EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

thinbeach For the first time I have to say that not only did Lloyd get there first, but he also did it much better. His 1925 comedy 'The Freshman' featured a nerdy kid going to college and participating in sports in order to win the girl. 'College' features the exact same idea, but without any of the cleverness or laughs. That is a highly unusual thing to say about a Buster Keaton film, who in my opinion was the greatest silent filmmaker there was, but this is easily his weakest effort (Edit: I've actually rated 'The Saphead' lower, which was so bad I'd forgotten about it!). The film mostly consists of Buster watching a track and field athlete practice, then attempting the sport himself, only to fail miserably. This might have been funny if each failure had been cut back to back in a quick one minute segment, but it comprises most of the film, and is an utter drag. And although short, Keaton is far too muscular, and has performed far too many difficult stunts in the past, for anyone to believe he could be a dud athlete.The only time 'College' reaches the heights of his other efforts is in the very brief ending sequence, where just like an athlete, he hurdles hedges, long jumps streams, and pole vaults into a second story bedroom, in order to win the girl. That last stunt is as good as any he's done, though a rarity in his career, it was actually performed by someone else. I guess if there is one thing Keaton really couldn't do, it was pole vault.

SnoopyStyle In California, Ronald (Buster Keaton) graduates from high school as he receives the honor medal. Jeff Brown is the popular star athlete who has spend 7 years in school. Ronald makes a speech on the 'Curse of the Athletics' that entrances the teacher but the only person left in the audience is his mother. He's infatuated with Mary Haynes and follows her to athletic centric Clayton college. The dean wants him to be a scholastic star but he keeps trying to be an athletic star to impress Mary.Keaton does do blackface in this but it's not deliberately offensive. If I have any problems with this, it's that I don't buy that Mary is worth the trouble. It's simply a given that she's a dreamgirl. Also Buster Keaton is a true athlete and he can't hide that in this movie. He looks more muscle bound that many of the athletes here. He can't do nerdy convincingly in a tank top. The story struggles to fit. There are some minor funny bits. The stunts are not really that big and mostly just silly slapstick.

ackstasis While this may seem a rather lightweight effort considering it came in the same year that produced 'The General (1927),' 'College' is an excellent little film in which Buster Keaton exploits the endless slapstick possibilities offered by sporting activities. Keaton plays Ronald, an unpopular bookworm whose public condemnation of athletics leads his girlfriend (Anne Cornwall) to dump him in favour of a more physically-capable jock (Harold Goodwin). In an attempt to win back the love of his life, Ronald enrolls himself in college and tries his hands at every sport in sight, with hilarious consequences. The two preceding sentences pretty much summarise the entire film. However, this inkling of a narrative is more than enough to open up a vast range of entertaining gags, and Keaton snatches a laugh at every opportunity.How do I begin to list my favourite moments from 'College?' Though some have complained of the repetitiveness of the sequence in which Keaton tries every athletics activity in the book, I thought it was the highlight of the film. The scenes follow a very strict comedic routine: first we see how it is supposed to be done, then we see Ronald's absurdly inept attempt. Wash, rinse, repeat; this time with a completely different sport. Of course the routine becomes somewhat predictable, but Buster Keaton is always the uncertain variable. We don't know how his next effort is going to fail, but we know it is, and that it's going to be a spectacular failure. Ronald is a hopeless case, but you can't deny that he's got heart. Whether he is being out-sprinted by a pair of young children, falling short of the long-jump sandpit, snapping a pole-vaulting stick in half or planting his face two feet underground after clearing the high-jump bar, he is always courageous enough to get up, brush himself off and try again.I've read that Harold Lloyd explored similar territory two years earlier with 'The Freshman (1925),' a film I haven't seen yet, so that one's probably a good film to look up if you, like me, enjoyed this one. It is also believed that there was originally a sequence showing Ronald's attempts to play American football, though this was ulimately cut to avoid comparisons with Lloyd's movie. Additionally, I was interested to read that Ronald's pole-vault through the window was one of the few times in Keaton's career that he didn't perform his own stunts. I'm certain that the danger-level was definitely not the problem {anybody who's seen 'Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)' will attest to that}, but pole-vaulting must have been one activity that he simply couldn't pull off. I don't blame him.

SofaKingFresh I am not a HUGE Buster Keaton fan. I am, however, beginning to like his movies more and more. Even though the emotion on his face doesn't change, he is still a pretty damn good actor. I bought this movie on DVD from the 99 cent store. I have seen his most famous movie (The General) and i must say that this movie entitled "College" is a lot better. Every single scene had great entertainment. Very well filmed for that time. This movie really made me see how times have changed. In the scene where he plays a black waiter is something that would never make it into a movie these days. The ending was really original. Lots of laughs and of course, his physical comedy was excellent as usual.