Bachelor Party (1984)

Does it sound bizarre to confess that I have a set of standards for a movie like Bachelor Party?  Probably, but hear me out.  I insist that if you are going to make a raunchy, low-brow comedy about a group of slobs upsetting the prim and proper, at least a.) have the guys be likable, and b.) make me laugh with jokes that are funny and not just stupid and tasteless.  On my personal scale, Bachelor Party achieves both.  Porky’s and Cannonball Run II did not.  See, there’s a science to this.

Bachelor Party offers exactly what it promises.  A guy proposes to his girlfriend and his buddies want to throw him the titular bacchanal with all of the craziness that such an event promise.  That’s all.  The front half of the movie is the lead-up to the party and the back half is the party itself involving wild animals, strippers, hookers, uptight desk clerks, and people hanging out of hotel windows.  And, of course, all of it done at the lowest level of possible taste.  It’s not called Bachelor Party for nothing.

The joy is that the movie follows through on its promise.  You get what you pay for and it’s a joy that I was laughing along the way.  I laughed at the bachelorette party that got the wrong entertainment.  I laughed at the hot dog salesman whose wares are plied on the unsuspecting mother-in-law.  I laughed at the guy who goes to the home of his future in-laws and drops table scraps for the family dog only to be told that they don’t have one.

The guy, by the way, is played in a very funny performance by Tom Hanks who seems to occupy this role as if he’s seen every Bill Murray movie ten times and took notes.  He’s very funny, actually funnier here than he was in Splash.  Actually, all of the actors are funny in this movie because they are given funny stuff to do.

I enjoyed this movie more than I would like to admit.  It’s a low-brow, low-rent comedy that just wants to entertain by being as offensive and raunchy as it possibly can be.  When I was watching it, I was laughing.  When it was over, I was smiling.  It met my standards.  I can’t say that about Cannonball Run II.  Not by a country mile.