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Quint is GOING GREEK... ummm, no... not like that
Harry here with a film that I'm learning about at the same time you are... Quint's seen it, and he's about it... read on....
Ahoy there, squirties. 'Tis, I the ever crusty and now totally exhausted seaman back in my home port of Austin after spending two weeks in Los Angeles. On that trip I embarked on many adventures, the biggest of which was a continuous presence on the set of the single coolest indie film shooting right now... but you'll get more on that later.
Right now I'm gonna tell you a little about Going Greek, an indie
comedy about hazing and other fun college stuff.
It's a movie that doesn't ignore the inhuman and seemingly barbaric tortures young college students are subjected to while pledging a big fraternity, but at the same time it finds the lighter side to all of that. It shows us these strange rituals that make us cringe... but writer/director Justin Zackham does it with a smile.
Like Kevin Smith did with Dogma, Zackham pokes fun at the frats, but underneath the playful jabs is a genuine feeling of respect towards the ideas and brotherhood that fraternities represent. The main frat house in the film is a place where I, a geek in all sense of the word, would have been comfortable in. The brothers of this fraternity are good people, with the exception of the one or two bad eggs that have to be there to fill the antagonist position.
I get the feeling that Zackham really wanted to make the Animal
House for this generation... matter of fact, there's an Animal House cameo
in the film, which I won't spoil should any of you out there find this movie
at some point. Now, Going Greek is far from the second coming of Belushi,
but goddamnit if that was the criteria for which all college comedies were
judged, there would only be Animal House.
Honestly, when the movie started I kinda rolled my eyes... I was kinda in a bad place. I knew one of the stars of the film, the beautiful and talented Ms. Laura Harris, and on top of that I was spending my last week in Los Angeles on her couch. Being the poor salt I am, I couldn't afford a hotel room. What was I going to say if it turned out to be poor?
It opened up with a guy stumbling out of a frat house, he swaggers... then walks right up to camera, opens his mouth and the camera zooms into the blackness of the open mouth just as he vomits. That was where I rolled my eyes. Oh shit. But then a magical thing happened. It actually worked. The writing was actually pretty funny and even better, the casting was perfect. I can give a lot of credit to Justin Zackham for writing this film and directing it the way he did, but none of that would have mattered if he miscast the picture.
It stars Dylan Bruno (the asshole husband of Natalie Portman in Where The Heart Is) as a just and kind Football Star who transfers to his cousin's college. His cousin, Gil, played by Dublin James, is a legacy to the coolest frat on campus, but the problem is... he's a dweeb. A funny and sweet guy, but a dweeb nonetheless. He basically needs his popular Jock cousin to pledge with him to guarantee his acceptance into the frat. They do and whacky hijinks ensue.
There's the sexed up womanizer pledge (Oliver Hudson), the
pot-head pledge (Todd Giebenhain) who steals just about every scene he's in,
the born to be a frat brother party guy pledge (Steve Monroe... Yeah, that
guy from the "Zesty" Taco Bell commercials) and then you have Chris Owen's
asshole character which he's honed to perfection from American Pie
(Sherminator anyone?), She's All That, etc.
Now, I'm leaving out a bunch more people, but if I keep going
I'll end up spoiling too many surprise characters and character traits. I do
want to bring up two more people before I move on though: Laura Harris and
James DeBello. DeBello, who was awesome in Detroit Rock City, has a cameo in
the film and is fucking hilarious. This man needs to work a lot more. He's
quite a character.
Laura, lovely Laura. Now, I may be a bit biased when talking about this blonde goddess, but what the hell. Those long time readers may remember the interview I did with her before Faculty came out (Read it Here It's Covered In Crusty Clothes!). Those that have read that interview knew how in love I am with this woman way back in the Summer of '98. Now it's 3 years later and I'm sleeping on her couch and watching her new movies. God Bless America.
Anyway, she plays Paige, the would be girlfriend to Dylan Bruno's
character who refuses to date somebody who is pledging a fraternity due to
some dark secret she won't reveal. She's goddamn hot, dude. Still is. And
just the sweetest person in the world. Who could not fall in love with this
woman? This woman, right here:
Bruno's character is stupid, stupid, stupid for not staying by this woman's side... Sure, he's doing good things for his cousin by pledging, but dude... It's friggin' Laura. Family or Laura? Tough call... I can't say I'd have the moral fabric to ignore Laura to help out a cousin...
Moving on... What this movie excels at is not pulling its
punches. It's like a good old fashioned '80s teen sex romp. Ladies and
Gentlemen, we have titties in this movie.
For a long time and quite frequently. There are titties and raunchiness that'd put American Pie to shame. It's about hazing for Chrissakes! They have much more real life grossness to take from, including my favorite scene in the film.
There's this hazing situation where you get all the pledges in a circle, put a cake or cookie-cake in the middle of the circle and have them all masturbate. The last one to finish has to eat the whole cake... with the new organic "frosting" and all. They call it a "Circle Jerk." Well, in this film they do this "Circle Jerk," but do it to the Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not only that, but a thought bubble pops up for each of the pledges and we get a window into their fantasies and see exactly what's exciting them as they jerk off. It's the single funniest 3 minutes of continious gags I've seen in quite a long while.
I couldn't believe they got The Raiders March. It's not remixed
or some alternative version. It was the honest to God John Williams famous
Indiana Jones theme. I turned to Laura after the scene and said, "That had
to be the temp score. There's no way you guys got that in the movie in this
context." She told me the everything was final on the film, but a few sound
mixing things. So, I hope to God this scene stays in the film as is and that
the Raiders Theme is not a temp track. It was perfection, I tell ya'!
So, those who love a good gross out teen sex farce college movie
thingy would definitely get a kick outta this flick. Will you be able to see
it anytime soon? I know there's a distributor's screening sometime in the
near future, but as of right now it's not picked up. I'll keep you folks up
to date on this one. I can't imagine with material as strong as this that
the film would stay undistributed for very long.
There you have it, squirties. I got a few script reviews to throw at ya' as well as some in-depth looks at this mysterious indie film I visited while in LA. Look for a hunka-hunka lot of exclusive pics and coverage of this soon to be cult classic flick in the very near future. 'Til that day, my lovely mermaids and fellow seaman. 'Til that day. Farewell and adieu.
-Quint
Monkeys aren't just for mating with ya know, they also make wonderful ashtrays!
Readers Talkback
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goddam i hate "frat movies"...ok animal house was funny with the "i gave my love a chicken" bit, but besides from that.huh.......and shit, dont even get me started on American Pie.....sheesh....it's late, i need sleep
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...that they are written, directed, etc. by people who have no idea about what goes on behind those doors, but merely rely on urban legend and fantasy to make themselves feel better about being unpopular. "I would never eat a cookie with cum on it. I am a better person than the people that are popular because they demean themselves just so they can buy friends." I've got news for you guys - shit like this doesnt't happen. Any time you feel the urge to believe any story involving elephant walks, circle jerks, goat fucking, etc. remember that somebody along the line made up a story to either mess with your head or make themselves feel better about being rejected by the "in-crowd." There are many reasons to legitimately dislike fraternities, but imagined hazing rituals involving demeaning sexual practices isn't one of them.
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Excuse me if I might Quint, but your plugging for this film is nauseating. Are you trying to write up a report as a reporter or as a fan? I know I don't have to tell you to be objective and that you know all that already. It's just unfortunate that this comes off as a favor to a friend almost. Im disappointed... I usually enjoy your write ups very much -dash101
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I love how people that visit this site get pissed when people make generalizations about movie geeks (living with parents, virgin, etc.), but then they turn around and make generalizations about people who were (are) in fraternities. Some people live up to those images, but so do some people who worship the Matrix. As far as hazing stuff just being urban legends, that's not true either. Elephant walks, nude runs, playing navy-meal, etc are parts of different fraternities initiations. Whether or not it was worth it to get into an organization is up to the individual person, but it's funny how people groups and organizations and people that they don't know, haven't been part of, don't understand. Just because you're a GDI doesn't make you a bad person, just like being associated with a fraternal organization doesn't make you a bad person either.
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that Laura let you f*ck her in exchange for advertising her new movie. Tell me I'm wrong.
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Good points all around. Let me ammend my previous statement to say that some of the things Quint, you, and I mentioned MAY have and still do happen, but, at the very most, are isolated incidents (with the exception of public nudity or streaking which are still relatively common.) I was a fraternity member and none of these incidents ever occurred (with noted exception above) either to me or anyone I knew, nor were there any stories that were told to me by anyone who had first-hand knowledge of their occurance. The only stories I heard were from guys who got their jollies by attempting to scare the more naive pledges or the more common "I know a guy who knows a guy whose cousin's best friend had to fuck a goat" variety. It is the second variety (along with the predatory rapists in training) that film makers/authors/militant-feminists tend to rely on when attempting to comment on something that they have no knowlege of.
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it looks somewhat closer to the usual Farrelly stuff rather than to the "American Pie" (which I think wasn't THAT funny). The masturbation scene seems to be a classic (although I'm a bit tired of masturbating scenes, even "American Beauty" had at least two). What's nex, a Disney animated movie with oral sex and sodomy? PG I suppose.
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At least a decent part of this film was shot in the frat house about half a block from where I'm sitting right now (no, I'm not Greek, but dating a frat boy ::lookofshame:: tends to plug you into that scene), and that house is notorious as the worst for hazing, particularly for said elephant walks. Also, many of the boys in that house partake of weed frequently, and after shooting a couple nights Simon Rex decided to smoke out with the (real) frat boys! Amused me, anyway.
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At least a decent part of this film was shot in the frat house about half a block from where I'm sitting right now (no, I'm not Greek, but dating a frat boy ::lookofshame:: tends to plug you into that scene), and that house is notorious as the worst for hazing, particularly for said elephant walks. Also, many of the boys in that house partake of weed frequently, and after shooting a couple nights Simon Rex decided to smoke out with the (real) frat boys! Amused me, anyway.
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did i miss it? if so, does anyone have a link to it?
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Yay...yet another movie protraying Greek Life as nothing but partying and getting laid. I am a freshman in college and join a sorority this year and I hate to burst some long-running cliches but Greek Life doesn't resemble the stereotypical Animal House mentality. We are the leaders on campus, do charity events and other things for the community, and have to uphold academic excellence as members. I realize that my view is probably bias and off-kilter since I am at a small private college in Iowa, but still. Hopefully there will be some Greeks on here who will agree with me. Niki
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Harry--How could you put up a fricking electronic press kit? This is a B movie that has no distributor and one of the worst straight to video screenplays I have seen in quite some time. What's wrong with you, Harry? Why are you letting this garbage occur on your site? I came here for years and I have really supported what you were trying to do, but this is the last straw. This is pandering at it's worst. I closed my eyes and read when you supported filmmakers who were friends because I considered you objectionable, but you didn't even know about this film and you let this pablum, this blatant advertisement be posted? I can't sit here and believe you needed the content, Harry. I can't understand for the life of me why you have turned a place for movie news into a website that's just trying to create buzz for whatever reasons you feel like it. If you had any shred of integrity, Harry, you would take this puff piece down...or did you not even read the content? Maybe that's the case. And as for you Quint, this is despicable...this is not journalism...you should do your friends a favor and not offer them this kind of plug. It looks cheap and anyone who read this page could see right through it.
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Bicycle Bob--I'm glad you too had the displeasure to read the crap this movie was based on. We passed on twice--in the script stage and based on the actual film. This is so sad, because I really think Harry has the ability to champion good movies, but he's lost his compass...letting Quint put this up here was completely wrong. Have you ever seen another post on a movie on this site where there were as many production stills as this one? For a movie with no distributor? From what I understand anyway, the distributor who was planning on releasing this trash already bailed out, so I can see why Quint praised this hoping he can dupe some brain dead exec into helping out a friend in need. I think Harry, as editor in chief of this site, should really start to re-evalute his standards and practices...what hurts me most is I love Harry and what I thought he was trying to be. Take this ad down Harry, I'm sure they didn't pay you what your banner advertisers have to pay you for this kind of plug.
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Frat boys pay for their friends. Thats even more pathetic than film geeks.
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May 3, 2001, 7:35 a.m. CST
Crouton is the kid we dropkicked from rush because he wore capri
by Mel Garga
By the way, dropkicking is when a rushee is asked to leave because he's not going to get a bid anyway. This is shallow? Too fucking bad - go back to your dorm and play monopoly with the RA. And for the first talkbacker from Iowa or Utah - I hate to say this but you have your head up your ass if you're trying to defend our respective organizations. Sure, we all do philanthropic things, but only because we have to and it looks good on a resume. And don't give me this "Only frats haze" bullshit. Some of the worst hazing I saw as a pledge was when a certain sorority brought their pledges to our house and made them do bad things...bad things, man. I've rarely seen a realistic portrayal of frats in film with the exception of fragments of Animal House, and I don't expect much from this sorry posted promo.
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Fraternity life was all about having a good time. What's wrong with that? The paying for your friends thing is so bullshit. Crouton have you ever belonged to any organization? 4-H, Cub Scouts, chess club, whatever? If you did you probably had to pay some kind of fee or dues, whatever you prefer to call it. Did you have friends that you met there? Did that mean that you bought your friends? Your friends are your friends, just because someone is in the same fraternity as you doesn't mean that you're friends, and if someone isn't that doesn't mean that you don't like them. I fail to see what is wrong with having a good time when you're in college. Maybe you drink, maybe you don't. Hopefully you get laid. These things happen to people that are both in and not in fraternities. Your represent groups you belong to, they don't represent you.
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