Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

callanvass 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

mburke_1998 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.

xfile1971 I am getting mentally exhausted from watching so many generic movies. "Making The Grade" looks as if it was churned out of the same factory as a hundred other '80s movies.A spoiled high school kid doesn't want to spend his senior year going to a private school. He hires a trouble maker (Judd Nelson) to pretend to be him and attend the school in his place. End of story.There is no chemistry whatsoever between Nelson and his female costar (Jonna Lee). What about comedy? I literally laughed one time during the 100 minutes of this film. It is dull and predictable. You would be infinitely better off watching Judd Nelson for the millionth time in "The Breakfast Club" rather than watch this piece of drivel. 1/10

Katy-8 I'm always amazed when I find people who think Caddyshack is hilarious but have never even heard of Making the Grade. Making the Grade is still the funniest golf/class struggle/gettin lucky/uptight white people movie to date. There's even breakdancing. For anyone who hasn't seen this film and likes goofy 80s fare, run to your video store. For anyone who has seen it and doesn't like it, I must quote Coach, "Attention! Attention! You guys suck!"