Release Date: February 21, 2003
Starring: Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Ellen Pompeo, Jeremy Piven, Juliette Lewis
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Written by: Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong
Distributed by: DreamWorks
MPAA Rating: R (some strong sexual content, nudity, language)
A comedy like Old School hasn’t been this refreshing since mid-90’s romps like Wayne’s World, Dumb & Dumber, and Tommy Boy, which were all admittedly idiotic but hysterical nonetheless. As most comedies with a talented cast and a nimble sense of humor have shown, a strong plot isn’t necessary to get the job done. With this movie, Todd Phillips, the director of the teen comedy Road Trip, has put together a familiar college buddy story with a great cast and a fresh twist, resulting in a hilarious movie that delivers a full complement of laughs even without a rock-solid script.
To set the stage for the bulk of the movie's antics, the following events take place: Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) comes home early from a business trip to find his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) engaged in bizarre sexual activity with two other people. Depressed and angry with life, he falls back on his best friends: Beanie (Vince Vaughn), a husband and father and the owner of an electronics outlet, and Frank (Will Ferrell), a soon-to-be-married man with a notorious past for partying hard. With Mitch in the dumps, Frank and Beanie turn his new home into one of the most popular places in town (with a huge party featuring rapper Snoop Dogg as the main entertainer). Soon after that, all three agree to start their own fraternity in order to continue their newly rediscovered partying lifestyles.
It may sound like the next Animal House or even a spin-off of Porky’s, but Old School does plenty on its own to set itself apart from lesser worthy comedies. There are, of course, plenty of wild parties, frat initiations, a grumpy university dean (Jeremy Piven), and even sexy women wrestling in KY Jelly, but the cast of characters turns it into a much more original comedy than it seems at first glance. The movie's shenanigans are sharp-witted enough to disguise any similarities to the party comedies that have come before it, and it doesn't resort to tasteless humor like so many other films in this genre. Coincidentally, Ivan Reitman, the director of Animal House and more than a few other clever comedies, acted as an executive producer for this film and that certainly didn't hurt matters.
The man who helped the most, though, is Will Ferrell, hands down. The ex-“Saturday Night Live” comedian made this his first major film role since departing the comedy show in 2002, and if this movie is any indication, he will be one of the funniest and most successful actors to ever graduate to the big screen from the long-running televison show. His character, Frank, has an innocence and loveable stupidity that makes nearly everything he does hysterical. For instance, whether he's streaking naked through a public street at night, getting shot in the face with an animal tranquilizer, singing a somber (though painfully funny) song at a funeral, or performing an acrobatic ribbon dance, it’s practically worth busting a gut over.
Ferrell is in good company as well with his slighlty more dramatic costars, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Wilson’s handsome and amiable character is matched well with the love interest, the comely Ellen Pompeo (who had a breakthrough performance in Moonlight Mile), and Vaughn’s sarcastic and assertive personality fits well into the friendship trio as he plays his most likeable character since Made. The three men all compliment each other very well and make for a group of guys anyone (particularly movie audiences) would want to know, and as the movie shows, many actually fight to become a part of their fraternity.
Dubbed as a “college comedy” (to remind parents of its R rating), Old School has just the right blend of witty and raunchy humor for young people, and not since maybe the first American Pie have we been able to say something to that effect. So while teen viewers make it a success at the box office, people like Will Ferrell and director Todd Phillips will rightfully reap the benefits and hopefully continue to entertain us in the future. By then, this film will undoutedly be a favorite party rental, which, for this genre, is perhaps the ultimate compliment.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)