As one of the other commentators has mentioned, the first thing I thought of when I saw this film was POLICE ACADEMY. GETTING WASTED feels like a dry run for that '80s classic: it involves the rookie cadets at a military academy involving themselves in '60s counter culture and the usual sex and drugs of that decade.It's also an unsurprisingly forgotten film, unsurprising because in reality it isn't very good. The jokes and humour are lame and predictable, and none of the characters are well defined or particularly likable. There are no big name actors or future stars here, just a mess of folk who never aspired to greatness.I was also surprised at how restrained this film is. Comedies from this era are usually raunchy and padded out with copious nudity from the ladies, but there's none here (unless the version I saw was edited for TV). The drug jokes are tame and there's no real plotting or drama; just a series of loosely-linked situations playing out for supposed laughs that never transpire.

Although there was several scenes of casual drug use here, the title seems off putting. The story concerns itself with teen Brian Kerwin being one last chance by going to a strict military school. Of course, a lot of his fellow students are more interested in goofing off than in discipline, setting up the comic scenes, including an elaborate scene of the boys trying to get high by smoking bananas. It's obvious influence is "Animal House"-it has Stephen Furst as the overweight loser-with added crudity and toilet humour, which are drawbacks. But where it scores is in the creation of the last 1960s. The treat of Vietnam is brought up a few times, and the general feeling of discontent is evident, personified in the hippie girl Kerwin befriends. She and her far our pals provide a tie-dyed contrast to the straitlaced academy. And then there's the music. Beginning with "For What It's Worth", every tune is a classic. Even the live band at a party have soundalikes for Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. Will a little more care, this could have been a winner. One clunker of a scene involves a cruel joke about a dog in a microwave, totally incongruous and unfunny. Apart from that, this has many worthy scenes, and a pretty good cast

I don't consider this film anti-establishment since the establishment is 90% anti-war and has been since the seventies. In the sixties they were indeed the underdog but who would know that - since they're the only ones who make films and since we don't get any movies showing the other view, I can't see the logic of calling them underdogs or revolutionaries any longer. In my opinion, they are the establishment... but I digress. In the first scene as the main character is being driven by his mother (who looks the same age) down the street, he is looking at hippies as if he'd just woken up from a coma; as if the sixties "counter-culture" just happened to appear out of nowhere. The classic protest song "For What it's Worth" is playing, and at this point you know what you're in for... an agenda with party animals thrown in; or perhaps its a party animal movie with an agenda thrown in. Either way it's a horrid film but I enjoyed it profusely, because I adore bad films. The primary cast consists of Brian Kerwin, who was in one of my favorite sitcoms "Sheriff Lobo", Stephen Furst who was in one of my favorite comedies "Animal House" (which is also one of the best comedies ever), Ken Michaelson who was in my favorite hour long TV series, "The White Shadow", and Cooper Huckabee who co-starred in "Funhouse", a Tobe Hooper film which I considered much better than the one about the chainsaw. The plot is simple. A bunch of military academy teenagers (played by dudes in their late twenties) rebel against the teachers of the academy. That's it in a nutshell. Along the way you get to listen to great music from the likes of Buffalo Springfield, you get to watch a lady microwave a dog, guys smoking pot and banana peels, a hippie with a dead parrot on his shoulder, and a beautiful woman with a colorful painted van watching whales migrating and getting plenty hot. David Caruso, who is the main picture of the only available DVD, and who they try to trick us into thinking is the main character, has a two minute scene as a friend of Kerwin who helps him light tires and throw them onto the road. An exciting scene, especially since none of the tires rolled more than two feet after being pushed out of the moving truck. During the dog-microwave scene, when all hell breaks loose, there is a TV show playing the likes of Wally George, where a conservative villain chews out an enlightened hippie student, that seems more entertaining than the movie itself. If you like bad movies, this one is for you, but the DVD quality is poor, even worse than "Truck Stop Women", another favorite Z-film which I recently purchased. The most annoying thing though is the curse words are cut out. And I believe some other scenes from the original film were deleted as well. To me, this is more of a crime than bad quality. If it's cheap enough, buy it. It won't let you down unless you're expecting something worthwhile and meaningful: two ingredients I usually despise.

This 1980 title was part of the movies included in the "Toga Party" set put out by Brentwood. Having had viewed most of the others in the collection, I decided to watch this one because of Brian Kerwin (Torch Song Trilogy) and Cooper Huckabee (Funhouse). First person recognized is Ronnie Claire Edwards (The Walton's Corabeth Godsey) who plays Brad's (Kerwin) mother. Others in the cast is Stefan Furst and David Caruso but where the hell is he? He plays someone called Danny but I never could figure out which one he was. Anyway, it was an interesting flick with the exception of many blank spaces that looks like reel changes, so I decided to order the movie by itself, thinking there might be additional scenes that were deleted, and hopefully a better quality print. Guess what? Yes, the DVD I found was also released by Brentwood and is exactly the same - running time, blank spaces and C-grade quality. Had I known this copy was also from Brentwood, I would have saved money by not ordering. And for in-store sales promotion, they even put a more recent picture of David Caruso on the cover - hoping face and name recognition will entice people to buy.