"Making the Grade" chronicles the mishaps of that zany group, Palmer, Eddie, and the charismatic Dice, as they trapse throughout Hoover prep in search of love, money, and those last 11 minutes on the hour. In addition, the sound track by Shandi brings such incredible emotional swells that one can only be reduced to tears. The two songs by Shandi were great. One thing I couldn't understand was the Jonna Lee appeal. Her character and she herself were boring. The plot of the movie was complicated enough to be funny but not so convoluted that we were scratching our heads trying to figure it out. The coach and the Diceman (in his first appearance as his alter ego) were amusing too. Judd Nelson and Dana Olsen were so great in this movie that I really wish a sequel had been made. And a soundtrack. This movie is silly for sure but good fun and a definite 80's classic. Even if you aren't a fan of 80's B-movie genre, you find a lovable cast carving out shards of humanity in a humanistic drama wrought by cunning deception and vengeful greed. It's also a great educational film.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Palmer Woodrow is given an ultimatum. Either he goes to school or he is cut off from his money. Woodrow chooses the latter. He conjures up a scheme to pay a compulsive gambler named Eddie Keaton to be Palmer Woodrow, and act as him, while Palmer takes off to Europe. Eddie Keaton makes enemies immediately, when he sets eyes on Tracey, angering Biff, the Academy suck up in the process. Eddie's life begins to get very tumults when his bookie from the old neighborhood, Dice, comes to collect Eddie's gambling debts I would never call Judd Nelson a great actor. There is a reason he faded in the late 80's (Well, two reasons, the other being he had an overly arrogant attitude in real life) I do have a major soft spot for him, though. He can be very entertaining when he wants to be. The Breakfast Club proved that. I actually was looking forward to this film. It seemed to be right up my alley. I love cheesy 80's comedies. This one tanked at the box office for a reason. It is way too derivative and shockingly dull. Do the movies Arthur and Trading Places ring a bell? This movie is essentially a combination of the two. It is filled with corny slapstick that fails to garner any chuckles or laughs. Judd Nelson seems bored half the time and as a result, he is also boring. He tries to incorporate part of the things that worked so well with Bender to no avail. He isn't interesting enough to command your attention. His humming of "Nuh-Nuh-Nuh" got annoying fast. He did have an epic dance scene, I'll say that. Scott McGinnis is OK as the academy bully. He was rather dull in all honesty. He looked like a poor man's James Mardsen. Andrew Dice Clay does alright. Jonna Lee makes for a rather average love interest. She didn't really have anything that stood out about her. The ending is filled with proper ethics where Eddie has a change of heart. I don't think I need to explain the rest, you should be able to figure it out for yourself.Final Thoughts: I didn't hate it, I just didn't get into it all that much. It lacks everything I loved about cheesy 80's comedies. They were expecting a big hit, as evident from the promised sequel at the end credits "The Tourista" with Judd Nelson returning. I'm really glad that didn't happen.5/10

If you were one of the lucky ones to grab the Varese Sarabande limited edition soundtrack CD (1000 copies made) because you are a fan of Basil Poledouris and not the film, the following will mean nothing to you. If you bought the soundtrack because it reminds you of some laugh out loud moments of this under rated film, read on.For those of you still reading, you already know this is one of the best comedies to come out of the 80's. You can picture studio execs in the early 80's trying to come up with more "Animal House" type yucks only to deliver crass, sexist garbage like "Porky's" or "Up the Creek".After reading the liner notes to the CD, I was not at all surprised to see the negative comments about the film. It is what it is, and if you are like me, you have been wondering for years why Palmer and Eddie did not return in "Tourista" after all. The CD was a nice upgrade from my scratchy vinyl, and the DVD a nice update from my dated VHS; however, I want more.In the meantime, here's Nicky handling the books.

A rich preppie hires a street wise loner to pose as him at an elite prep school. Judd Nielson is good in a hand tailored role and the film is better done than most 80's teen comedies. The score is good. It is overlong, however. Rating: 7.5 out of 10.The end credits announced a sequel, but none has been made to date. Also the film is rated PG, according to its box, but should have been R-rated.