2003 / 90 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

“Old School” harkens back to the comedies of yester-year. Namely: the Eighties. In the Eighties, comedy was (I believe) at its peak. John Belushi was still alive. Chevy Chase was still funny. And the comedies felt fresh and alive. They were just a lot more fun. They were rowdy and raucous and they gleefully thumbed their nose at authority. Sure, they had their dirty and off-color moments, but they were rooted in the world of the film itself. There were no semen jokes for a semen joke’s sake as there seems to be in most of the comedies made in this day and age. Nowadays, a comedy believes that it can be just the same, tired horseshit and pass itself off as being “daring” and “edgy” just by having a penis-related gag. But in the old days, it wasn’t so much what the film showed and what sort of scatological humor it could work in. It was more of an attitude, more of an “anything for a laugh as long as it fits” sort of mood going on. That mood pervades such classics as “Animal House ” and “Caddyshack” and such psuedo-classics as “Bachelor Party” and “Fraternity Vacation” (though not “Meatballs”, that movie is just plain ass no matter how you slice it).

“Old School” may not be as good as the movies I just mentioned. It’s no “Animal House” or “Caddyshack”, but it deserves to be ranked in the annals of films like “Bachelor Party”, which is good enough for me. “Old School’s” greatest asset is its willingness to do anything for a laugh, yet not to undermine its admittedly flimsy characters. It’s also a refreshing throwback to films of the period I just spoke of. It’s got nudity, pranks, an evil college dean (played with gusto by the underused resource that is Jeremy Piven) and it’s got tons of laughs.

The story, what there is of it, concerns a guy (Luke Wilson, a great everyman sort of actor) who arrives home early from a business seminar to find his girlfriend at the center of a gang-bang of sorts. This, obviously, leads to his depression and a bit too much drinking. That all changes, however, (well, not the drinking) when he rents a house near the campus of the local college. When a zoning ordinance and the evil dean insist that the house must be used for a college function, his buddies (newly married Will Farrell and unhappily married speaker baron Vince Vaughn) decide to turn his house into a functioning fraternity. They enlist pledges, throw parties, and wackiness ensues. Along the way, Mitch (the main character, whose name I just now remembered) starts falling for a girl he went to high school with, Frank (Will Farrell) starts behaving badly and ruining his marriage, and Vince Vaughn, well, just reaps the benefits. Also, the evil dean starts doing everything in his power to ruin everyone’s fun and sabotage the frat.

Yes, this is something of a flimsy plot. And it gets even flimsier as you watch the movie. But shut up. Who cares? This movie is a hell of a lot of fun. Most every scene in the movie has at least one gag that left me gasping for air and all of the characters are likable and played with gusto. Even the few gags that fall flat do not undermine the goofy, good-natured charm of the rest of the film. It isn’t a genius comedy like “Animal House” or “Used Cars”, but it’s a grand step up from crap like “Road Trip” and the mildly disappointing “American Pie 2″.

If you’re in the mood for fun, “Old School” is probably your best bet currently at theaters.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 21st, 2003 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.