OLD SCHOOL (2003) / ** 1/2
Directed by Todd Phillips. Screenplay by Phillips and Scot Armstrong, from a story by Court Crandall, Phillips and Armstrong. Starring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated AA for offensive language by the MFCB. Reviewed on March 7th, 2003.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Synopsis: After splitting with his live-in girlfriend, Mitch Martin (Wilson) rents a house on the campus of the local college. His friends Frank (Ferrell) and Beanie (Vaughn), seeking to pull Mitch out of his doldrums, decide to take advantage of the location to throw wild parties and invite the students. But when the dean (Jeremy Piven) tries to repossess Mitch's home for "campus use", the guys elect to turn it into a frat house.
Review: It's not quite "Animal House: Ten Years Later", to which it seems to be aspiring, but "Old School" is nonetheless an unexpectedly funny lampooning of the college experience. There are all the usual hallmarks of such films: horny students, a crusty old (well, mid-thirties) dean, hazing antics, and of course an utter lack of emphasis on academics. (Indeed, there's even a glaring mathematical implausibility in the final reel which anybody who's passed first-year math would hopefully pick up on.) The angle that "Old School" takes -- focussing the story through the eyes of a group of men a decade past their undergraduate experience -- is a clever one, because it opens up the breadth of humorous material beyond merely the juvenile. And if many of the jokes are well-worn (and the story arc overly familiar) we can at least be grateful that some of them aren't: a scene in which a group of frat house pledges ends up on a roof with bricks tied to their manhoods will leave the audience both chortling and cringing, for instance. Each of the leads handles his role well, with Ferrell probably inspiring the most laughs (although he also endures some of the film's dumber moments). His rendition of Kansas' "Dust In The Wind" is a must-see. As with his previous effort, "Road Trip", Phillips' direction is competent if generally uninspired.
Copyright © 2003 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html
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