
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995                   TAG: 9509110087
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JANET MASLIN NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PLEASE, JUST LET THIS BE THE LAST `LAMPOON'

``National Lampoon's Senior Trip,'' which deserves to be the last gasp of this threadbare comedy series, sends a group of high-school burnouts from Ohio to Washington, where they are supposed to be helping the president enact an education reform bill and representing the flower of America's youth. Since the kids are so predictably bad, no good can come of this plan as the film cranks out its mix of druggy humor, frat-style partying and bedroom farce.

The biggest names in ``National Lampoon's Senior Trip'' are Matt Frewer, who plays the (surprise!) buffoonish principal, and Tommy Chong as the hippie relic who drives the group's school bus. There seem to be no other stars of the past, present or future. But if any of the actors playing slatternly schoolgirls or nerdy schoolboys should hit it big, this is a credit to leave off the resume.

This becomes the rare film in which Pauly Shore would be an asset; better to see his version of a sly doper than to watch an imitation. There's also a big, clownish character who will make audiences miss John Belushi and John Candy. Among other highlights: a character who acts out ``Star Trek'' using cardboard cutouts and an inflatable party doll, and a scene in which students fail to notice that their typing teacher has dropped dead.

National Lampoon's Senior Trip

A New Line Cinema release playing at Salem Valley 8. 94 min. Rated R for leering sexual situations and profanity.

by CNB