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

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: During the scene where Taj and Charlotte are about to have sex in The Barn, in several scenes you can obviously see Charlotte's character wearing flesh-colored tape over her nipples.

Quotes:

Taj: A surprise in the woods? Well, can you give me a second? Let me go repack my wallet real quick.

Movie Connections:

Features Brute Force (2003) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Fiddler's Tale

Not a total train wreck... but probably should be avoided

You know things aren't going well when the title character doesn't make an appearance in the 'sequel'. As much as I enjoyed Kal Penn in the first Van Wilder (and Harold and Kumar), he isn't given much to work with here.

The script is awful, just brutal. I think I laughed twice throughout the whole thing. I'm sure nobody is watching this type of movie for compelling characters and riveting plot, but when almost every single joke falls completely flat... every other blemish on the script becomes glaring. There are completely nonsensical subplots thrown about that reference secondary characters that you forgot were introduced in the first place, a silly competition that never makes any sense and an embarrassing turn by the bulldog that made his infamous scene from the first "Van Wilder" look like high art. If you sat a twelve year old in a room with a typewriter and told him to write "Revenge of the Nerds in England" he couldn't do much worse than what's given here. The worst part is that the movie gets consistently less funny as it goes on. The final 15 minutes or so is cringe inducing.

The direction isn't much better. The whole thing has a look of a made for cable TV movie you'd see on a kid's network. Not only is Kal Penn inconsistent with his accent from scene to scene, sometimes it's every other line. On a few occasions, I couldn't even make out the dialog. The actors clearly didn't give a clean read but it made through to the final cut anyways. I realize this was made on the cheap, but you can tell the folks behind the camera didn't put forth much effort. Either that or they didn't have the time. Regardless, it's not pretty to watch.

The only saving grace are the actors. Despite Kal Penn not bothering to hold his accent, everybody on screen appears to be having a good time. Even if everything else is awful, I can't hate a movie where it at least appears that the actors enjoyed their work. They all seemed determined to give their best despite what they all must have known was horrendous material. Kal and the female lead (Lauren Cohan) admirably build some chemistry with little help from their lines. Holly Davidson also steals a couple of scenes as the "cockney" member of the group.

While I didn't think this was a complete disaster, you'd be wise to avoid it.