Sorority Boys Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)March 22nd, 2002
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In at least one respect, Sorority Boys could be considered a success. Like last year's Tomcats, it recognizes its target demographic and goes all out to make them roll in the aisles during its mercifully short 90-minute running time. There is no Important Message here (actually, there is, but it's so stupid that there's no possible way the filmmakers can expect us to take it seriously) or award-quality performances. It's just a lot of jokes revolving around sex, and most of them find their mark.
Boys takes place on an unnamed college campus which is pretty much ruled by the Greek brothers of Kappa Omicron Kappa (or KOK). The hard-partying fraternity is busy planning their annual KOK-Tail Cruise, after which previous-members-turned-powerful-captains-of-industry will give current seniors major post-graduation employment commitments if the event is a success. This is good news for Dave (Barry Watson, 7th Heaven) who hopes to land a plum job and immediately hire cohorts Adam (Michael Rosenbaum, Smallville) and sixth-year senior Doofer (Harland Williams, Freddy Got Fingered).
Trouble ensues in the form of an empty safe that formerly housed copious amounts of KOK-Tail Cruise money, and since Dave and Co. ran the frat's entertainment committee, the three brothers are immediately booted from the house. There is a way to prove their innocence, but to obtain the evidence the trio must don disguises to re-enter KOK. In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, they settle on masquerading as women, which also grants them admission into Delta Omicron Gamma (or DOG), the sorority house full of the very same homely girls the men used to spend their days tormenting.
Maybe "homely" is too kind a word, as the DOG ranks include a giant, an extremely hirsute Frenchwoman and a very Seinfeld-esque coed who can't control the volume of her voice. The sorority president is Leah (Melissa Sagemiller, Get Over It), who is way too cute to associate with losers like this, but the filmmakers solve that problem by slapping a pair of nerdy glasses on her and making the character a militant feminist with secretive lesbian tendencies. If Boys was Bosom Buddies (which it practically is - Peter Scolari and Wendie Jo Sperber both have brief cameos), Leah would be Dave's Donna Dixon. If it was Some Like It Hot, she'd be his Marilyn Monroe. Leah wants nothing to do with Dave but just can't get enough of his female alter ego.
Things proceed predictably, with Watson, Rosenbaum and Williams failing to recreate the magic of Tom Hanks and Scolari (let alone Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis). Boys has the potential to piss off a lot of uptight broads because most of its humor is based on very un-politically correct stereotypes. None of the nudity or wet t-shirt shots are remotely relevant to the plot (I'm pretty sure Sagemiller used a body double for her nude shower scene), and the quick and complete moral 180 the three main characters undergo is so thinly veiled, it's downright laughable.
Boys is the writing debut of Joe Jarvis and Greg Coolidge, whose gags often hit below the belt but generally seem to elicit laughs. The film was directed by Wallace Wolodarsky, who is certainly no stranger to irreverent comedy after logging time on The Simpsons, The Tracey Ullman Show and the extremely funny but painfully short-lived animated WB series The Oblongs. Then again, I'm not sure the script or direction can take any credit for how frigging funny Harland Williams is. I could have watched a 90-minute film featuring him improvising in drag and been just as happy.
1:30 - Rated R for crude sexual content, nudity, strong language and some drug use
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