Old School Movie Review:


The team (Todd Phillips & Ivan Reitman) who brought us the amusing college comedy Road Trip (2000), now delivers their sophomore film Old School. The story follows three down on their luck thirty-year-olds that start up a fraternity to regain their glory as young party animals. There is Mitch (Wilson), who is the quiet one that recently caught the love of life involved in unbelievable sexual acts. Frank (Ferrell) a recently married, accidental prone being who doesn't have a high tolerance for alcohol. Beanie is the instigator of the group that it is constantly harping on the issues of his wife and kids, even though he loves them more than anything. Mitch's newly rented college-campus home is turned into the frat house, in which any one can join the fraternity even if they don't go to college. The film turns into a typical college genre comedy that contains crude and sexual humor, and ultimately the characters having to either grow up or keep their college reality.

Old School isn't nearly as funny or wacky as past college comedies like Road Trip, but it is one goofy movie. The concept of three thirty year old dummies starting up a fraternity is a concept that I found humorously original. I could actually see a group of guys doing this but the reality of having a fraternity like the one in Old School is very unlikely.

Todd Phillips seems to be the guy that is going to be a traditional college comedy director. Phillips atmosphere and comedy in Old School and Road Trip connects with the college movie-going crowd. When Road Trip came out I was still an undergraduate in college and I thought that it was a laugh fest. Now when I watch it, it is still funny, but not the same. College comedies are of course better when you are young or in college. However, when you get out into the real world and reality slaps you in the face, you in a sense grow out of college comedy genres unless they are something really original. I still enjoy Road Trip and believe that The Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) are two of the best comedies of all time. Phillips is a writer/director that knows this genre very well. Though a lot of his plot points are derived or duplicated from other films, as long as he continues to conceive silly plot lines, like thirty year olds starting a fraternity, he will continue to exceed.

Luke Wilson is the more of the subtle of the Wilson brothers (the other is Shanghai Knights' (2003) Owen Wilson). As Mitch, Wilson continues to show that he is able to lead in a film, but his lack of big sparks still might hold him back to supporting roles. Vince Vaughn delivers one of his better performances as the baby totting party animal Beanie. The clicks of this character resemble Vaughn's past work in the great film Swingers (1996). Will Ferrell really steals this movie as the careless and forgetful Frank. Ferrell, who is the best thing on Saturday Night Live these days, just has a natural ability to make people laugh. His verbal and physical body cues carry this film's funniest moments. Ellen Pompeo, who was so wonderful in Moonlight Mile (2002), continues to show her range as an up-and-coming actress as Mitch's love interest. There are also many funny cameos in this film, which include ones by American Pie (1999)'s Seann William Scott and Andy Dick.

Old School is a stupid, but funny college comedy that has an original plot line. In the future, the DVD of this film will be playing during many college parties. Its crude humor isn't over the top like the recent National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) or Jackass: The Movie (2002), but isn't laugh a minute fun like American Pie or Scary Movie (2000).

Report Card Grade: C+

02/09/03
Copyright

Joseph C. Tucker

There just comes a time in any man’s life when you have to say enough is enough. I seem to have reached my limit with the "gross-out teen" comedies.

"Old School" features three disenchanted men, Mitch, Frank and Beanie, who decide to create a fraternity in hopes of reawakening their love affair with their college days. Mitch’s (Luke Wilson) new place seems to be the perfect place for the fraternity according to Luke’s pals Beanie (Vince Vaughn) and Frank (Will Ferrell). When the best parties of the campus erupt and middle-aged men become pledges, Dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) makes it his mission to stop the hi-jinx.

I remember back to my college days with fond memories, I also remember watching oodles and oodles of fraternity comedies when I was a college chum. I adored the classics like "Animal House", "Revenge of the Nerds", "Meatballs" and "Up the Creek". I used to howl at the hi-jinx and the nerds overcoming jocks. I even found myself reliving some of those moments when I saw last year’s "Van Wilder". But with "Old School" I fond myself chuckling through a couple isolated scenes but found most of it to be unimaginative and boring. Have I fully grown up? Or was it the premise and the jokes were lacking? I hope it was the latter.

I loved the cinder block and tranquilizer gun scenes but found that I didn’t care about the characters at all. Why was this in such a basic comedy?

I think that I have become weary of these kinds of movies. This film so wants to be the "Animal House" of the next generation but it doesn’t have the flair or interesting characters that filled that movie to the rafters. Comedies like these need colorful and bold characters, which we can relate to. We also need them so we can appreciate when the "loveable losers" overcome the trying of odds. This is quite evident in the other classics like "Revenge of the Nerds".

"Old School" is a painful trip down memory lane. Recommended for the college crowd only. The rest of us can relive these memories with the classics.

(1.5 of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

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