Quick Look: PCU (1994)

People in the Movie: Chris Young, Jeremy Piven, David Spade
Director: Hart Bochner
Pigeonhole: Comedy

The Basics: Tom (Young) is a high school senior visiting Port Chester University for the weekend to decide if he wants to attend here in the fall.  He meets some very interesting students highlighted by his slacker, weekend host nicknamed Droz (Piven), and a young "conservative" named Rand (Spade).  Tom also finds out that the campus body is divided into extremely passionate "cause" groups and that being politically correct seems to be at the center of these causes.  Droz and his friends reside in "the Pit", a former fraternity house, and spend their days antagonizing the cause-heads through various comical enterprises. 
Tom, while initially tagging along with Droz, also manages to upset various groups around PCU including the Vegans, for helping to dump meat on their protest of the cafeteria for serving meat; the stoners, for stealing their frisbee; the Womynists (an angry feminsit group) for being associated with the Pit who are having a party (which they refer to as a penis party); a group of students working on their theses when he trips over the main-frame power supply; not to mention the conservatives and the Afro-centrists.  Tom eventually leads them all back to the Pit, where an all campus party commences with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic (who ended up there by accident) are playing.

My Two Sense: PCU is a "college movie" that satirizes a glimpse of life on campus in the early/ mid 90's, much in the same way Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds gave us a comical look at university in the 70's and 80's respectively.  Because I was in college from 1992-1996, this movie really hits on some of the flavors of the times for me, and watching PCU reminds me of the care-free hilarity I enjoyed.  In fact, I was nicknamed Gutter for a stretch of time, due to some of my similarities to the character.  PCU much like its predecessors takes its moments to a hilarious extreme to emphasize the absurdity of the situations, and succeeds for the most part.  Anyone who attended college in the 90's likely had a PCU moment at some point, whether it be a protest, or having met one of the caricature-like cast.
Where I consider PCU slightly weak, was in its PG13 rating.  There was drinking and some minimal drug use, but college is all about voting age adults acting like irresponsible children, complete with foul language, getting loaded, nudity and sex.  PCU is a very good movie, but it is missing that "edge" that is achieved with R rated material.  What is also a little strange is that it is only 79 minutes long, yet there are moments of slow down, which should not happen given all the possibilities for rapid fire comic moments.

Any movie that can have a protest to not protest, a party with George Clinton, and a scene with a group of women playing bongos and shouting "this penis party's got to go" is definitely going to be a favorite of mine.       

Extras:
- The writers Adam Leff and Zak Penn based the film on their own experiences while attending Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT
- P-Funk was not the first choice of the band to play the party... Nirvana and Goo Goo Dolls were also considered