Film Reviews

Van Wilder

• Rating:
• Director: Walt Becker.
• Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Kim Smith, Daniel Cosgrove, Tom Everett Scott, Chris Owen.
• Details: US / 92 minutes / (18).

Just what the world needs: another gross out comedy. National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Party Liaison follows in the franchise's lamentable vein of frat boy comedies. In this case, the title character (Ryan Reynolds) is a slacker of the highest order, a chap who has spent the last seven years on campus. Van Wilder has no desire to graduate since he has everything he needs in college, a constant stream of foxy undergraduates, cheap beer and parties. As he's one of the most popular guys on campus, this naturally draws the inquisitive journalism undergraduate Gwen (Tara Reid) to him. She's determined to write a story on his legendary ways and, over the course of her research, she begins to think there may be more to Van Wilder than wet T-shirt contests and keg parties. If you believe that a scene where someone unwittingly consumes dog semen constitutes excellent cinema, chances are, you'll walk away from Van Wilder believing that it's Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Star Wars rolled into one. If 90 odd minutes of that sort of broad toilet humour doesn't appeal, then you don't need me to tell you what to do.

Review by Garreth Murphy