, ie, underaged drinking or girls sleeping over. Look for Donald Sutherland as a professor who has an eye for Peter Riegert’s girlfriend Karen Allen, and a rival right-wing military fraternity specializing in sado-masochistic fun and games, as in spanking pledges, who respond with "please sir, can I have another?"
Quote: Can we dance with yo dates?

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