BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

david-sarkies Upon first hearing of this movie my initial thoughts were "not another sex-romp comedy in the vein of Animal House." Well, I guess once again I was wrong. My friend said that this movie is very close to what campus life is like in the 1990's. Having sat through numerous 1980's sex romp comedies, such as Revenge of the Nerds and Fraternity Vacation, I was not to keen on seeing it again. Upon seeing this movie I realised that the sex romp comedy has gone out of fashion now and college comedies are not going to be as stereotypical as they previously were.My friend's comment about PCU Pit Party being an accurate rendition of 90's campus life is pretty correct. One of the major differences between Australian Universities and American Universities is that in Australia our students do not live on campus (or they at least don't in Adelaide University, and I believe that is the same across Australia). This is probably because Australia is a very urbanised nation and those who go to university generally live in the city surrounding it, though this is not always the case. My friend who recommended this movie to me lived for a year in a college and his parents lived in the city as well.A pre-fresh comes to Port Chester University (PCU) just before the year ends so that he may see what campus life is like. He has been assigned to the pit, a very run down boarding house were all of the politically incorrect live. While he is there he manages to anger the protesters, the militant Negroes, and all of the students who are frantically typing out their thesis's to meet the Monday deadline, but this isn't the plot of the movie. The Pit, being where all of the people who snub political correctness live, are offending a lot of people and the president of the University wants them out so that some preps might move in. Thus they must first raise $7000 to pay their damage bill and then get rid of the president so that they might remain where they live.The main thrust of this movie is an attack at political correctness. The title, PCU, seems to even bring out this theme. This movie is said to be a 90's version of Animal House, and the big thing in the 90's is political correctness. I guess the thrust of this movie is that political correctness can be very bad when taken to the extreme. Here we are not looking at insulting Negroes or removing gay rights, but rather making a mockery of how far some of the rabid feminists take it. The movie seems to use the word person in a way where it goes from being politically correct to being stupid.There are two main antagonists in this movie, the preppies (bascially rich kids), and the womanists. There are also the protesters who basically protest about anything and really do not have any true cause, but they are more comical than anything else. In fact I guess the womanists are comical in a way, but they are rabidly anti-male, and this is taken to the extreme as there is no real reason behind their cause. It is interesting when one of them discovers that males are not all that bad because if you actually be friendly to them then they will give things to you. The other thing is their protest at the "penis party", claiming that it is a symbol of male oppression. The advertisement that they did not like was "everybody gets laid at the Pit". The ironic thing is that not only is the band called "Everybody gets Laid", but the name was thought up by a woman.The final thing we see is the stupidity of all of this protesting. The speech at the end, which is typical of such movies, has the main character plead to the students to put their differences behind them and to protest against the establishment. In the end this movie is an attack against the establishment and it points towards the establishment for creating the whole idea of political correctness to create dissension among the masses. While the masses are fighting over their own individual rights, the establishment - as portrayed by the preppies and the president, are able to work their wicked schemes. I guess in the end the theme of this movie is that political correctness has its place, but one can go overboard in applying it.

Robert Allen The movie features an incredible cast with Jeremy Piven anchoring the lead role, and featuring David Spade in a usual tie-wearing, brown nosing politician egocentric.The movie from beginning to the end was fun and funny, yet doing their part to point out the vast political correctness and sensitivity society is in these days. The only thing was it felt like a ripoff of Animal House (only a PG13 version). The fraternity on campus that causes problems for the university...the dean trying to run them out of the school...the alcohol...the parties and the dean's personal student monkey.But for those that could care less about originality...this movie is a must-see.

guyfromjerzee I'm really glad this movie was able to find its audience on video, because it deserves recognition. This is a damn good film! The unfortunate thing about a movie like "PCU" is that the "Animal House" comparisons are inevitable. But there's no point in comparing. "PCU" stands on its own two feet. "Animal House" is one take on college fraternities and "PCU" is another. It's like comparing "The Naked Gun" to "In the Heat of the Night," because they're both about cops. The characters and plot in this movie are in no way derivative of "Animal House." Jeremy Piven was a great choice for the lead. I've always been a fan of his, but he always gets stuck with supporting roles. In this case, he proves that he has the confidence to carry a lead role. His laid-back sense of humor makes the jokes all-the-more hilarious. I'm often more appreciative of comic actors who don't try to hammer a joke to death with mugging and wacky inflections. Piven delivers a joke the way it's supposed to be delivered--in a straight fashion. We don't see enough of that nowadays. And I can say the same about most of the actors in the film, with maybe the exception of David Spade. He's the type of actor, who can either be sarcastically funny or sarcastically annoying. He doesn't exactly provide the film's funniest moments, but he plays a moderately small role and doesn't get much of a chance to do any annoying shtick.In the DVD commentary, Jeremy Piven mentioned that the actors weren't allowed to improvise, and he was very disapproving of director Hart Bochner's choice to follow the script verbatim. Luckily, that didn't exactly hurt the film, since the actors were working with a solid script. The point is the movie doesn't look scripted. Whether or not they actually were, the actors seemed comfortable with the material and delivered every gag with great precision. Besides, when you let actors improvise too much, that can also hurt a film. I liked the "Rush Hour" movies, but at times it's so evident that Chris Tucker was stepping out of character to make the audience laugh that there were parts where I was taken out of the movie. I certainly can't complain too much, because the comic style of "PCU" had a uniqueness to it that really stood out for me. After watching Hart Bochner's extremely broad spoof, "High School High," I wasn't exactly sure he had a knack for directing comedy. But in this case, he proved me wrong. The gags here are nowhere near as broad, and it helps that the actors don't act like they're in a comedy. Plus, there are very few cheap shots. Very few jokes about bodily functions of genitalia. In other words, the humor had a certain intelligence--something I DEFINITELY can't say about most comedies nowadays. This is not one of those comedies aimed at a teen to young adult audience, where you're allowed to have an I.Q. of 10. As you can tell from the memorable quotes section, there are plenty of great lines. "You're gonna wear the T-shirt of the band you're gonna go see? Don't be that guy." By the way, that's the only line Jeremy was allowed to improvise, for all you trivia buffs. The most memorable gag, in my opinion, is the one involving the sign language interpreter, who has to translate phrases like "butt pirate" and "pillow biter." No one can deny that gag was classic.Another way cool thing about this movie: the gorgeous Megan Ward. I've never seen her look hotter. She has such a gorgeous girl-next-door look that when Chris Young's character got to kiss her, I felt his happiness. There's a great shot of her from behind, where she's wearing low-cut denim shorts. Very nice! So many elements of this movie just click. I loved the soundtrack too. The songs played over the opening and closing credits are both way cool, and plus you're treated to the great sounds of George Clinton during the film. It was an original idea to choose George Clinton, since you'd expect to see a hard rock or heavy metal band in a film of this sort. All in all, go see this overlooked gem of a movie! You won't be disappointed!

Seth Goldsmith A lot of people call this movie a third rate Animal House. I can't really argue with that assesment, but at the same time...I really, really love PCU. I watch it whenever it is on Comedy Central. I love the cast of the movie, I love the making fun of sacred cows like the PC movement of the mid 90's, I love that this movie gleefully embraces every cliche of the college comedy. I am a film student with film studenty tastes most of the time, but I really love this movie, and can't quite explain why.