Bachelor Party

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Back in the mid-80s, a young Tom Hanks became a new face to the big screen. We know him today as one of the best actors on the planet, most recently representing Fred Rogers in 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'. He boasts two Oscar wins among five nominations, four Golden Globe wins among nine nominations, and people only need to see his name attached to something anymore to know we're gonna get a good movie, half-decent at worst.

Back before 'Philadelphia' won him his first Oscar in '93, he was sort of a go-to for comedic roles, with 'Big' giving him his first Oscar nomination, and being a sort of teetering point towards people realizing he has a good set of acting chops. Predating all of that though, 'Bachelor Party' was one of his first big screen performances, and being such a likable character, he brought a sort of charm to this role, playing the unlikely party animal man who can actually probably be trusted, despite what anyone thinks. But what about all the rest of the movie?

As the film opens, we are introduced to Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks). He's a party animal type who makes a living driving a Catholic school bus, and allowing the kids to have fun on the bus ride to school. Kinda the bus driver we all wanted as kids. Anyway, he's set to get married to his girlfriend, Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), whose parents (George Grizzard and Barbara Stuart) and ex boyfriend, Cole (Robert Prescott) all seemingly hate him, but despite odds being against him, he presses on.

With his marriage at hand, Rick's friends decide to make his bachelor party an all-out bash of epic proportions. The whole nine yards would go on to include things like drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, and for fans of 'Clerks 2', the whole donkey idea came from here. Though I think it's meant to be a bit of a surprise, I feel like anyone even slightly familiar with this title recognizes the donkey as the "money shot" of this film. Anyway, the whole movie is basically a test on Rick to try to stay faithful to Debbie, and not succumb to his usual instincts.

It's hard for me to say how much I enjoyed it though. I saw it long enough ago once that watching it this time around might as well have been a first. It struck me as pretty heavily dated, ending up in that mid-80's era of raunchy party comedies that you might not get away with so easily today. I had a few good laughs, and had to like Rick as a character, almost being the original Van Wilder. I mean, early comedy Hanks is pretty much always a treat. With that said though, I found most of the supporting cast to be pretty forgettable, save Debbie, and definitely her father, Ed, who is just the biggest jerk but in all the best ways.

I get the feeling I end up in the 1% on this, but I didn't think it was all that special. For me, it was just another party movie. But at the time, I can respect it for probably breaking some new ground as far as party movies go. As mentioned before, "Original Van Wilder" is actually a pretty good way to look at it. The stories are completely different, sure, but character-wise and atmospherically, they'd make for some good back-to-back viewing. If you like a fun, mindless party movie with a charming touch, this is a good place to turn.

3/5

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