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Just flush this one
National Lampoon's Van Wilder: It's stupid, it's gross, and it shamelessly borrows from previous movies and characters.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 4, 2002
[Photo: Artisan Entertainment ]
Seventh-year college student and party legend Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) with his dog in National Lampoon’s
Van Wilder.
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Movie-company representatives love to gauge critics' reactions immediately after screenings, and reviewers generally loathe complying. We usually like to give a movie, the culmination of several months' worth of work by many creative artists, the benefit of reflection and analysis before going public with our opinions.
Then there's a movie like National Lampoon's Van Wilder, the latest and least in a line of movies bearing the name of the humor magazine of yore (still available online). If a publicist wants my reaction in sound-bite form, here it is: 1) It's every bit as bad as the trailers suggested it would be. 2) It's better than diarrhea. Almost.
That wasn't simply a casual scatological reference: A key scene revolves around the effects of a dose of laxative on ambitious premed student Richard Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove), the same variety of jerky, yuppie boyfriend on display in nearly every teen romantic comedy over the last two decades or so.
Van Wilder indeed is a wannabe romantic comedy, with woefully misguided aspirations to the grossout territory staked by the Farrelly brothers. Richard's intestinal problems might remind some of a similar scene in the Farrellys' Dumb and Dumber. Another sequence intended to disgust viewers relates to a dog with comically enlarged testicles and the mystery ingredient in a batch of cream eclairs delivered to a group of pompous Delta Iota Kappa frat brothers.
The latter stunt was created by the title character (Ryan Reynolds, of television's Two Guys and a Girl), a seventh-year college student suddenly forced to pay his way through school. Van, big man on campus, has a personal assistant named Taj Mahal (Kal Penn) and, apparently, the love and affection of all his classmates. He's adored for his scams and schemes, including a topless tutors program (insert gratuitous nudity here) that's briefly successful.
Tara Reid (the American Pie movies, Josie and the Pussycats), plays Gwen Pearson, the cute student journalist assigned to write a story about the campus hero. Initially put off by Van's mugging and tomfoolery, she eventually warms to his charms. Those charms, by the way, come off as a mix of mannerisms shamelessly borrowed from Chevy Chase (the eye-rolling), Phil Hartman (the smarmy faux sincerity) and even Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller.
Tim Matheson, a star of the actual comedy National Lampoon's Animal House, shows up as Van's dad. Sadly, his appearance only serves to emphasize the difference between that winning 1978 film and this loser. Van Wilder, by the way, is an equal opportunity offender, casually, stupidly poking fun at foreigners, the hearing impaired, the elderly, Hasidic Jews, gays and those with weight problems. How refreshing.
National Lampoon's Van Wilder
- Grade: D-
- Director: Walt Becker
- Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Kal Penn, Teck Holmes, Daniel Cosgrove
- Screenplay: Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner
- Rating: R; nudity, profanity, sexual situations, scatological references, drug content
- Running time: 95 minutes
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