Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (2006)

Director:

Mort Nathan

Writers:

David Drew Gallagher (written by)
Brent Goldberg (characters) ...

Release Date:

1 December 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

The Legend is Growing.

Plot:

Taj Mahal Badalandabad leaves Coolidge College behind for the halls of Camford University in England, where he looks to continue his education, and teach an uptight student how to make the most out of her academic career.

Plot Keywords:

Bulldog | Cockney Accent | Female Nudity | Nipples Visible Through Clothing | Second Part

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Kal Penn	...	Taj
Lauren Cohan	...	Charlotte
Daniel Percival	...	Pip
Glen Barry	...	Seamus
Anthony Cozens	...	Gethin
Steven Rathman	...	Simon
Holly Davidson	...	Sadie
Tom Davey	...	Percy
William de Coverly	...	Roger
Beth Steel	...	Penelope
Amy Steel	...	Alexandra
Jonathan Cecil	...	Provost Cunningham
Roger Hammond	...	Camford Dean
Kulvinder Ghir	...	Taj's Father
Shobu Kapoor	...	Taj's Mother

Also Known As:

National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (USA) (complete title)
Van Wilder Deux: The Rise of Taj (USA) (working title)
Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (Australia) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive crude sexual content, some nudity and language.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA | Singapore:NC-16 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:16 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The two reporters' bylines in the newspaper articles are "Anita Hanjaab" and "Mike Oxsbig", which sound just like... Well, you can figure it out.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The candles when they are fighting have already been cut so that when the gentleman from the Fox and Hound hit them, they fall over.

Quotes:

Woman on Plane: Excuse me, is that Madamendira Bombay Hot Sauce?
Taj: No way, you know it?
Woman on Plane: I have this... thing for spices.
Taj: You have a TING?

Movie Connections:

References "The Care Bears" (1985)

Soundtrack:

Tha Jump Off

Don't watch this

First let me start by saying I was a huge Van Wilder fan and enjoy all of Kal Penn's work, be it in Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar, and even American Desi. This film, however, was a disaster. The plot is unimaginative; Taj arrives in a British university and leads a misfit group of losers against a wealthy, socially elite house in an intra-fraternal competition. The object of Taj's affection unfortunately winds up being the girlfriend of his biggest antagonist, the head of the rival fraternity house (see the original Van Wilder for a blatantly similar romantic situation).

This just wasn't funny at all. I crack up pretty easily and laughed less than 5 or 6 times during an hour an a half. And even then, I was forcing it just because I felt like I forked down $10, and if I didn't even laugh once, I'd have been bamboozled of my money. The only redeeming scenes are those featuring Taj's parents, who are in the film for less than 10 minutes and managed to pull my rating from a 1 to a 2. Every other joke was corny, unfunny, and otherwise dull. The writing and directing were so uninspired that it was actually painful to watch this movie. The problem with this film was half conceptual too, since Taj was only funny in Van Wilder in the limited doses we got. Goofy Indian accents aren't enough to carry an hour and a half long poorly written train wreck, and that's what we saw here.

The thing that really bothered me was that I could feel Kal Penn's career dying before my eyes. I really don't know how anyone who read this script could agree to do it, especially him, because he was the only actor with a future in this movie. He had at least moderate buzz going for him after a string of decent performances, and then releases this nonsense. I can only hope that movie studios will forgive him, because it was difficult to watch this.