National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner
Directed by Walt Becker
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Paul Gleason, Teck Holmes

Features:

• Widescreen or fullscreen presentation
  
• Deleted scenes
  
• Outtakes
  
• Comedy Central’s “Reel Comedy” special
  
• Burly TV’s “Half Baked,” “Impostor,” and “Movie Junky” specials
  
• Sugarcult music video
  
• Live-action “hosted” menus (available in censored and uncensored)
  
• The Van Wilder Files (from www.nationallampoon.com)
  
• Van Wilder Campaign art gallery
  
• TV spots
  
• Trailers
  
• Cast and crew info
  
• Production notes
  

Rated: Not Rated (suitable for audiences 18+)

Anamorphic: Yes

My advice: Rent it at the very least. Own it if you still find juvenille humor amusing.

First off, let me just say that it’s about time National Lampoon was able to put their name on something that was honestly funny. Van Wilder is a movie in the great tradition of National Lampoon classics like Animal House and the original Vacation. That said, if you weren’t a fan of that brand of humor before, this one is unlikely to sway you to it. The humor runs the gamut from cleverly snide to absolutely scatological, but is consistently amusing (if occasionally disgusting).

Van Wilder (Reynolds) is a seventh-year senior at Coolidge College, with a fantastically wealthy father footing the bill. He lives in a huge (and tastefully decorated) dorm room, has a personalized golf cart to tool about campus, and keeps a personal assistant on retainer perpetually. He throws massive parties, donates the proceeds to various campus organizations, and refuses to grant interviews.

But when Van’s dad (Matheson) figures out that his son hasn’t graduated (a detail that had eluded him for a few years), the game is up. Suddenly cut off from his family’s bottomless subsidization, Van has to scramble in order to pay tuition. Adding to his troubles, the school paper has tasked another rookie reporter to attempt an expose of the media shy Wilder. Turning his considerable social engineering talents to the task, Van launches into an entreprenurial career as an event planner and provider of tutors (topless, incidentally, and test scores skyrocket). As the funds pour in, Wilder becomes embroiled in an emotional struggle with cub reporter Gwen Pearson (Reid) and her very tightly-wound boyfriend, and his academic troubles mount. It will require all of Van’s considerable wit to bring everything to a satisfactory resolution.

As already stated, this movie is genuinely funny, but in decidedly “groundling” fashion. The performances are quite good, particularly from Reynolds, whose comedic timing and sardonic delivery are absolutely brilliant. Tara Reid is surprisingly capable, and displays a greater emotional range in what is essentially a two-dimensional comedy than she has in any other role I’ve seen her take. Van’s personal assistant, Taj (Penn), is also consistently a riot.

The DVD extras are deep. The disc is loaded, though curiously absent is a commentary track. Several TV specials about the movie or involving the crew are included, tons of promotional material, amusing background on Van himself, and production notes are merely the tip of the iceberg. If the movie gets your interest, there’s more than enough bonus goodies to keep you entertained for a while.

Like I said up top, if you're amused by such shenanigans, it's at least worth your time to rent. If you worship the stuff, then own it. Perhaps if the commentary track had been provided as well and had been worthy, I'd have told you to plonk down the coin--but it's worth a view nonetheless.