'Van Wilder' is guilty-pleasure comedy

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER (Rated R for profanity, nudity, sexuality, graphic gross-out humor) Two Stars (Fair) This story of a perennial undergrad who doesn't want to leave college is long on vulgar gross-out jokes — and enough of them are wildly funny to make it entertaining. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid. Directed by Walt Becker. Artisan Entertainment, 95 minutes.

Still, given its lineage, this movie by director Walt Becker has a lofty standard to aspire to, one set by the first movie to carry the National Lampoon brand name: "Animal House." If that's the gold standard, "Van Wilder" barely merits the bronze. Yet, "Van Wilder" comes close to measuring up to the level of vulgar wit of its forebear, even if it winds up too soft for its own good.

Ryan Reynolds plays the title character, Van Wilder, the biggest of the big men on the campus of Coolidge College. "The last seven years have gone by too fast," Van sighs, whose tangential relationship to classes keeps him perennially ensconced in his lavish dorm suite.

At this point, Van is a legend at school: the go-to guy and fixer par excellence. He's got a soft spot for underdogs and a real case of school spirit, whether it's raising funds for the swim team, giving the basketball squad a halftime talking-to or masterminding the party thrown by the geekiest frat on campus in order to attract hot girls.

Crisis arrives in the form of his father (Tim Matheson, "Animal House's" Otter), who announces that he's cutting off Van's school funds. Even as Van must scramble for tuition, the editor of the school paper orders his best reporter to write a profile of Van, who is surprisingly averse to that kind of publicity.

The reporter, Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid), falls for him. This makes Van the target of Gwen's jealous, control-freak boyfriend Richard (Daniel Cosgrove), who happens to be the sadistic president of his fraternity and wants to get Van thrown out of school.

The writers devote too much attention to Van facing life beyond college, when they should be making rude fun of that impulse. Thankfully, the rude fun quota is nearly filled elsewhere, with a variety of audaciously vulgar gags (including a practical joke involving eclairs, whose cream filling isn't what it appears).

The jokes are hit and miss but, fortunately, there are enough that the volume of them works to the movie's advantage. The writers also come up with a steady stream of sharp one-liners, which get a smart reading by Reynolds' Van, whose ironic spin is reminiscent of the young Tom Hanks. Tara Reid, on the other hand, gives a performance only slightly less wooden than your average fence post.

"National Lampoon's Van Wilder" is not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. But it is sometimes raucously funny, on a par with "Road Trip" or "American Pie" as a guilty-pleasure comedy.

Rated R for profanity, nudity, sexuality, graphic gross-out humor.