Top Ten College Movies

Andi Velázquez Mejía ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

10. 22 Jump Street

Audiences could not get enough of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s epic and hilarious bromance. Their high school career was exceedingly comical, but their college one is equally funny. The evident chemistry between the actors combined with jokes that never cease to surprise provide yet another wild ride (inside a football helmet cart) with the most hilarious pair of bros of this generation.

9.  National Lampoon’s Animal House

The best way to describe this movie is 1 hour and 49 minutes of incredibly messy situations. Messy in the good way, that is. The adventures of the Delta Tau Chi members are outrageous, crude, crazy, and hilarious. Yet in between all the preposterous scenarios lies the slightest sense of realism in the depiction of insane college fraternity behavior. Basically, everything anyone needs to know about what it would be like to experience the wildest college life can be learned from this movie.

8. Rudy

An essential part of college actually takes place before one even sets foot on campus. No one understands this more than Rudy, a young man that would give anything to study and play for Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish. However, just like so many young American high school students, the university does not admit Rudy when he applies. The rejection only pushes Rudy to work harder to fulfill his dream to play rather than discourage him. Thus, a series of events unfolds as Rudy prepares for a second application. Sean Astin grants his character Rudy a compelling combination of virtuousness and perseverance, qualities that make the character highly lovable. Although the plot may mislead people into thinking Rudy is just another sports movie, the performances and plot might encourage audiences to view the film in a more complex light.

7. Monsters University

Anyone who was a child when Monsters, Inc. came out leaped with joy when they heard the news that a prequel would come out in the summer of 2013. Thankfully, unlike other series of films that have mediocre Part 2’s, Monsters University proves seconds don’t have to be associated with bad news. Mike and Sulley return one more time to teach young and old alike the value of true friendship. Ironically, the best of pals first introduced in 2001 did not start out that way as audiences discover early in the film. Even though Mike and Sulley are no longer seen working at the company viewers loved, audiences still get the experience of observing another part of Pixar’s cleverly crafted world of monsters. The movie takes a humoristic punch at the collegiate lifestyle by doing things like caricaturizing frats and throwing in some study habit jokes. If classic Pixar humor does not sound appealing enough, the movie is still worth seeing since Pixar has made sure the animation remains spot on.

6. Love Story

After listening to a few how-I-met-your-mother stories, every college kid at some point wonders, “Will I meet the love of my life in college?” Oliver and Jenny, portrayed by Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, find out that, in fact, they do. After meeting each other while attending Harvard and Radcliffe, the two immediately fall in love despite their completely different backgrounds and personalities. The film follows their most heartwarming moments, the struggles between the two, and the tension from outer factors that threaten to break them apart. Look out specifically for valuable life lessons and one of the most dramatic endings in film history.

5. Pitch Perfect

Sometimes, when all hope for modern comedies is lost, movies like Pitch Perfect come in and save the day. Aspiring DJ Becca Mitchell, (Anna Kendrick) manages to wind up in her college’s a cappella group, an assortment of ladies as diverse and fierce as Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (except the ladies fight their battles using their interpretations of modern songs instead of guns). The movie has a perfect balance of music worthy of immediate download after watch it, Kendrick and Skylar Astin’s cute love story on the side, the most elaborate talent show audiences will ever witness, and memorable jokes from Fat Amy (the hilarious Rebel Wilson).

4. A Beautiful Mind

Few films have the capacity to bring up the subject of mental illness in an accurate, humane, and insightful way. The script is well-crafted, with twists and turns that make the story impossible not to follow and tie all the knots neatly by the conclusion of the movie. Russell Crowe demonstrates every feeling his character John Nash experiences with impeccable clarity and realism. Therefore, it is extremely hard to watch this movie and not relate to what the Nobel Prize winner has to go through.

3. Good Will Hunting

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon managed to earn themselves an Oscar for Best Original Script for their creative work in this movie. If that does not inspire confidence to watch it, nothing will. Well, maybe mentioning the fact that Robin Williams took home a golden statue as well for his incredible work in a supporting role. A fresh twist on the underdog story, the movie is definitely a heartwarming one about a janitor who just wants to solve a math problem on a chalkboard at MIT- to prove to the world he is actually a genius.

2. The Social Network

People tend to watch this movie several times for a few reasons. Firstly, few understood half of what happened because Jesse Eisenberg’s character, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has a thought process and speech speed faster than the speed of light. Secondly, David Fincher managed to create a modern classic. The highly talented star-studded cast composed of Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, and Armie Hammer to name a few takes a beautifully crafted script, elevates the work even further with their humane interpretations of their intricate characters, and almost flawlessly tells the story of how the most popular form of social media on the planet came to be.

1. Legally Blonde

Audiences will never forget how the petite girl beats all the odds by being the blonde who gets into Harvard Law School. Arguably Reese Witherspoon’s most iconic role, Elle Woods takes the academic world by storm when she decides she will attend one of the most prestigious universities in the United States just to prove a point to her ex-boyfriend. And she does so with highly quotable and witty sense of humor, feminine problem solving, a Chihuahua in her purse, a hilarious courtroom drama finale, and pink. So much pink.