Fandango Movie Review

Kevin Costner didn't get his start in Fandango, but he might as well have. This classic comedy gave us an early-career Costner as head of the "Groovers," a band of five roommates who decide to take one quick road trip after graduating from The University of Texas in 1971 -- only to find the spectre of Vietnam (and marriage) waiting for them in a matter of days.

The carefree Gardner Barnes (Costner) rallies his gang for a trip to an mysterious spot in the desert where they buried something long ago. The trip takes them to bumpkin towns, introduces them to jailbait, and culminates in a skydiving experience that remains one of the best on film. Watching it today, you might dismiss the movie as filled with cliches, but cliches have to get started somewhere, and for my money Fandango is that start. Marvin J. McIntyre is the original hippie pilot/drug zombie. Clothes coming out instead of a parachute? Here's your original scene. While some of the film feels reminiscent of Animal House or Losin' It, that's a minor matter. Fandango is so much fun in its own right that you'll forget all those other movies.