Review – Van Wilder

If American Pie is Porky’s for the next generation and XXX is James Bond for the next generation, then this outing – particularly with the National Lampoon trademark slapped on it – is clearly intended as a bid for the distinction of becoming the next generation’s Animal House. The way this trend is going, I genuinely pity the next generation. For openers, this is way too nicey nice to even come close to the nasty wit of the movie it’s clearly intended to imitate. Instead of a group of losers taking revenge on their socially-acceptable nemeses, here we have a saintly goof-off of Ferris Buehler proportions who falls (mutually) for the knock-out girlfriend of the vaguely-homosexual head of the obnoxious-boy frat. It doesn’t help that the love interest is a journalist played by Tara Reid. Animal House was no shining beacon of hope for the cinema arts, but at least it wasn’t so inanely predictable as to become downright dull. See if desperate