"Potrzebie," Mike. I'm a stickler.

And how about a review of the Mad Magazine Board Game? I've vague recollections of playing it with my cousins, and I know the object was to give away all your money, but I'm sure that excursion into the dice and board medium has depths yet unplumbed. Explore! So we don't have to!
M. A. Masterson | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 4:47 am | #

They could have at least had a tree named "Arthur".
Dave Lartigue | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 5:29 am | #

you know, that Neuman mask could be repurposed as the protagonist in a slasher film...completely disturbing!
rob! | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 6:35 am | #

When I was a kid I enjoyed MAD. As an adult I enjoy Downey's underground movies Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace. I thought I'd give this movie a try. I'm glad you warned me. From those opening pictures it looks a better use of Alfred E. Neuman would be a killer in a slasher film. That mask is worthy of Michael Meyers.

Thanks for the link, too. Hopefully enough time has passed since MAD's first foray into film so the road is paved for...Spy vs. Spy: The Movie!
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 7:20 am | #

That Alfred E. Neuman mask kind of looks like Brian Peppers.
David Lawson | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 7:53 am | #

The statue of Alfred is now in the lobby of Mad's New York offices--I saw it when I was lucky enough to get a tour a few months ago.
Seth Johnson | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 9:49 am | #

The best thing about the movie was it introduced me to the phrase about something sticking out like a turd in a punchbowl. The worst thing about it was that it showed a turd in a punchbowl.
Jeff Albertson | Email | 08.06.07 - 9:53 am | #

Dear lord, I remember seeing this movie. It's been long forgotten, but I remember Tom Poston's gay stereotype, that's what made it click. I may've been 13 or 14 or so, smack in the middle of Redneck Mississippi and didn't know an actual gay person from a Martian, but I knew that wasn't nice at all.

I want an Alfred E. Neuman mask like that, though.
Matt T. | Email | 08.06.07 - 12:22 pm | #

Curse you, Sterling! The masochistic film buff in me now must see this piece of cinematic refuse.
Luke | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 1:18 pm | #

Imdb says that mask was created by Rick Baker. Not a high point of his career.
Phill | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 3:32 pm | #

I remember seeing the ads for this as a little kid, but in later years, everyone tried to convince me I just imagined it. So either I was the only one in particular zip code to know that this ever existed, or everyone was trying to protect me.
Bill D. | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 6:55 pm | #

Fold-In: The Movie?

See Beck's video for the song "Girl".
Bully | Email | Homepage | 08.06.07 - 7:34 pm | #

Speaking as someone with a (some would say inexplicable) fondness for even bad late-70s/early-mid 80s comedies, I agree that "Up The Academy" is a rather bad film.

Still, I can understand what people mean when they say it wasn't what they would have expected from a film associated with MAD Magazine. It did have more than a touch of the absurdist, iconoclast humor that's defined the magazine since its inception, but it lacked bite and a broader cultural awareness. You'd expect a "MAD movie" to have mocked "Animal House" imitators, rather than become yet another one, you know?
Chad | Email | 08.06.07 - 9:16 pm | #

He looks more like Auton E. Newman.
Ralph | 08.07.07 - 12:41 am | #

M.A. - Corrected, you magnificent bastard.

Chad - That's actually a very good point. There are a very small handful of reasonably witty gags in the movie, but yeah, being the trend rather than mocking the trend, as Mad would, sums up the problem with this film very neatly. I suspect the movie was already well in progress before Mad was ever involved, though.

Ralph - You know, after going years with never hearing word one about the Autons, now I can't swing a dead Dalek without hitting someone talking about them. The Auton zeitgeist is spreading!
Mikester | Homepage | 08.07.07 - 1:16 am | #

I can't believe you wrote about Up the Academy without mentioning the only reason your post reminded me to add this horrible film to my Ziplist*!

Her name is Stacey Nelkin and her appearance in a belly dancer's costume has haunted my dreams since I was a young perverted adolescent.


*That's the Canadian version of your own online mail-order DVD service.
Allan | Email | Homepage | 08.07.07 - 2:51 am | #

Having watched every Chris Cunningham-directed Aphex Twin video, I can confirm that the Alfred E. Neuman mask is the most disturbing face mask of all time.

One of my creepy internet friends kept going on about this movie a few years back, and it eventually showed up on TV. I think I lasted a half hour before I ran screaming from the room. We haven't spoken much since then.
Leigh | Homepage | 08.07.07 - 10:37 am | #

Dude ... thanks for the pix - especially the one of Liebman as Liceman - and the link to the track listing! You roxor my soxor.
Jay Sprout | Email | Homepage | 02.22.08 - 1:43 pm | #