THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509190218
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
THERE IS A tendency to give some movies leeway as being ``just stupid movies.'' ``National Lampoon's Senior Trip'' stretches that generosity beyond the limit. This movie is about as hep as yesterday's mashed potatoes, and twice as soggy.
If Hollywood thinks a bunch of potty jokes are all that today's young filmgoers want to see, they haven't been out of the studio lately.
The ``National Lampoon'' trademark once meant outrageous satire, as in ``Animal House,'' or irreverent shenanigans, as in the ``Vacation,'' series. Now it apparently means just a rip-off.
The basic idea of ``Senior Trip'' is not a bad one. A group of misfit Ohio students get national attention when the only smart one in their midst writes a letter to the president about what's wrong with the educational system. The president, pictured all too believably as a simple-minded idiot, is so impressed that he brings them to Washington as a way to push his new bill in Congress. The highly conservative rival of the liberal president investigates and, upon learning that the students are morons, plans to use the visit to embarrasses the chief executive.
The scriptwriters didn't manage to do any research whatsoever on government. They have the president sitting on a Senate committee and suggest that a single senator would have the power to dictate what food every school in the country would buy.
Given the possibilities for political satire, the filmmakers chose to do nothing with it other than have a parade of cliched ``kids'' ride a bus to Washington. There is the fat kid who wants sex. There is the smart, but ostracized, girl who eventually proves she can party. There are the slackers (two of them) who act like Bill and Ted (but talk as if they lived in the '50s).
Most of them look as if they're 25 going on 28.
Tommy Chong is the drug-wracked bus driver. (He's addicted to horse tranquilizers). Matt Frewer (formerly Max Headroom) is the unbelievably klutzy principal. Valieri Mahaffey is the typing teacher - stuffy on the exterior but just yearning to become a slut. Jeremy Renner and Rob Moore are Dags and Reggie, the Bill and Ted wannabes.
They all line up and yell a bit - and then it ends. That's about all there is to ``Senior Trip,'' which is making a short visit to theaters before reaching oblivion in video trappings.
Movies like this are meant to make every ticket buyer feel superior to the ultra-stupid characters. If that's what you want, you'll get your money's worth. Anyone who doesn't feel superior to this crowd is in bad trouble. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``National Lampoon's Senior Trip''
Cast: Matt Frewer, Valerie Mahaffey, Lawrence Dane, Tommy Chong
Director: Kelly Makin
Screenplay: Roger Kumble, I. Marlene King
MPAA rating: R (potty jokes)
Mal's rating: 1/2 star
Locations: Chesapeake Square in Chesapeake; Janaf, Main Gate in
Norfolk; Columbus, Kemps River, Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach
by CNB