Old School Review
by Jerry Saravia (faust668 AT aol DOT com)September 2nd, 2003
OLD SCHOOL (2003)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: One star
So there are the typical gross-out, raunchy teenage or college-based comedies released every month - their gross-out factor (as in "Van Wilder") is what determines their success. Then there are teenage or college-based comedies where the raunch factor is at a minimum - mostly they want to get audiences swooning for a horny male and female to be together happily ever after. The latter may be a perfect description of "Can't Hardly Wait," the most innocuous of all recent variations of this tiresome genre. "Old School" is fairly raunch-less and features almost no gross-out gags. I suppose we can be eternally grateful for that, but there is so little humor in it that I am flabbergasted that anyone would call this a comedy.
The opening sequence has Mitch (Luke Wilson) discovering his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) engaged in sexual blindfolding games with other people. Naturally, Mitch breaks up with her and moves into a new house. To celebrate, his buddies stage a party that is roughly the size of a rave, complete with rap singer Snoop Dogg performing for the party crowd. His buddies also decide to start a fraternity (this coming from 30-something men) at the local university and hold meetings and other nonsense at Mitch's new house. Of course, Wilson finds this idea ludicrous but that doesn't stop him from agreeing. To see grown men like Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn (who both play Wilson's buddies) is a little creepy to say the least - why would men with families want to get in touch with their inner college selves by running a fraternity? Somehow, the idea of Eric Stoltz as an aging college student in "Kicking and Screaming" was more convincing than what is shown here.
"Old School" has no real theme or value or any real laughs. Mostly, I watched ninety-minutes of this travesty without cracking so much as a smile. I liked the scene with "Crossfire's" James Carville on the debate team and Juliette Lewis is always a crackling presence (though her appearance is far too brief). And there is the sweet, pleasing presence of Ellen Pompeo (formerly cast in "Moonlight Mile") as Wilson's former college sweetheart. Sean William Scott's cameo as an expert on horses and tranquilizers is always good for a mild chuckle. Otherwise, there is not a single redeeming feature in "Old School." Grade D-. Class dismissed.
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