Do Not Protest The Anti-Protest Protest!!!
I think it's about freakin' time I do a comedy! All I seem to be watching are drama's, action, horror, or romantic movies. There's nothing wrong with any of that, but a guy like me, who enjoys comedies, needs a comedic break every once in awhile. So, my loving girlfriend Felicia, realizing this, said, "Ok, fine. Here's a comedy about these college screw ups."
I said "Animal House? I seen that already."
"No...", she said.
"Back To School?"
"No..."
"Oh..Van Wilder!"
"Jesus Christ, shut the hell up! It's 'PCU', it came out in the early '90's and it mocks Political Correctness! Jesus!!"
Then she stormed into her bedroom, where she remains while I write this.
Lover's spat aside, I watched PCU and I must say it was quite enjoyable.
Movie starts with Tom Lawrence, a "Pre-Frosh", going to PCU, which stands for Port Chester University, to check it out for a day to see if he wants to attend there. The person he's suppose to meet to show him around the school is James Andrews, AKA Droz, played by Jeremy Piven.
"Jeremy Piven?" you may be asking yourself. "Isn't he like in his late 30's?"
True, but I think it was suppose to be a gag for two reasons: A-A spoof of all those college movies featuring older people playing college kids, and B-He was suppose to be attending this school for 7 years, being a sophomore for three years.
Tom finds his way to a old frat house, but it's no longer a frat cause the university banned frats from forming sometime ago, so now it is just called "The Pit", and a bunch of low life drunk party-goers reside there. He meets up with Katy, a freshman chick, and immediately takes a liking to her. She's in a nameless band, which gets a name later. Katy takes Tom to Droz, who is passed out in his room.
Tom wakes him up, finds out that he got picked to show Tom around as a joke and proceeds to show him around. The entire campus houses several different activists groups, because the world has become "P.C". An example shown right away is a group of "Causeheads" lead by a chick named Moonbeam. Every week, they fight for a different cause and this week happens to be meat. They stage a protest in front of the cafeteria, throwing paint on anyone who tries to walk in. I think they got their causes mixed up, but anyway. Droz, his friends The Daves, and Mullaney, a black dude who is the black blind dude on "Becker", go to a window and start throwing raw meat at the Causeheads. This upsets them and they chase after Tom, who was abandoned by the Pit People.
The President of the University, Andrea Garcia-Thompson, wants to get rid of The Pit, and so does Randall McPherson, played by David Spade. Randall heads up a secret underground Preppy fraternity called Balls & Shaft. Don't ask me, I don't know either.
Tom hears Randall talking to his fellow members (Oh I think I get it now...) about how they want the Pit Crew taken out of their house so they can get it. Their plan is to give them a seven thousand dollar repair bill for all the destruction they caused on campus. Knowing they don't have that cash that handy, The Pit would have to throw a big party, all the activist groups are gonna riot, and this will cause President Garcia-Thompson to throw them out.
Well...so yeah everything Randall plans happens. Droz does have the idea to throw a party to raise the money. He sends Gutter, played by Jon Favareu, out to get beer. Gutter is sort of like Orge in "Revenge of The Nerds" but not so hateful and not so smart. Gutter is suppose to go see this guy named Mersh, played by Jake Busey, Gary's son, who is a pothead, and his band play, but instead he has to get the beer. Mersh gives Gutter some pot, which distracts his quest for beer.
Katy and her band finally get a name settled, calling themselves "Everyone Gets Laid" and they plaster that on fliers. Well Randall gets ahold of the flier and he thinks it means that anyone who goes to that party will get laid. Oops.
While setting up, the band blows out their instruments when Pigman changes the fuses. Pigman is watching hours of television because he's writing a thesis on how many movies played on TV either stars Michael Caine or Gene Hackman.
Droz, while getting planned for this party, runs into Sam, this girl he use to have a thing with. Something happened in their relationship and she ran off and joined "The Womynist", a man-bashing group. The Womyn won't let him talk to her.
Tom, meanwhile, manages to upset geeks writing their thesis', the group of black people who hate white people, and the stoners, because he stole their frisbee. While hiding from those groups, he overhears two old guys saying they wanna get rid of Garcia-Thompson but can't and the only way to get rid of her is if she messes something up.
Gutter passed out and has a weird dream where he's in a senate hearing, defending himself against alligations that he smoked weed. He wakes up and it's past 8 PM, and according to a state law, no one can buy booze past 8. State laws suck, very hard. I'm grateful to live in Indiana, where liquor stores are open until midnight. But that might be because there's nothing else to do in Indiana except to drink. Anyway, Gutter runs into George Clinton, who is on his way to a gig. Gutter asks him for a ride back to campus, not knowing who George Clinton is.
Droz arrives back at the pit and finds no party and no band. He thinks everything is hopeless until Gutter shows up with George Clinton. Droz asks if he and the Parliment can play. You know...The Parliment? The Parliment of Funk? They're George Clinton's band, you non-musical toad! He says sure and they set the rest of the party plans into motion.
Katy, in charge of getting people to attend the party, run into Tom, who is about to leave, because he's aggrivated that all these groups, which now probably includes gay guys, jocks, satan worshippers, Rolling Stone's fans, The KISS Army, and MISTies, are after him. She kisses him, which turns him on, and he decides to stay to help her out. He decides to get all the groups who are pissed off at him to follow him to The Pit.
George Clinton starts playing and the activist groups put aside their anger, pay their cover charge, and go in and boogie. But what about the booze, you may be asking? Well, Droz, he's a pretty smart fellow for being in college for 7 years. He breaks into a faculty party, steals their bar (I mean literally steals the bar itself), and locks them into a room, while "Afternoon Delight" by The Starland Vocal Band is blaring. Needless to say, they don't like this very much and try to break out soon.
The party is in full swing and the Pit got their money. Things seem to look up...except Garcia-Thompson shows up, tells them the money doesn't matter cause they still got written complaints about them, and throws everyone out. Things look hopeless now...until Tom tells them what he overheard the old guys talking about.
The next day, a bicentennial is being planned for the school and she is suppose to unveil a new mascot, when Droz takes over the stage, let's the new mascot, an endangered whooping crane, loose, and talks to the students. He says all this P.C crap is, well, crap, and that they all should stop protesting and just live together and party hard! Everyone agrees to stop protesting and they make a protest to stop the protest. When The President can't control the students, the old guys fire her and The Pit keeps their house. Randall ends up insulting all the activist and, at the end of the movie, they all chase him around campus. Tom decides to go to PCU when he graduates and gets a little somethin', somethin' from Katy. Oh, and he's accepted into The Pit.
Looking around the internet about this movie, critics (who I utterly loathe) claim this to be the 90's "Animal House" and I suppose that makes sense. But which is better? I'd have to say that PCU is better, but only slightly. Plus PCU was trying to make a point: that Political Correctness is getting way out of hand. And I agree, I think there is too much of that crap going on, and even though this movie was made in 1994, I think the points made in this movie still stands today. Maybe we all should become gay black lesbians who are vegans and wanna save the planet and free the animals and Free Nelson Mandella. That works for me. It's good to see that my girlfriend shares my comedic tastes. To quote the movie, "It's tasteless, disgusting, and offensive...I like it!" Enough said!
Oh, my girlfriend finally came out of her room.
4 stars.
"PCU" on IMDb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110759/