Fabiana Udenio | Through the Shattered Lens

Summer School was the movie that made flunking out look like fun.

Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) is a relaxed, fun-loving gym teacher who is looking forward to spend his summer in Hawaii until he’s assigned to spend the summer teaching remedial English in summer school. (His girlfriend goes to Hawaii without him.) Freddy’s not happy about giving up his summer and he’s prepared to just spend his days taking his students to the beach, the amusement park, and the zoo. But when he finds out that he’s going to lose his job unless his students pass the big test at the end of the summer, he gets serious and discovers what teaching is supposed to be all about.

When I was growing up, Summer School seemed to be on television all the time. If it wasn’t on HBO, it was on one of the local stations, usually right before summer began. The summer school kids seemed to be having too much fun for kids stuck in school. I don’t think my classmates in Baltimore would have been as happy about losing their summer as the students in this film. Everyone who has seen this film remembers Dave and Chainsaw (Gary Riley and Dean Cameron) making jokes and showing everyone The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They also remember Anna-Maria (Fabiana Udenio), the Italian exchange student who took summer school to work on her English. They remember Freddy letting one of his students move in with him, which doesn’t seem like a good idea even if she was played by Courtney Thorne-Smith. Myself, I remember Robin Bishop, the teacher next door, who was played by an extremely sexy Kirstie Alley. (This was one of the many 80s films in which Kirstie Alley made being uptight seem sexy.) Of course, Robin was dating the snobbish principal who was trying to get Freddy Shoop fired.

I’m not going to sit here and say that Summer School is a great film. It’s a dumb comedy with an uplifting message about what a good teacher can accomplish. However, Summer School is a very likable film, an enjoyable 80s teen romp that suggests summer school was the place to be in the late 80s. Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, and all the students give good performances. How many future horror nerds were inspired by Dave and Chainsaw? Legendary nice guy Carl Reiner directed and the movie itself is amiable and amusing enough to be watchable.

After the violent death of his son Sonny Calzone, the Oddfather (Dom DeLuise) announces that his other son, Guppy Calzone (Kevin McDonald, of the Kids In The Hall), will be taking over the family business. Guppy is sent to Mafia University, where he learns how to garrote a traitor and dismember a body. Guppy falls in love with Don Na (Fabiana Udenio), the daughter of the Rodfather (Rodney Dangerfield), the leader of a rival family.

The Godson tries to do to gangster movies what Airplane! did to disaster movies. Dom DeLuise does a good Brando impersonation and there’s a funny moment where Guppy stops the action and tries to convince people in the audience to buy a Guppy action figure. Otherwise, this is a poorly-done parody film. Good comedy is all about timing and The Godson flunks that test. Jokes are either too long or too short but hardly any of them stick. The idea of Mafia University is funnier than the, if you’ll excuse the phrase, execution. Even worse, the movie doesn’t make much use of Rodney Dangerfield. When one of the funniest men who ever lived appears in your movie, it’s cinematic malpractice not to give him a chance to shine.

If the film has a highlight, it’s Lou Ferrigno as a member of the Oddfather’s crew. Otherwise, this is a missed opportunity.