BACK TO SCHOOL (1986)

After dumping his gold-digging wife, self-made millionaire Rodney Dangerfield goes to visit his son in college.  Once there, he's surprised to find out that his son isn't the coolest guy on campus, but instead just a normal student.  Even worse: he wants to quit school!  So, in some kind of strange movie logic, Rodney decides to go to college himself!  Yeah, don't overthink it, just enjoy it.

BACK TO SCHOOL is a fun film.  Watching it again now, it's definitely dated and there is a serious lack of 80's comedy toplessness (with only one quick topless scene), but other than that it's an enjoyable ride.  Impressive supporting cast, cameos by Oingo Boingo and Kurt Vonnegut (not at the same time), good pace, satisfying story, mild laughs.

It's easy to see why BACK TO SCHOOL was a box office hit.  The thing that I found interesting though, was just how big of a hit it was.  Domestically, BACK TO SCHOOL was the #6 biggest film of the year!  That's crazy to think about, considering that nowadays, I doubt many people even remember BACK TO SCHOOL.  Just to give you a taste of what I mean, BTS beat all of these films at the box office (some of them by a huge margin): ALIENS, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, STAND BY ME, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, SHORT CIRCUIT, PRETTY IN PINK, THREE AMIGOS, THE MONEY PIT, LABYRINTH, THE GOLDEN CHILD and POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE.  Anyway, I just thought that was interesting.

BACK TO SCHOOL isn't going to change your life or anything, but it is an amusing tidbit in movie history.

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977)

"It was horrible, utterly horrible... and fascinating!"

I have a feeling that the makers of EXORCIST II had no idea what the public wanted.  If they had, they damn sure wouldn't have made this mess!

A few years after the events of the original film, Regan is in therapy and the Vatican wants to know why Father Merrin died.  So they send in Father Richard Burton to investigate.  He meets Regan and her therapist and even sits in on a session where they use a "synchronizer" that connects two people's brainwaves (...it's all very silly) and low and behold Pazuzu shows up!  Burton has a vision of a younger Father Merrin fighting Pazuzu in Ethiopia, so he travels there for answers.  Does he get them?  I have no idea, because by this time my eyes had already rolled back in my head six hundred and sixty-six times and I was getting dizzy.

I'm sure the filmmakers had they hearts in the right place, but unfortunately they didn't have their brains in the right place, cause if they had they would have just made another film just like the original except make it even more violent and more perverse!  The original shocked the money out of audiences pocketbooks with a creepy atmospheric buildup that boiled over into a final act exploding with blasphemy, perversion and sickness.  None of that happens in the sequel.  The closest we get is at the end when Regan goes back to the house and wears some yellow contacts.  Wow.

Every film has it's fans and I'm sure E2TH is no different, but from a horror standpoint this film is a complete waste of time that's full of metaphysical baloney, absurd dialogue, Richard Burton putting out a roaring fire with a crutch(!!!) and dreamy imaginary instead of gooey demon makeup, crucifix fucking and projectile vomit.

Not a bad film but the fans deserved better.  Worth watching for the curiosity factor alone.

Original trilogy
Part 1 - The Exorcist (1973)
Part 3 - Exorcist III (1990)

Prequel films
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

Sequel trilogy
Sequel 1 - The Exorcist: Believer (2023)