ROB LOWE W/ ANDREW MCCARTHY & JACQUELINE BISSET IN 'CLASS'

Opening credit for CLASS from 1983 Rating: ***

While CLASS stars future Brat Packers Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy before ST. ELMO'S FIRE made them both 11th hour qualifiers after SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB (then cemented with ABOUT LAST NIGHT and PRETTY IN PINK), it relies on the two previous decades while epitomizing the eighties Sex Comedy template including a hapless virgin, a partying rich kid and a sexy older woman straight out of THE GRADUATE...

Leading to the inevitable (and at the time heavily promoted) May/December romance between McCarthy and Jacqueline Bissit is a sort of devil-may-care prep school ANIMAL HOUSE with students smoking and drinking, and where Lowe's cocky practical joker character recalls Tim Matheson's HOUSE chief Otter Stratton... 

Andrew McCarthy between comedy and drama in CLASS

Only here we're not on campus for very long: McCarthy and Bisset's romp (they meet in a downtown Chicago bar and she's actually Lowe's unhappily married mother) occurs before the college comedy can grow beyond cliches...

And while both the teen and adult-oriented stories are entertaining... including card games with fellow students John Cusack and Alan Ruck vs Bisset looking hotter than ever... once the married cougar becomes a pathetic phone-stalker off campus, and forced antagonist Stuart Margolin intrudes on campus, this CLASS has already long but emptied out.

Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy and Jacqueline Bisset in CLASS

Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Alan Ruck and John Cusack in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy, Alan Ruck and John Cusack in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy and Alan Ruck in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy and John Cusack in CLASS

John Cusack in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS with Jacqueline Bisset

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS with Jacqueline Bisset

Straight out of the Graduate with Ben and Mr Robinson from CLASS

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS with Stuart Margolin

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS with Remak Ramsay and Rob Lowe

Andrew McCarthy in CLASS with Rob Lowe