Oxford Blues (1984)

the audience applauded

Sorry, this movie sucks

People are voting emotionally.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

During his career Rob Lowe has been compared as the Brat Pack throwback to some of the matinée idols of the Studio era. That comparison was sealed when he did Oxford Blues a more suggestive remake of the MGM classic A Yank At Oxford which did so well for Robert Taylor back in the day.The same basic plot is retained for Oxford Blues from the original film. Rob with a little help from computer hacker brother Chad in an unbilled part, gets himself a transfer from the University of Nevada to matriculate. Funds for the trip and the tuition is won at the Las Vegas crap tables. And Rob even gets a Ferrari, courtesy of divorcée Gail Strickland, most satisfied with the extras that Rob provides for her when he's not parking cars. Stuff back in the day MGM would not show with Robert Taylor.If you thought Taylor was a fish out of water at Oxford back in the Thirties, he's nothing compared to Lowe here. Oxford is a place steeped in tradition and Lowe's casual attitude really irks a lot of people from head man Michael Gough on down.Worse than that he's got a casual attitude towards his sport of rowing. There even in their suits and gowns, the rowers are the jocks that rule in that place.Though there are certain things that don't change. When Lowe is challenged to a 'sconcing' contest, he knows what chugfest is all about.Like in the original Rob's caught between two women, matriculating student Ally Sheedy, fellow brat packer from America and Lady Amanda Pays who's well known nobility who occasionally winds up on the gossip pages. She's got a fiancé in the person of Julian Sands, but that doesn't deter Lowe one bit.Another good role in Oxford Blues is that of Julian Firth who plays Lowe's roommate and a person who is in some wonder of Lowe's casual American ways. Farther down the cast list in a minor part as another Oxford student is Cary Elwes who would be a movie name in a couple of years.Like the previous film when MGM filmed A Yank At Oxford on location there, Oxford Blues is also filmed at Oxford and I must say the place doesn't look like it changed much in almost fifty years. Then again a place steeped in tradition like Oxford isn't expected to change. Not even for Rob Lowe.As for Rob himself, he carries off the part of Nick DeAngelo in the best hero/heel tradition of that other matinée idol of yore, Tyrone Power.

Rob Lowe is a hot but obnoxious Oxford-bound student who wants to meet a beautiful girl enrolled there and also row his way to a championship if he has the time.When wreck-less Rob gets his cute little red sports-car wedged between two stone walls at Oxford, it becomes in his best interest to redeem himself with the school, though he fails miserably by showing up late for classes and acting like a royal pain in the butt. It seems Rob will decide to behave and row as long as his crew-mates let him wear his black leather jacket so he can stand out above everyone else.Amanda Pays and Ally Sheedy co-star in this remake of 'A Yank at Oxford'.

What most impresses me about this movie and a few others from the 80'slike Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire is how they lack all the brash,rude and obnoxiousness found in movies today! The young generation ofthat time ( and every young person has thier time) didn't fill thescreen with crude language and remarks degrading to each other. In thismovie they still had enough good sense to not curse like uneducatedheathens! Seems like all the movies today just seem to fill the screen with oneF**k and a$$hole and sheeet and every other imaginable word you coulduse just to see how many they can say in 90 minutes! It surely is a time gone by and perhaps we do live in a world that ismore realistic and streetwise, but it sure isn't going to make the worlda better place throwing obsceneties it in our face all the time! Oxford Blues was refreshing because it had some class even though it wasa simple plot and a simple movie. And Rob Lowe was one heck of a goodlooking

This is an excellent film with fine acting throughout. While the initial plotline might be slightly unlikely, the interactions of the main character while at Oxford are the real point of the movie, despite his initial reason. It is interesting througout the movie with a variety of well-rounded characters. The movie is well balanced between the action and excitement of the competitive scenes with the drama and romance at the heart of the story.