"Class" maybe a movie memorable for Andrew McCarthy and Jacqueline Bisset steamy affair but it is a movie that suffers because it's unsure of what it wants to be. It starts off as quite an obvious teenage comedy set in the bawdy halls of a prep school and then tries to explore a more dramatic story surrounding love and friendship which is completely at odds with the set up. Even if that wasn't the case there is much more with in "Class" which just doesn't quite work, making it at best an enjoyable but distinctly average teen movie from the early 80s.

Having won a scholarship to a well to do prep school, naive Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy - The Hollywood Mom's Mystery) soon falls foul of prep school humour when his room mate, the confident Skip (Rob Lowe - Bad Influence) makes a fool out of him. But after a rough start the room mates soon become best mates and realising that Jonathan is still a virgin Skip gives him some money to head off to Chicago for a weekend to pop his cherry, which he manages with an older woman called Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset - Airport), leading to a romance to blossom between them. But when Skip decides to take Jonathan back to his family home over a Christmas break, Jonathan is in for a shock when he discovers the woman he loves is in fact Skip's mother.

As already mentioned "Class" starts like a teen college comedy which although set in a classy prep school is just a like for like replacement for college halls. So we get various moments of humour, teen pranks and general misbehaving with the scene featuring Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy dressed in woman's lingerie being one of the more memorable. Frankly a lot of this opening set up whilst fun isn't that original and although there are some scenes which will cause a laugh it never really reaches the peaks of being a really bawdy teen comedy, almost restraining itself from showing too many drunken exploits and nudity which to be frank is what you are expecting.

But things really start to go wrong for "Class" when it attempts to turn the storyline into a more serious drama about love between a prep school student and an older woman who just happens to be his best mates mum. It just doesn't work and much of which is because no matter how much I like Andrew McCarthy, "Class" was his first movie and he doesn't quite convey the emotion of what should be the drama, although he shows signs of his talent when it comes to the comedy. In a way the drama of this rather strange situation which obviously leads to issues between friends Jonathan and Skip is almost played to be humorous yet other than a sex scene in an elevator never really finds the humour.

Tagged on to all this there are a few sub plots, things such as the prep school being investigated leading to the pupils to destroy their drugs before they get caught and that Jonathan wants to go to Harvard add little more than padding to what is to be frank a disappointing storyline especially as the storyline could have ended up a knockout story about teen sex fantasy's rather than the mismatch of humour and drama it turned in to.

Aside from McCarthy "Class" also features Rob Lowe as Skip and to be frank Lowe's own lack of movie experience shows with a case of the serious over acting accompanied by a god awful accent. It's an unconfident performance in a role which demands confidence, yet like McCarthy there are glimpses of what Lowe was to become capable off with many of the teen prank scenes actually working because Lowe delivers that mischievousness you would expect. As well as Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe there is also Jacqueline Bisset as Ellen the woman which Jonathan falls for only to find out she is Skip's mother. Another shall we say less than exciting performance failing to deliver the emotion of not only being duped by a teenager but also that he is her son's friend.

Other than the 3 main stars there is little else to really to praise or criticise, Cliff Robertson turns up in a small role as Skip's father and often in the background of the pre school rooms you will notice fresh faced future stars John Cusack and Alan Ruck as prep school kids.

What this all boils down to is that "Class" is not so much disappointing just distinctly average and I can't imagine it played any better when it was released back in 1983. It has it's moments with some of the teen pranks raising a smile but there is little else to praise as it loses it's way when it tries to develop a romantic drama between a teen and an adult.