There aren't a lotta good things I can say about "Van Wilder." It's a crappy movie, simple as that. "Van Wilder" is a bad movie, and there's no denying it. However, "Van Wilder" didn't set out to break new ground, nor did it try to be some brilliant, mature, thought-provoking comedy. It's a movie that had one goal in mind, and that was to make the audience laugh at some really nasty shit. I laughed a lot during this movie, and that's all I really wanted. I expected a bad movie that would, at the very least, amuse me for an hour and a half, and it did more than that. I laughed my ass off during certain parts.
The official title is "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," and there have been some great movies from National Lampoon, most notably "Animal House" and the hilarious "Vacation" movies. "Van Wilder" isn't close to being up there with those movies, but that's okay. It's a simple gross-out film with no real social redeeming value, and all it wants to do is make you laugh. It's not a movie for everybody, some of what's in the movie is really, really gross, but for someone like me, someone who gets a kick out of vulgar, gross, disgusting, nasty toilet humor, it's good stuff.
A big reason for this movie working for me is the cast. The main guy, the title character of "Van Wilder," is played by Ryan Reynolds. He was one of the guys in the TV show "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place," which was later renamed "Two Guys and a Girl." He has a style of comedy that seems familiar to me, almost TOO familiar, like he's copying someone else. That aside, he's great for this movie. His comic timing is perfect, and he's a really good comedic actor. I'm not so sure if he can do serious roles, though. At certain points in the movie, when he's acting serious (and those moments are rare, I should add), you're not sure if he's faking it or not. But you never know. I've never seen him do a serious role, so I may be completely wrong. In this movie, he's very good. Then there's the very sexy Tara Reid (hottie from "American Pie" and "American Pie 2"... she was also the drummer in "Josie and the Pussycats") as the girl he has his eyes on. Damn she's hot, and she has a fantastic voice. It's sultry and smoky, she would be a great voice actress. For some good ol' fashioned ethnic stereotype humor, we get Kal Penn as the guy from India,and the personal assistant to "Van Wilder." I remember him from an episode of the great TV show, "Angel," but other than that, I've never seen him before. Don't let his accent in this movie fool ya, the guy was born in New Jersey! The father of "Van Wilder" is played by Tim Matheson, who starred in the National Lampoon movie I mentioned earlier, "Animal House." He also played Freddie Prinze Jr.'s father in "She's All That," and he plays the Vice President of the United States in the TV show, "The West Wing." Fans of MTV's "The Real World" (which I'm not... it got lame after season two in Los Angeles, and I'm sick of MTV airing nothing but reruns of the show, as well as it's counterparts like "Road Rules"... MTV's getting better, though... I like "The Osbournes" a lot, and they're starting to play more videos now, even rock videos!) will remember Teck Holmes. He's probably one of the most popular "Real World" cast members. He doesn't do much in the movie, but the few scenes he's in are very funny, especially the one scene with an object he mistakes for a bong. For those of you like me who are big fans of the 80s classic, "Revenge of the Nerds," Curtis Armstrong, "Booger" himself, is in this movie as a security guard. There's also a small role for Deon Richmond ("Malik, The Token Black Guy" in "Not Another Teen Movie"). He plays a law student whose last name may as well be "Cochran."
The people behind the lens are relative newcomers. This movie was directed by Walt Becker. This is only his second film, his first was one I never heard of called "Buying the Cow," which also had Ryan Reynolds. He did a decent job as director, I suppose. It's not the kinda movie where the director gets a lotta notice, though. As for the writers, there were two guys, Brent Goldberg & David Wagner. I was shocked to find out that they're the same writing team responsible for a direct-to-video movie called "Holiday in the Sun," a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie!!! Quite a difference, huh?
"Van Wilder" isn't a great movie, it's not even a good movie. It's a bad movie that's only successful because it has one gag after another, and most of them are really funny. But keep in mind, this has a lot to do with personal taste. I like stupid gross humor, so to me, this movie's a riot. If you would rather see a sophisticated comedy that damn near puts me to sleep, go see "Gosford Park."
Scale of 1-10: 7