As far as low budget, cheesy movies go, Up The Creek is decent. I will not attempt to suggest that it is a great movie, but it has it's moments.Tim Matheson is entertaining, though he is playing a character not too far removed from Otter of Animal House. A good flick for a lazy, brainless afternoon.
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mysterlynch12 July 2003
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FunnyMann25 October 2001Is this flick good? Jesus, no. Is this flick funny? Somehow, yes.
"Up the Creek" has not aged well (what a shocker), but it's a perfect example of the pointless, disposable comedies they made in the early- to mid-80s. You know, the kind of film that aspired to reach the heights of, say, "Porky's."
Actually, "Up The Creek" has a pretty solid comic pedigree, at least as solid as you can get in a film like this. Two "Animal House" vets, a "Porky's" refugee, and -- I can't believe I know this -- the chick from "Charles in Charge."
Every scene, every joke, every character here is dumb. And thank God. Another review mentioned that this is a good drinking film. Actually, I think "Up The Creek" was made specifically FOR drunk people. (And possibly by drunk people.) But that's OK. It's all good. I mean, the film's not good, but then again, it is. Ah, forget it. Just grab a case, a beer bong, and watch the damn thing. -
ezgoinguy9719681 September 2018Stupid, sophomoric and just plain fun. A cast that feels like The River Wild version of Animal House without the killer. Give it a view.
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Coxer9931 May 1999Sophomoric humor taken to the limit by Animal House alums Matheson and Furst as college misfits on a white water rafting race in the hope of bringing glory to their mediocre university. Slapstick gags, goofy all around...but good fun.
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bkoganbing2 September 2020Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst take the characters they created in Animal House and transfer them to Up The Creek. The story has the Dean at Lapetomane University John Hillerman promising to give degrees to Matheson, Furst, and Dan Monahan and Sandy Helburg and rid himself of these four 'scholars' if they can win one trophy which would be a first for the school.
What they enter is a rafting contest and it's one no holds barred contest. But the guys are up to the challenge.
Up The Creek in spots is very funny with Animal House like humor. But when you have three of these geniuses playing charades with their dog to find out where one of them is you know you're not in for an evening of Noel Coward like wit.
for some really low brow tastes. -
A year following this frolicking party film, Tim Matheson would ask Chevy Chase to kill him in FLETCH. Chase was supposed to play the role of OTTER in ANIMAL HOUSE (before John Landis objected, not wanting his film to be a SNL skit), a role that made Matheson, a former child actor who was growing into various filler roles (like MAGNUM FORCE), famous. In FLETCH, Matheson is in his forties, a dapper businessman. Here he's a college student, and actually looks much younger than in FLETCH but way too old to be a student. He's one of four slackers stuck in a purgatory college sent on a river rafting race, a win garnering them not only free degrees but a chance to defeat the bad guys: a quartet of perfect looking blonde dudes.
Here we have a wacky adventure that spends the first half partying on land and the second half partying downstream. It's splendidly vapid entertainment from start to finish, providing terrific action shots along the roaring rapids. Stephen Furst, another ANIMAL HOUSE alumni, flounders as a fat guy who likes to eat. Dan Monahan ("Pee Wee" of PORKY'S fame) is included but adds little more than a smiling face to the mindless goings-ons throughout. And Jennifer Runyan is fitfully pouty and pretty as Matheson's conquest. -
teejajohnson21 August 2018Don't get me started on Stephen Furst's character, I mean how unfunny and dumb was he, but even though Tim Matheson displays his great acting chops, there are so many obvious ripoffs of Animal House, it's literally not even funny. I mean there are lines that are verbatim taken from Animal House & used in Up The Creek. Not a total turd but pretty damn close.
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merklekranz25 April 2017Tim Matheson easily carries this "Animal House" follow up comedy. You get a nice dose of his sarcasm, a white water rafting competition, a dog that plays charades, a tad of nudity, good looking outdoor photography, and several inspired hilarious moments. Comparing "Up the Creek" to some other teen romps, I would have to say that it holds up quite well. "American Pie" I rate 6.5, " Animal House" 8.0, and "Up the Creek" 6.0. I'd rank it slightly better than something like "Malibu Bikini Shop" 5.5. The film is fast moving, and rarely a moment goes by without something outrageous happening. It also seems to have aged quite well, since most of the movie takes place in the woods and on the creek. I was surprised how much I liked it. - MERK
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ericolsen19531 January 2005Why would somebody make a comedy movie that's not funny? Maybe they changed directors mid-stream, or there was a death among the principal technicians and someone else had to edit or whatever. But, this movie is just not funny; even though the script keeps telling you how side-splitting it is, and how you're enjoying it more than you did "Animal House" or "Porky's". Even worldly sophisticates like George Plimpton or Wm F. Buckley like slapstick, sophomoric sex jokes and watching drunk frat-boys being jerks as much as the next guy. We keep looking for some in this poorly-done piece of crap and are more disappointed than the first audience that saw "Plan 9 From Outer Space." The worst scene of the film sticks with me, two beautiful girls enter a nightclub full of elligible dudes and no other women (yes, the story is supposed to be about a whitewater-rafting trip!); they looks about feigning sexual hunger and one of them says "Take NO prisoners". Like the rest of this awful film: is that supposed to be funny? Or sexy? You just feel sorry for the actors, technicians and investors while you're miffed at the directors and producers.
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Mister-64 October 1999How can a movie like this miss?
It has two veterans from "Animal House" (Matheson and Furst), Pee-Wee from "Porky's" (Monahan), the cop from "Hill Street Blues" (Sikking), a Playmate (Thomasino), a Mel Brooks regular (Helberg), and laughs aplenty. Oh, and did I mention the rapids?
"Up the Creek" just goes to show that the right elements in any movie, when they click, make the experience all the more pleasant. For instance, if you want to make a movie about a bunch of losers that compete for their college in a water rapids race against college twerps that are richer, meaner and, in one case, more militaristic, it helps if you have a cast like mentioned above.
It also helps if there's a dog on hand like Chuck the Dog. He's smart, he's helpful, he knows how to attack where it hurts the most and he plays a mean game of charades. If all dogs were this smart, humans would be in a lot of trouble.
And those rafting scenes: top notch. Not a lot of detail goes into most movies like this. But when they go to that extra trouble, it works. These guys actually did brave the rapids for this flick, the nuts.
This would make a solid rent alongside "Animal House", that is how good "Up the Creek" truly is. Besides, how many slob comedies do you know that try to visually quote the final scene in "Bridge on the River Kwai"?
Seven stars and a twenty-one canoe salute for "Up the Creek"; it serves up the comedy. -
mrsmarohn28 March 2010I HATED this movie, and in fact, I turned it off. I didn't watch the whole thing.
My mom and I had heard that the movie was really funny, so we wanted to see it when we saw it that it was on the on demand thing through her cable company. When the movie starts off, it looks like the Delta house in Animal House. Then as the movie goes on, you see Kent aka Flounder raiding the kitchen, and then you see Eric Stration! I was like can they get any more people from the movie Animal House. I am not sure if they did or not, because we got to the part where the "preppy" kids are talking to the guy in the woods and turned it off. It was just stupid, and we didn't find it funny at all! -
deheor5 December 2005Sometimes the planets align and everything just comes together. Some likable but underused actors join up with a veteran (and really really old) director to film a script written by the author of some minor league films. This is the sort of recipe that more often than not ends up with a mediocre movie that is instantly forgettable but for whatever reasons They ended up producing one of the funniest teen comedies ever made.
A group of loser college students played by an all star collection of teen sex comedy stars including Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst from Animal House, Dan Monahan from Porky's and Sandy Helberg from History of the World Part 1 who,having their arms twisted by a corrupt Dean played by John Hillerman, agree to enter a dangerous raft race with the promise that victory will bring them un-earned degrees.
Excessive drinking, fart jokes and gratuitous nudity are just some of the pleasures that this movie provides for the viewer. It also features the smartest dog in the world (he does charades), a kick ass song by Cheap Trick and the gorgeous Jennifer Runyon (ghostbusters & Charles in charge, I don't know which credit is more impressive) along with some great race footage and hilarious dialog. This movie is simply much better than it has the right to be.
All the people who complain that it is stupid miss the point. Of course it is stupid. Its moronic. Its dumb as dirt. It is also hysterically funny from start to finish. This movie reminds me in many ways of Weekend at Bernies another incredibly goofy movie that if approached in the wrong mood is virtually unwatchable. To avoid injury try not to think. Just sit back and let this movie wash over you. -
witster181 December 2010Tim Matheson is in rare form here. His cocky, brash, and free-spirited attitude keeps a smile on your face the whole time he's on screen.
One of my favorite parts is when Tim is jumped in the parking lot outside of the bar. He's knocked out when his friends find him. They try to get him to come to, but then he starts swinging punches and knocks the crap out of one of his friends. When he gets his wits about him he says,"they got you too? :) Hard to pick one moment because this film delivers laughs for 90 straight minutes. It's well-written, and well-acted for the genre.
The soundtrack is great; out-dated but fantastic. This movie doesn't shy away from what it is... an 80's 'B' 'Boob-comedy' as I like to call them. This is one of the best - maybe THE best. Maybe not as nostalgic as Porky's or Animal House, but it's still at that level on the comedy meter.
Never a dull moment. The fun runs like the river, and you'll be hooked from the opening sequence. A true cult-classic that deserves another viewing if it's been a while, and if you're a comedy fan whose put off finding this little gem - shame on you.
HIGHLY recommended goof-ball comedy. 84/100
One of the most sought-after out-of-print VHS to never get a DVD release. These VHS tapes(in good shape) can go for $25-$50. -
Up the Creek (1984) is a movie that I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a group of school misfits who are about to get kicked out of school. The only chance they have to graduate is win a raft race against their school's rival.
This movie is directed by Robert Butler (Hill Street Blues) and stars Tim Matheson (Animal House), Stephen Furst (Animal House), Dan Monahan (Porkys), Jennifer Runyon (Quantum Leap) and Julia Montgomery (Revenge of the Nerds).
This movie is essentially a Porkys/Animal House mashup where they try to act like those characters in a new set of circumstances. Stephen Furst Actually felt like he was trying to act like John Beluchi. I will say I loved Bend, Oregon in this. It was beautiful. There's also some classic 80s nudity. Despite the comedic content being inconsistent there's a motorcycle scene that was hilarious.
Overall, this movie is inconsistent with some scene that make you smile and some sequences that are just cheesy and corny. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once. -
I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Yes, it's campy. Yes, it's full of sexual references, and other such content. That's what makes this movie great. The movie is Juvenile, and downright 'bad' at times...but that's what makes this movie THE best movie to show at College campus movie nights, which is where I saw it the first time. Then I went out and bought my own copy. I LOVE IT!!!!!!
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ltlacey15 October 2008First off, one must put aside the characters played by Matheson and Furst. Matheson reprises his role from Animal House as the "ladies man" who somehow always gets the girl, and always does so with a swagger, smoking, and drink in hand. He also gets beat up by the "preppy squad." It worked much better in Animal House, but he manages to pull it off for most of this movie. Furst, on the other hand, I have no idea what he's supposed to be as Gonzer. Copying Belushi's Bluto from Animal House? That's what comes to mind at first, and a few times throughout the movie, and truthfully, he just does not pull it off. No one can do it the same way, and each time I have seen it tried in various movies it has failed. So Gonzer is just some college guy coasting through life, though this time it's with food and his best friend (in this movie), Irwin. I got a sense from a scene from the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World where we have the scene where Gonzer sniffs out his kidnapped friend and chants, Irwin, Irwin.... This movie is your basic college romp with the usual elements. Getting drunk; cheating, no matter what, in order to win; girls taking off their tops; and the usual round of bad guys, who as always never win, since we all want to see the underdog win. Speaking of dogs, if it were not for Chuck, and his voice (done perfectly by the very talented Frank Welker), I would have rated this movie a lot lower. Every scene with Chuck is absolutely hilarious. But overall, the movie was too formulaic, but that's okay, since sometimes movie-goers just want to watch something that does not require too many brain cells. Though this movie might end up killing some... Since there is so much going on, and 2 sets of perfectly good "bad guys" (the military group is a hoot to watch, especially the 4 cadets), and we have some good footage of actual white-water rafting, this movie turns out to be not that bad. Silly, yes. Entertaining, yes. Something to discuss afterward, no.
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PredragReviews14 December 2016This film is one of those 80's comedies that were very popular and paved the way for later college/fraternity films. Tim Matheson stars as Bob, who leads a ragtag group of guys who overcome great obstacles to win the race at the end. The script is tacky and often so bad in its attempt to be funny i.e. the dog that uses body language to communicate with the guys that one of their friends is being held captive by the enemy without any clothes, even using liver as Japanese for river, the silly and slapstick comedy among the army guys that are conveniently close enough to the river to blow things up, "The Revenge Of The Nerds" style rivalry between jocks and suite and tie yuppies with the casual, average guys and Tim Matheson and the leading girl who plays his love interest repeating the same lines each time they have sex: was it good for you as it was for me? The cinematography is not spectacular, the acting is not superior, it just makes you feel good I don't think movies are not supposed to be mind engaging, just a break from reality. This just has a good feeling for every underdog that was trying to do the right thing and never got the recognition they deserved. I think there is a lot of clever/sarcastic wit and dialog like that throughout the movie... perhaps why not everyone got it... it was a lot more than T & A and relied more on comic timing than nudity. This film is filled with hilarious dialogue, great raft scenes and lots of funny moments. Chuck the dog is amazing!
Overall rating: 7 out of 10. -
jellopuke3 July 2019Essentially just a remake of Race for your life Charlie Brown with a bit of nudity and raunch, it's just a simple camp style comedy from the 80s with actors that all look way too old to be in college. Funny in parts but not a classic by any means.
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Hey_Sweden6 September 2015"Up the Creek" is a glorious entry in that genre known as the 1980s sex comedy. It's actually pretty funny at times, thanks to good gags in the script by Jim Kouf ("Stakeout"). It's got gorgeous gals (and bare breasts), likable heroes, priceless villains, and some very nice wilderness scenery. You really can't ask for anything more.
Some aging graduates of "Porky's" and "Animal House" play our leads, a bunch of indolent guys goofing their way through their protracted life at college. It turns out, they're the worst college students in the entire U.S. of A.! Their angry Dean (John Hillerman in a quick cameo) says that he will give them degrees PROVIDED that they win an all-important inter collegiate raft race that the Dean hopes will earn some respect for his place of higher learning.
Led by amiable lady's man Bob McGraw (Tim "Otter" Matheson), our heroes do battle with some cheating, conniving preppies (among them Jeff East of "Superman: The Movie") and some military school cadets commandeered by a vengeance minded nut (Blaine Novak) angry over being disqualified from the race.
Also along for the ride are Dan "Pee Wee" Monahan, Stephen "Flounder" Furst, lovely Jennifer Runyon ("Ghost Busters"), James Sikking ('Hill Street Blues'), Julia Montgomery ("Revenge of the Nerds"), and Jeana Keough ("The Beach Girls"). However, it's Jake the dog who easily steals the movie, especially in a delicious scene of charades. (You can tell that the dog is actually voiced by a human actor, in this case Frank Welker.) The movie opens brightly, as someone tries in vain to silence a chattery bird, and delivers enough titillation and, ultimately, outright destruction, to rate as a good time. It's hard to go wrong when the rocking title theme song is belted out by Cheap Trick. Everything is (mostly) comfortably predictable, and easy to take.
Eight out of 10. -
paul_haakonsen14 February 2022I had never heard about this 1984 comedy titled "Up the Creek" from writers Jim Kouf, Jeff Sherman and Douglass Grossman before now in 2022, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it.
And I will say that "Up the Creek" was actually more enjoyable and entertaining than I had initially anticipated it would be. It was more than just your generic youth comedy. Why? Well, because the storyline actually was more than just sappy romance, drinking alcohol and being out of place. I enjoyed the river rafting aspect of the storyline and the rivalry between the competitors.
However, for a comedy, then I will say that "Up the Creek" was oddly devoid of situations that would prove to actually be funny. Sure, there were the occasional funny moment here and there, but I wasn't laughing throughout the course of the movie.
The movie does have some familiar faces on the cast list with the likes of Tim Matheson and John Hillerman.
However, while "Up the Creek" certainly is entertaining and watchable, it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing for me.
My rating of "Up the Creek" lands on a six out of ten stars. -
IonicBreezeMachine19 December 2020Students at Lepetomane University (colloquially known as Lobotomy U) Bob McGraw, Max, Irwin, and Gonzer (Played by Tim Matheson, Dan Monahan, Sandy Helberg, and Stephen Furst respectively) are reluctantly coerced by the dean of their university to enter and intercollegiate raft race so Lepetomane can claim even the most minor of accolades to its name. The four initially refuse, but soon change their minds when met with the promise of any degree in any subject they want (as well as some blackmail for good measure). The four enter the race and meet not only a team of co-eds (one of whom Bob falls for) but also the insidious and cheating elites from Ivy University who'll do ANYTHING to win.
Released in 1984 to decent reviews (including two thumbs up from Siskel & Ebert) the movie was unfortunately not a big performer at the box office making $11 Million against a $7 million budget. The movie had the misfortune of being released along side another shenanigans comedy, the mostly forgotten 1984 remake of beach party movie Where the Boys Are. Despite getting lost in the shuffle and not being as iconic as Revenge of the Nerds or Animal House, I'd say this is a better movie than more well known films of a similar ilk like Spring Break or Porky's.
The movie starts off on the right foot from the opening scene where we see a dilapidated frat house with a crow and various Wile E. Coyote esque failed attempts by the hungover residents to make it shut up. All four of our leads are well cast and the movie does a good job of not only giving them great opportunities for chemistry and character, but the movie also makes them quite lovable losers/slobs who we want to see win. Included with the group is Bob's dog named Chuck (who's probably the smartest one of the group) and Chuck is incredibly well trained and gets a lot of laughs from certain sequences in the film. The movie is clearly inspired by other films of the time (the frat house even bears a passing resemblance to Delta House) but the movie does just enough to differentiate itself that it makes draws you in with its humor and genuine likability.
Up the Creek isn't one of the all time great comedies, but it's a GOOD comedy that deserves more attention than it gets. If you've 90 minutes to kill and you need a college shenanigans fix, then look no further than here. -
This is a story about students who were bottom of the league on every event that the college took part in.
It shows of the challenge four students who were under achievers within the college, being put into a raft race to try and break the trend set by previous years. It also shows the lengths each of the other colleges would go to to win the raft race, with rockets and bombs and the course of the river being altered.
It is a comedy you would like to watch again and again. The characters are portrayed well by the actors, and the story involved can show some of the everyday events that can happen in any rivalry situation. -
a_chinn7 October 2017I'll say up front that this film is really more of a 2 1/2 -star comedy, but it gets an extra half star for pure 1980s nostalgia. In a classic Slobs vs. Snobs comedy set up, with perennial college students Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst and a couple other buddies facing off against other snooty teams (ugh, preppies!) in an intercollegiate rafting race, while also wooing pretty all girl teams, but mostly Jennifer Runyon. Overall, there are a lot better of slobs vs snobs films (i.e. "Animal House," "Revenge of the Nerds," "Caddyshack," or even "DC Cab"), but "Up the Creek" isn't all that bad.
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gordonporch30 January 2006Up the Creek is right up there with my most liked movies. I'm crying for a DVD. What kind of sense of humor doesn't think "Take no prisoners" wasn't funny when the gals are "going after It." The bazooka shooting at the noisy crow was funny. There is funny rolling over funny in this movie but maybe some of it is too sophisticated. Tim gets invited to Jenifer's room and after hellos she, lying on the bed in a loose robe says, "Why don't you slip into something more comfortable?" Tim retorts, "I didn't brig anything more comfortable." She says pouting, "Well, how about me?" That is not only funny it might also be the hottest line I have ever seen in a movie. Sparks are popping all over the place like the gal cheerleader producing interest in the bored stands. I don't take this movie seriously except in the sense it is seriously entertaining.
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Groverdox14 February 2016When grouping movies like this together, a catch all like "'80s teen sex comedies" or "boob comedies" or "t'na flicks" is usually used. More often than not, they're labelled as comedies, which really seems to be more out of force of habit, or courtesy on behalf of the viewer, than anything else. I don't know how many times I've watched one of these movies, eg. Joysticks, Hot Moves, Getting It On, and have found myself hard pressed to identify a single moment that could be said to approach anything like humour. We assume they're comedies, I guess, because they're too dumb to be anything else, or, what is more likely, they're carbon copies of other movies - Animal House, Porky's, Police Academy - that actually were, indisputably, supposed to be funny, whether they were or not.
Up the Creek is an exception to this rule. It actually has jokes, and I even laughed a few times! That is so rare I can't even tell you. It has the problem a lot of these boob comedies/t'na flicks have, which is that the premise of the movie doesn't actually leave much room for sex or nudity. That's the main reason we watch them, right? In this one the typical miss-matched group of losers is pitted against the also typical blonde upperclassmen (why must they always be blonde?) for a race down a river. There's the main guy, who smokes thin cigars for no discernible reason, and in some shots looks almost exactly like Paul Rudd. There's also (of course) the nerd, and the main guy from Porky's, who I always despised, but he doesn't do much here to make you hate him one way or the other. I would have preferred if they didn't rely on (yet another) stock character to round out the bunch: the fat guy who can't stop eating. At least he isn't repulsive like the one in Joysticks, but come on. Was this ever funny to anyone?
The upperclassmen - all four of them blonde - try to cheat using high tech (for the time) gadgets like exploding darts and remote controlled airplanes that shoot torpedoes. They have the blessing of an older, rich man who (of course) wears his jumper (sorry, "sweater") tied around his neck.
There is also another group of kooky competitors who are in the movie for comic relief: army men with an over eager commanding officer who also like to blow stuff up. They aren't really differentiated from the rich guys in so doing.
In the end, what you have is a comedy which isn't funny enough to be watched on that merit alone, and doesn't have enough boobs to be worthwhile for anyone else, but at least I laughed a few times, rather than retching horribly as I did with Joysticks.