Customer Reviews

Dead Man on Campus

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was expecting this movie to be pretty stupid, but I was quite surprised. This story actually made me laugh out loud in places, and I had a constant smile on my face.

Two students are in a predicament. They face expulsion from college unless they can take advantage of a loophole that will grant them perfect grades: the traumatic death of a roommate.

So the two students come up with a plan. They go through a list of possible candidates (the most unstable students on campus), ask them to move in, and then attempt to drive them into committing suicide. Things don't go as smoothly as they expect.

You will probably recognise the two main characters from other "wacky" comedies from the past. To me, "Dead Man on Campus" is like a combination of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Weekend At Bernie's". The two students, caught in a dilemma of their own making, attempt to use the easy way out: (someone elses) suicide.

Although the premise is bizaare and macabre, I found "Dead Man On Campus" one of the least offensive of the "college comedies".

First of all...I really liked this movie. I am sure some of you are saying..."what you got to be kidding", well, no I am not. This story is based upon an age old falsehood that states "if your college roommate kills them self in college, the surviving roommate gets a 4.0". Here you have Gosselaar (the old ZAK on `Saved by the Bell') partying like crazy in college and living with Scott, who is easily distracted by Gosselaar. Well the distractions take their toll and both Gosselaar and Scott are headed for collegiate non-return status, when they hear the 4.0 story. Now if you have been on a college campus as long as I have, you will come across a great deal of students who claim this is true and that it has happened to a friend of theirs at some college...well, you are mistaken..it never happened and never will. But that doesn't mean you can't make a movie out of it. If you like offensive jokes, off-the-wall humor and can handle laughing out loud (in public) at scenes that you should not be....then this movie is for you. Bottom line...if your roommate is depressed, then go ahead and take them to see this film, they will laugh so hard that they will forgot their worries (at least for a few moments.)

I don't remember when I first heard about this movie, but I remembered it sounded funny and telling myself to see it one day. Well, come Yom Kippur, I ventured over to the video store to find me some movies to see, and hello! I saw this, and, debating awhile, decided to check it out. Remember when I said I thought it would be funny? Strike that. This movie is super funny! And it does it without too many low-brow jokes that, even though I love, you can see in any teen movie these days. Even when the movie does stoop low, it somehow does it with class. The actors are great, and pull off the strange charictors perfectly: Matt, the "deppressed" musician, Buckley, who thinks Bill Gates is after his brians, Cliff who's a bit crazy, and the main caraictors Cooper and Josh, who everyone suspects are gay. I noticed some people below didn't like this movie. But hey, some people can't tell good movies when they see them.

I caught "Dead Man on Campus" one night on The Movie Channel, I didn't think it was gonna be that good, but damn I was in for a surprise. This movie is hilarious. Two college students,Cooper and Josh, are on a mission to find "Mr.Z". "Mr.Z" is the most homicidal, suicidal and genocidal guy on campus. You see, if your roomate kills himself you automatically get a 4.0 GPA. First, they get a guy named Cliff O'Malley,then mayhem and laughter insues, to provide some of the funniest parts in the movie. Cliff doesn't work out so next they get Buckley. Buckley is, well....a little paranoid. See, Buckley has a conspiracy theroy that Bill Gates is after his brain. This character is also hilarious, but he doesn't work out either. Finally they go for Matt, a punk rocker (his band:"Kiss My Ass")who is always depressed.Well, enough said...all in all this movie is hilarious and I'm really glad I saw it. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. Below I see 3 or 4 negative reviews....I don't know how anyone could hate this movie at all. It must have been a "bad day" or "that time of the month" I guess. GO SEE THIS MOVIE !~

This movie is a riot. After finding out that a student will receive a 4.0 GPA if their roommate dies, these two set out to save their college careers. Zac from Saved By The Bell is great in this movie. The whole thing is just funny to me, even though it may not be the best plot or have the best ending in the world. It's just a good time movie that won't go down in history as a classic, but still holds up as a solid comedy to watch whenever you need a few silly laughs. 5 stars because it makes me chuckle.

At a point in my high school life not too long ago, I decided to basically watch every high school/college movie I had not yet seen in hopes to find a few I could enjoy to go alongside classics like ANIMAL HOUSE and the closest we have come recently to that film, AMERICAN PIE, ROAD TRIP, and OLD SCHOOL (though none can compare, obviously). Anyway, DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS was an intriguing film, as when I watched it I laughed out loud a few times, chuckled and smiled a lot, and then returned it to its Blockbuster rental home. Soon after, the more I thought about it, the more I was surprised I really enjoyed it. It became a movie I didn't want to spend the money on to buy, but I wanted it as a gift. Finally this Christmas I got it, and upon watching it again, still enjoy it. Yes, it is often (okay, constantly) stupid humor, but the concept is so funny that you would REALLY have to try to mess this up to make it not work. The film also creates 2 likable characters, something teen movies have a hard time doing a lot of times.
Anyway, the story concerns Josh (Tom Everett Scott), a 'got all As in high school' kind of guy with a 6-year med school plan at the prestigious Daleman university. Then he meets his new roommate Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, of SAVED BY THE BELL fame and with black hair, most likely to mock his blond hair from the show), a slacker stoner who is there merely because his dad owns one of the top toilet cleaning companies. Cooper and Josh strike up a friendship, however, as Cooper makes Josh meet a girl and ultimately fall behind on his studies. From there the main story starts: Josh and Cooper both fail their midterms, and Josh discovers that he needs all B+ or higher grades to keep his scholarship, while Cooper's father threatens to quit paying for his schooling and make him scrub toilets if he doesn't clean himself up. Therefore, Josh would need a series of A+++ grades, and Cooper would have to (gulp) STUDY. They find another solution, however: if your roommate kills himself, you get straight A's. Josh and Cooper don't want one another dead, and their hot-tempered Catholic school result of a roommate (a pre-FREAKS & GEEKS Jason Segel, who hooks up with Linda Cardellini, but I digress) has been staying elsewhere, so the two decide to find the most suicidal guy on campus and drive him to take his life. I guess this is where a lot of critics roll their eyes. "These two nice guys would never try to convince someone to commit suicide," they say, puffing on their snooty pipes. Well, if you're desperate to get your life back on track, I've seen dramas where people do crazier things. And besides, they were suicidal BEFORE, so Josh and Cooper are just helping him along.
Whatever. You already know how this ends up, as this is a comedy (one way or another, Cooper will become a better person, Josh will learn to lighten up and have fun sometimes, and only a few bodies will hit the floor). It's hard to give this movie a good review because the material could have been used in a much more clever, mature way (i.e. make the film smart and witty, not dumb, why-am-I-laughing at this), but that's why comedy is such a wide-open spectrum. I can enjoy dumb and smart comedy equally, and it certainly takes smart guys to make funny dumb comedy (Mike White was a co-writer of this film after all).

The first time I seen this film I could not stop laughing it's a great film with great characters and a great story line. It is the character of Cliff which makes this film so good really this film is totally underrated and should have been much more popular than it was however it is good to own on DVD.

wow wow wow mark paul gosselaar is an explosive actor. he can do any genre comedy, suspense, romantic oh and did i mention comedy. this film is amazingly funny. the acting skills from mark paul are second to none


dont rent this film buy is its a masterpiece


lee frayling hereford hr7 4js england

"Dead Man On Campus" is a film about two guys who enroll at Daleman College, and become roommates. Josh enrolls via a scholarship, and is studying to become a doctor, and Cooper, well, he's just there to avoid having to clean toilets for a living at his father's business, and of course, to goof off and party. Josh eventually decides to party with Cooper, and as a result, starts to fail every class he's in. He winds up failing his mid-terms, and he finds out that he needs to maintain a B+ average if he wants to keep his scholarship.

One night, while the boys are at a local bar, they find out that if your roomate commits suicide, you get straight As for your grief, so they decide to move a suicidal roommate into their dorm!

In my opinion, the best roommate they find is a no holds barred psychotic named Cliff O'Malley (played by the underrated Lochlyn Munro). Cliff is my favorite character in this film! He's so wacky, and he completely lacks sanity or a conscience! Most of his dialogue and facial expressions in this film is priceless! I'd list a few quotes, but I'm sure Amazon will bleep 'em out!

As for their other roomates:

Buckley: He's a computer nerd who's paranoid, suicidal, and thinks Bill Gates is after his brain!

Matt Noonan: He's the "depressed" goth rock star who acts happy and likes to sing show tunes when no one's around!

In the end: This is one of the most underrated teen stoner flicks ever! For off the wall teen comedies, this is as good as it gets, right up there with "Wayne's World" and "A Night At The Roxbury". This movie originally bombed at the box office when released in August of 1998, and seems to be forgotten nowadays, but trust me, it's funny, and the character Cliff totally makes it worth the admission! It's bound to become a cult classic sooner or later.

3 1/2 stars out of 5.

As for the DVD: It contains a non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, as well as English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0 soundtracks, as well as a French Dolby Surround 2.0 soundtrack. The only bonus feature is a theatrical trailer for the film.

I love this movie before i bought it and i couldn't find it in any stores, so i looked on [...] and i found it very easily. this movie is great and it came even faster in the mail than what they predicted. it was quite a surprise when i got it early, but it was also very nice.