This is such a funny movie with at least 5 laugh out moments + many other funny bits..great cast ayre gross is hilarious fantastic soundtrack,a film like this could never be made in these pc days so if you haven't seen it I suggest you find it watch it & laugh your head off...brilliant

This movie gets a bad rap but it's actually quite interesting in its portrayal stereotypes and racism. It's sad that it was made because there shouldn't be such stereotypes and racism in society. But the movie goes about having a laugh with it all while still showing the ignorance in people. C. Thomas Howell used to be able to act back then and he does a great job. There is fine acting all around particularly from James Earl Jones and Rae Dawn Chong. On the unfortunate side, Leslie Nielson was terribly underused and so out of character as a racist piece of crap. In the end, right prevails over wrong, we have a few laughs, and ponder the idiocy of racism.6.1 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

White man Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) wants to attend Harvard University but his rich parents won't pay for it. Desperate to get in he turns his skin black (don't ask) and poses as a black man to get a full scholarship. While attending college as a black man he meets beautiful Sarah Walker (Rae Dawn Chong) and falls in love. He also butts heads with Professor Banks (James Earl Jones) who expects him to do better than anyone else cause he's black.There was some controversy when this was originally released. Some people (who never even saw the movie) labeled it as racist and demanded that it be banned. It lead to other people (who ALSO never saw it) overpraising it as others blasted it to pieces. Seriously--if it had been about a black man posing as a white man would there have been such a problem? I don't think so. Such a fuss over what is basically a silly comedy. All the predictable jokes come up and are done in a dull way. The movie is flatly directed and Howell looks pretty ridiculous as a black man. Also Howell DOES try to pull this movie off but fails. The only bright points are Chong and Jones who are great in their roles. This is only of interest to see what people thought was controversial. BTW--I saw this in a theatre in 1986. The audience was white and black. Most of the black people applauded at the end! That should tell you how racist this is.

Before watching this film, I was never expecting a spectacular movie experience. I'll admit to being a fan of those silly fast paced feel good ending 80s comedies, those early Eddie Murphy or Michael J. Fox films being the best example of these. This is the style I was expecting, and I think is what the director was aiming for, but falling very very far from the mark!The premise could have worked: white kid from rich background decides to pass for a poor black boy to get a scholarship to a top American university. In doing so, he learns harsh lessons about racism and class divides, etc... Plenty of room for some fun jokes, taking the mike out of the real life stereotypes at those top American university establishments, and still come out of it without too much complications and a good morality tale. But what you end up with is a film in which you keep waiting for a really good punchline to arrive, no real surprise turn at any point whatsoever and a lot of pent up frustration by the end for having wasted an hour and half of your life.By the standards of those previously mentioned 80s comedies, this films' budget couldn't have been that bad, and although the scripts is basic at best, I'm sure at least a bit more could have extracted from it. The main culprits for this waste of film stock have to be the director who does not seem to have put any thought to the direction or elaboration of his script to put it onto screen, and the lead actor C. Thomas Howell. In the same year, he played the stalked young lead in The Hitcher, which has now become somewhat of an 80s cult reference to horror thrillers; this is to say that Mr Howell was not necessarily a bad actor, but definitely a bad comedian. He has no comic timing, a necessity in this form of entertainment, no real talent at expressional comedy, and has no clue when to keep a serious face and when to lighten-up. Although again a large part of this has to go down to bad directorship. Rae Dawn Chong, in the main female lead, does well with what she has, without ever pushing the film to any kind of redemptive level. Coming the closest to doing this is James Earl Jones, who is so hopelessly under-used you have to wonder if he didn't just walk out on the production when he saw how terrible it was. The same could be said of Julia Louis-Dreyfus(Elaine from Seinfeld) and Leslie Nielsen, who have so little screen time it's easy to forget they were actually in this poor excuse for a movie.When I first bought the DVD to this movie, even though I had no idea how good, or bad(as the case may be), it would be, I was really chuffed with myself, having found it in the sales for 2 pounds. And even more pleased at the till, where it seemed the guy forgot to swipe it properly with the rest of my items so I didn't even pay for it! Now I see the nice man at the till had obviously seen this film, felt sorry for me, and that watching this film was going to be punishment enough that he shouldn't make me pay for it as well.