Review of National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) by Jason D — 11 Dec 2009

National Lampoon managed to rejuvenate the failing name with the delivery of Van Wilder, another coming of age college sex comedy about the title character, played by a then-barely known Ryan Reynolds (though still unable to keep a shirt on) as the college's most popular student and hero who, now in his 7th year, is forced to fend for himself when his estranged, rich father (Tim Matheson in a quirky role that goes back to his NL roots) cuts him off.

Equipped with a sidekick (former reality TV star Teck Holmes) and an assistant (a then-unknown Kal Penn), Wilder must take on the task of earning tuition money by being a party planner, seek the love of the newspaper journalist (the atrocious Tara Reid) wanting an interview, and fend off the douche frat dude boyfriend (scene stealing Daniel Cosgrove).

Some great people show up in small roles, like Paul Gleason (of Breakfast Club fame), Erik Estrada (Chips), Curtis Armstrong (Booger from the Revenge of the Nerds films), and a debuting (and VERY hot) Sophie Bush, whose small scene was impressive enough to score her a lead role in Terminator 3.

..which she lost a few days later, lol. Overall, this film is moderately amusing and definitely has its funny moments, however, this is thankful entirely to a supporting cast, namely the likes of Penn and Cosgrove (funny as hell).

Unfortunately, most people pushed away a talented supporting cast in favor of drooling over Reynolds and Reid, who were both quite irritable then (and STILL are today). Though a bit outdated (rough considering this movie is barely 8 years old), the film still manages to be funny with the gross-out gags and jokes (which are still surprisingly powerful enough to rival gross out humor of films today).

Not bad. Followed by a completely unnecessary, pointless, yet embarrassingly better sequel that focuses solely on Penn's Taj character thankfully.