Movie: Old School
Starring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Ellen Pompeo
and Jeremy Piven; Written by Scot Armstrong and Court Crandall
Directed by Todd Phillips (Dreamworks Films)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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Director Todd Phillips has put some very funny moments into Old School. It's better than some halcyon college days party flicks, last year's Van Wilder comes to mind, but when the last beer is consumed and the amps power down, there's nothing at Old School's core to hold it all together.

It starts well enough. Mitch (Wilson) is a young lawyer who's recently broken up. Lovelorn attorney, so far so good. To console him, his friend Beanie (Vaughn) starts up a fraternity house. Okay, it's a stretch but I'm trying to stay with this. Anyway it's an excuse to PARTY! And party they do with some lovely twenty somethings and Snoop Dogg. Mitch just looks dumbfounded through all this. Somehow he becomes a hero on campus and everyone starts calling him Godfather, even though it's really Beanie's show. Meanwhile he runs into an old high school heartthrob (Pompeo) who seems to be blind to the rambunctious goings-on at the frat house. They slowly warm to each other though on our planet it's obvious that a woman with a five year old daughter would probably be trying to get an injunction to keep Mitch at least a mile away. Meanwhile the scheming college dean (Piven) tries to revoke their charter. In spite of his earlier complaints, Mitch suddenly decides the frat house is worth saving and then they pull academic and athletic stunts out of nowhere to stay accredited and then... but who really cares anymore?

The biggest laughs belong to Will Ferrell as Frank the Tank, a clueless friend who botched his recent marriage in record time by channeling Delta House's Bluto from 1962. However Bluto could at least plot and pull off a scam; Frank is simply Blotto most of the time and Ferrell's considerable talent is wasted. Likewise Luke Wilson, who was credible in The Royal Tannenbaums, mostly just looks lost here.

Old School doesn't measure up to the granddaddy of the genre, Animal House, though it's clearly trying to. Oh well, the types who like this sort of fare and try to emulate it every spring break are a forgiving bunch. Who cares about artistic merit? Party on!

The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? No, in spite of a few good gut laughs

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes