Fantastic!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

When grouping movies like this together, a catch all like "'80s teen sex comedies" or "boob comedies" or "t'na flicks" is usually used. More often than not, they're labelled as comedies, which really seems to be more out of force of habit, or courtesy on behalf of the viewer, than anything else. I don't know how many times I've watched one of these movies, eg. Joysticks, Hot Moves, Getting It On, and have found myself hard pressed to identify a single moment that could be said to approach anything like humour. We assume they're comedies, I guess, because they're too dumb to be anything else, or, what is more likely, they're carbon copies of other movies - Animal House, Porky's, Police Academy - that actually were, indisputably, supposed to be funny, whether they were or not.Up the Creek is an exception to this rule. It actually has jokes, and I even laughed a few times! That is so rare I can't even tell you. It has the problem a lot of these boob comedies/t'na flicks have, which is that the premise of the movie doesn't actually leave much room for sex or nudity. That's the main reason we watch them, right? In this one the typical miss-matched group of losers is pitted against the also typical blonde upperclassmen (why must they always be blonde?) for a race down a river. There's the main guy, who smokes thin cigars for no discernible reason, and in some shots looks almost exactly like Paul Rudd. There's also (of course) the nerd, and the main guy from Porky's, who I always despised, but he doesn't do much here to make you hate him one way or the other. I would have preferred if they didn't rely on (yet another) stock character to round out the bunch: the fat guy who can't stop eating. At least he isn't repulsive like the one in Joysticks, but come on. Was this ever funny to anyone?The upperclassmen - all four of them blonde - try to cheat using high tech (for the time) gadgets like exploding darts and remote controlled airplanes that shoot torpedoes. They have the blessing of an older, rich man who (of course) wears his jumper (sorry, "sweater") tied around his neck.There is also another group of kooky competitors who are in the movie for comic relief: army men with an over eager commanding officer who also like to blow stuff up. They aren't really differentiated from the rich guys in so doing.In the end, what you have is a comedy which isn't funny enough to be watched on that merit alone, and doesn't have enough boobs to be worthwhile for anyone else, but at least I laughed a few times, rather than retching horribly as I did with Joysticks.

I love how this movie came together. Also, I can't ever imagine this film existing without Matheson. What we have here is a pleasantly surprising sex comedy like the Porky's, Hotdogs, Screwballs, etc. But this is genuinely good and better. It has a great title rock track. We have these bomb outs, Furst, Helberg, and Porky's Monahan, and Tim Matheson as legendary flunkie Bob Macgraw, who are thrown rewarding offers by their Dean, that's if they win this inter collegiate raft race. Finally persuaded by a little bit of shove, they get their raft in the water, but before the race, there's many laughs let me tell you, like Mcgraw's horny dog, where it's a bitchin' night, or when Matheson and the others woo Furst to get rid of the crap he's eating. He throws it out the window of the four wheel drive, where a poor motor cylist is blinded, lemon meringue pie, etc, and all, where Furst, the only witness, watches him go off the side of a cliff. Matheson then ask's him, "Don't you feel better". But as always in these races, we had adversaries, like another group of college guys, real arse..les, where one of their girlfriends, (beautiful blonde Runyon) has caught him red handed with another chick, he's teeth practically chewing on her bra. She then goes for Matheson, inflaming her ex, so you know this race is gonna be hell of a rocky one, which it is. I love it! An adventure and comedy with a different premise, and a nice scenery that I liked, some raft scenes beautifully shot, the prime one, where the raft goes down a waterfall, the river disrupted by a prior explosion from a gung ho nut, the leader of this military team, where a condo is even taken out, that was in the river's path. That leader, psycho di..head was a great written character attribute, I thought. And of course, each of his dirty stunts backfire, like mistakenly flattening his jeep with a boulder. But too we have the other group of slime buckets, who try and put a pin in Matheson's boy's sails, again and again, where Runyon and her girls end up merging with them and together they lash big at these pigs, where again, good surpasses evil. Up the Creek rises among many of the other sex comedies, may'be cause of it's originality or gags. But if you haven't seen this one, it was one of the eighties better ones, of his type. After all we have Matheson and the beautiful Runyon, and another bigger waterfall. And to spur the teams into action at the starting line, one girl flashes her t..ties too.

Bob (Tim Matheson), Gonzer (Stephen Furst), Max (Dan Monahan) and Irwin (Sandy Helberg) are four total losers in college. Their dean (John Hillerman slumming) orders them to compete against other colleges in a white water raft race. Predictable shenanigans ensure.An "Animal House" clone but, FOR WHAT IT IS, not bad. There's plenty of buff, shirtless guys and girls in skimpy bikinis--or sometimes topless. There's some nice photography, a GREAT title tune and a likable cast. Matheson doesn't take the role (or film) seriously and is just great--laid-back and quite funny. Furst is just OK; Monahan is good but given nothing to do and Helberg gets annoying REAL quick. Jennifer Runyon pops up as the love interest and is good---very pretty and having fun with her role.This is a silly movie with a stupid plot and some REAL bad jokes (most involve a commando outfit trying to sabotage the race) but a likable cast and a few good jokes make this fun to watch in a turn-off-your-brain way. Slightly recommended.

This is a story about students who were bottom of the league on every event that the college took part in.It shows of the challenge four students who were under achievers within the college, being put into a raft race to try and break the trend set by previous years. It also shows the lengths each of the other colleges would go to to win the raft race, with rockets and bombs and the course of the river being altered.It is a comedy you would like to watch again and again. The characters are portrayed well by the actors, and the story involved can show some of the everyday events that can happen in any rivalry situation.