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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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NATIONAL
LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER
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Reviewed
by: |
Erik
A. Didonna |
| Genre: |
Comedy
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| Video: |
Widescreen
Anamorphic (1.85:1) and Full Frame (1.33:1) |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
| Language: |
English
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| Subtitle: |
English |
| Length: |
92
Minutes |
| Rating: |
R
|
| Release
Date: |
August 20,
2002 |
| Studio: |
Artisan
Entertainment |
| Commentary:
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None |
| Documentaries:
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None |
| Featurettes:
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Comedy Central Presents:
Reel Comedy: National Lampoon's Van Wilder. |
| Filmography/Biography:
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Cast and
crew and production notes. |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Includes a teaser and
the full theatrical trailer. Three different TV spots are also
included. Also includes bonus trailers for Good Advice, Reservoir
Dogs, Dune - The Miniseries, Novocaine, The Rambo Trilogy and
Glengarry Glen Ross. |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Eight deleted
scenes and thirteen blooper and outtake segments. |
| Music
Video: |
Sugarcult - "Bouncing
off the Walls." |
| Other:
|
3 Burly Bear
Specials - Imposter: Featuring the cast of Van Wilder, Movie
Junkie: A Van Wilder Special and Half Baked: A cooking segment
with Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid. |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Ryan Reynolds,
Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Kal Penn and Paul Gleason. |
| Screenplay
by: |
Grant Goldberg
& David Wagner |
| Produced
by: |
Peter Abrams |
| Directed
By: |
Walt Becker |
| Music: |
David Nessim
Lawrence |
| The
Review: |
Should
I even bother summarizing the tiresome plot of this Animal House
wannabe? What exactly would be the point? It's something or
other about the title character (well played by Ryan Reynolds)
wanting to prove his supremacy at partying... Or something like
that. And Tara Reid is the love interest. And there's a cute
girl from India... And Tim Matheson... And the principal from
The Breakfast Club who got raped by a gorilla in Trading Places
(Paul Gleason). You already know what to expect... Toilet humor
and gratuitous nudity slammed together in a package that screams
LAUGH YOU IDIOTS! And the ones looking for this kind of picture
will. I did. Usually... I especially liked the bulldog gag.
But that's just me. I wont give it away... But, trust me, it's
disgusting. Still... for all of that, there is a lack of real
energy. That's to be expected since the National Lampoon comedies
haven't been very good in a long time. This one ambitiously
attempts to recreate the lunacy of the earlier Lampoon epics
like Vacation and Animal House. It can't capture that spark
because it's missing the clever writing or savvy comic direction
of Harold Ramis or John Landis. Plus, it gets bogged down when
it starts to go the route of teen romantic comedies like Down
to You instead of sticking to its raunchy intentions. Still...
If you want a laugh, and you have the special brownies handy,
I guess you could do worse than this. |
| Image
and Sound |
The
image and sound quality are fine. But unexceptional. Since it
includes both widescreen and pan-and-scan on one disc, there
was probably some compression that ends up hurting the picture
quality. Still, leagues away from VHS and that's for sure. The
5.1 Digital Sound is equally decent. Particularly considering
the higher decibel ratio on the music as opposed to the dialogue.
The transfer is able to deliver a nice enough balance so you
can enjoy the pop-radio friendly music while listening to the
inane dialogue that populates movies like this. If your sound
hookup is well balanced, it will sound okay. Try watching it
on Mono and I guess all is lost. |
| The
Extras |
What
can I say except No Comment. An inconsequential raunchy comedy
like this can't expect to have a wealth of comprehensive extras
anyway. Suffice to say: For fans only. It's mostly a collection
of TV Specials that promote the movie as the next big comedy
smash (which it isn't and wasn't) as well as the usual assortment
of trailers, TV Spots and a Sugarcult music video that should
please fans of the band. One is a kind of clever "mockumentary"
that treats Van Wilder as if he were a real person. Still...
It's all fluff. The bloopers and outtakes are sometimes funny.
But they are in the general tone and spirit of the movie itself
so it's doubtful you'll see much of a difference. There are
also eight deleted scenes, none of which are particularly funny.
Besides, at 90 minutes the movie already feels too long anyway.
I guess the feature I liked the most was the Glengarry Glen
Ross trailer (which is included together with a wealth of other
trailers for upcoming Artisan releases) but since that's one
of my favorite movies I guess I'm biased. |
| Commentary |
None.
And, let's face it, I'm not in any real hurry to learn about
the subtle filmmaking techniques of Walt Becker or the performance
nuances of Ryan Reynolds. |
| Final
Words: |
Basically,
to each his own. If this is your cup of tea, go right ahead.
The 2-Disc package certainly gives the film a more generous
deluxe treatment than you would expect. And, considering it's
not exactly Earth-shattering 21 million box office take, you
wonder why they bothered. Maybe they were expecting it to have
a long-lasting cult life in home video... I suppose that's possible.
Then again, anything's possible. |
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