'EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!'........ TWO ANIMAL HOUSES...TWO EXCLAMATION POINTS.....FEW LAUGHS.....

Everybody Wants Some!!  (2016)    We're as guilty as anyone when it comes to waxing nostalgic over our youthful days.......it comes with aging, along with stiff joints. clogged arteries and an inability to remember where you last left your glasses and car keys.....

             So we don't begrudge writer-director Richard Linklater for softening and romanticizing a bunch of 1980 college baseball jocks, carousing and bonding in the week leading up to their first day of classes at a Florida university.......

             In the glow of Linklater's memory, the boys are fundamentally benevolent, even in their rambunctiousness and predatory misogyny. One or two of them even spouts loquacious, clever observations from time to time.

             We'll credit Linklater for decidedly breaking away from the jock stereotypes seen in countless teen/college comedies over the decades......where the athletes were usually depicted as dolts and bullies. But in their own way, Linklater's kinder, gentler crew of rollicking party animals are no less a screenwriter's unreal constructs then the old cardboard jerks of farces gone by......

             After the boys are installed in two residential homes due to a dorm shortage, the shapeless, formless narrative wanders around with them as they randomly shmooze and party. Linklater evokes the entire decade by sending them through three definitive parties as if they're touring the separate parts of Disney World......Disco Land, Country Music Land, Punk Rock Land.....

            Don't expect "Animal House"....no giant gross-out yocks.........Linklater's goal here is mostly distanced, observed behavior......he rations out a few laughs sporadically.....

           We began to lose our patience with the movie when it introduced a sweet, shy budding romance between one of the boys and a theater major girl.......that might have made a cute little film all by itself, but it's used only as a springboard for Linklater's final unrealistic set-piece.....our bemused baseball crew attending a bizarre costume party held by the drama majors....

            As someone who spent a lot of time in college sharing classes, conversation and socializing with theater majors, we found Linklater's stereotypes lazy and thoughtless....and for this film, a rare ploy for cheap laughs.....

            A few bright moments perk up "Everybody Wants Some!!".....but by the time it finally grinds to a halt with its ironic final shot, you'll wonder why you bothered with it at all. No exclamation points.....and only 1 & 1/2 stars....(* 1/2).....