Customer Reviews

Van Wilder/Van Wilder: Freshman Year

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Van Wilder Freshman Year, wow what a major waste of film, studio time, and some pretty women.

National Lampoon's Van Wilder - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition), Ryan Reynolds, and Kal Penn - great chemistry, funny men together. Kal acted like he was Ryan Reynolds' straightman, but it may have been the other way around. The film was a bit dragged down with Tara Reid, but otherwise, funny movie. The second one, Van Wilder - The Rise of Taj, lost Ryan Reynolds, but we got to keep Kal Penn. Funny man on his own, fairly fresh off of Harold and Kumar. Rise of Taj, not a bad movie, not as funny as number one, but OK.

And then we get this movie, Freshman Year. Ouch. Both stars are gone. At first it seems like the Asian guy will take the place of Kal Penn as Van Wilder's gopher. But nope, after a while it becomes clear, the new Van Wilder, Johathan Bennet, will carry all the jokes. Ouch, he's not funny. Although those eyebrows were kind of extra thick, he had a shot at doing some Groucho imitations.

This movie has followed the American Pie path - number one was excellent. Number two was OK. Number three the wedding, was less good. And finally number four was just downright awful, not a single original star was there. At least American Pie tried to flow with the original story, the fourth one was Stifler's younger brother. Van Wilder: Freshman Year, just made no sense at all.

Why in the world did I rate this movie two stars? Well, the women they found for this movie were very pretty. There was a level of jiggle in this film that was actually a lot better than either of the first two editions. So, for the most base reasons, it gets an extra star.

The DVD is chock full 'o bonus features. None of which are really worth watching. There's a bonus film called Decatur that is supposed to be like the Hills. Its just plain boring (well I guess, its just like the Hills, boring). Pretty sure Decatur is named for a suburb of Atlanta (Freshman Year was supposed to be in Georgia). There's isn't really any more nudity in the bonus features. There's a piece about the dog, everyone complaining about how he got better treatment than the people. All total, there is about 10 or so bonus features.

One other reason for the slightly higher rating - the soundtrack is actually pretty decent. The movie opens with the Offspring, You're Gonna Go Far Kid. I Ran performed by Bowling For Soup. And Something Corporate by Cavanaugh Park. Three decent songs.

The movie is actually very long, one hour thirty eight minutes theatrical release, unrated is one hour forty minutes. So there's two minutes of something extra. Honestly, it's not likely to be more nudity. Its probably a set of cruder jokes they didn't want to send to the MPAA for fear of an NC-17. It could also be one of the simulated sex scenes where the guy fakes completing the act. None of which are worth getting excited about. The movie is well over 20 minutes too long as it stands.

Yeah, not a really good movie. The jokes are bad. The girls are pretty.

Great film with classic scenes I love it!!!!!!My Buddy Shaad who is an actor/musician is in this movie, and now his younger brother Rahmad Hawkins is budding in films, Great guys!!!! We love Kristin and the cheerleaders! AWESOME

Hadn't seen a aVan Wilder movie before. This movie lived up to the reputations that many other like movies have set.

I thought this would be at least a decent movie, but it was an utter waste of time. The main character is nothing more than annoying and is predictable in every way.

For those of us who were in college when the first Van Wilder came out, it's safe to say we've probably seen it a dozen times or more. Ryan Reynolds, Kal Penn, and Tara Reid made that movie a college cult classic. In my fraternity house it was Animal House, Road Trip, and Van Wilder. The second installment (The Rise of Taj) wasn't quite up to par with the original, but it was respectable in its own way, especially since Kall Penn came back. Van Wilder: Freshman Year doesn't deserve to share the same title. Jonathan Bennett obviously studied the mannerisms of Ryan Reynolds, but ended up delivering a poor immitation of Van not worthy of appearing on amateur night at a dive comedy club. He doesn't come close to portraying the original Van Wilder character. Kristin Cavallari (while smokin' hot) is far from convincing in what her character was supposed to be. The highlight of the movie for me was to see that they brought back the original bull dog, who ended up having more laughs than any of the human characters. Jerry Shea, as the funny foreign student, has a few mildly funny moments, but is a far cry from the original foreigner we all know as Taj. The only reason this movie would be of any interest to anybody is that it provides a regular shot of topless girls every twenty minutes or so just to hold the audience's attention. Those reviewers giving it a good rating are can't possibly be any more than juvenile teens just happy to see a quick flash of boobs on screen that they can slow down and watch frame by frame. If you're a fan of the first one (or two), and absolutely MUST see the third installment, please don't waste your money buying it -- rent it or get it on demand. Otherwise, you're going to feel severely ripped off.

Okay so here's the best review you can get: "This movie is not worth your money." ... and even if you're seeing it at a friends it's not worth your time. There you have it.

I don't understand how this film can be praised in any way, a positive review of this deems that you are pretty unfamiliar with what comedy actually is or at least one of the actors of this film, this was the worst piece of garbage I've seen in a while, Van Wilder the first one was a great movie, second one, not bad, but this is just a bunch of overused awful jokes stolen from other comedies I've seen before throughout the years. The person who wrote this script should be charged with plagiarism for ripping off the worst jokes from every movie I've ever seen. The acting was on par with the 3rd string group from a junior high play and the jokes were all awful puns that you would hear from that same age group. They had to throw in naked girls for good measure otherwise no one would ever watch this. Even the great redeemer of awful comedy movies (blatant female nudity) couldn't save this trainwreck. I finished watching this movie and actually made me depressed that I took an hour and a half of my life to spend viewing it. Avoid at all costs.

This is being called a prequel, but I would call it more of a stand alone mess that has nothing to do with the Wilder franchise. In fact, I actually had a funner time watching the loads of supplements on the Unrated DVD, and they actually give this product an extra star.

There are quite a few acting unknowns in this film, so I do not see any particular fan base looking forward to this, but they manage to make the corn somewhat tolerable, but in the end not rewatchable in any way. There is plenty of nudity, drinking, drugs and bad acting to go around, but things were so bad in this one, they had actually reversed the negative in a few scenes without correcting it (amongst other issues).

I recommend watching the supplements and skipping the film. For the nudity seekers watch the Teacher's Pet sequence (essentially all the sex and nude scenes put together), for the dog fans watch the Balls Out clip, for the Hills fans - watch the Decatur sequence; it is actually a funny slam on that lame show. The Bloopers reel is funnier than the entire film and looked better than any of the jokes left in the movie. The Party Supplies and Orientation Video add more to the mix of having better writing, and even the 25 minutes of the Creating documentary and Pranks make for a better self-involved watch. It was painful watching the one known actor (Kurt Fuller - been doing this for 25 years) having a dog crotch stuffed in his face over multiple takes and seeing his misery in earning a paycheck from a dumb movie.

Essentially, there is 100 minutes of film, or almost 90 minutes of extras - go with the extras. Film quality and sound are ok, performances are par for the content and the storyline was haphazard and unfunny. Skipper.

I enjoyed the first and second ( Rise Of Taj) Van Wilder movies . They are in my collection. I bought this one thinking it would fall somewhere in between. I purchased the unrated version thinking the Babes would carry the movie if the acting was weak. . WRONG! Ryan Reynolds IS "Van Wilder" , Jonathan Bennett is not even close. When the actor playing his prequel father is more beliveable thats bad . If they had made this movie with a diffrent title it might have been watchable fare, hot babes & college pranks. . This Van Wilder movie is more like what you expect after the seventh sequel not the third. Save your brain cells, time and money .Go watch the first two and leave this on the shelves untill they take it back to the studio.

The first 2 Van Wilder movies where decent comedies. But this one, this is just a terrible mess of unoriginality and seen it before a million times kind of jokes, as well as a done it before plot. The opening scene steals a joke right out of Police Academy, and even has the token Asian guy that is a rip off of a character through the Police Academy series of movies. I guess the people behind this movie thought no one would have scene any PA movies and figured lifting a few jokes from it would go unnoticed.

Then there is the lame, and stale plot that Van Wilder is now in college, but this college is run by the strict army type who wants to keep his school in order, and make everyone on campus anti-sex and bible school Vesta virgins who believe sex is wrong and filthy, and Van Wilder decides he has to do something about that.
What a lame plot. Van has two roomates, the token Asian guy after sex, and the other one is the eye rolling typical stoner that has been done to death already.

I couldn't tell you what happens in the end, due the to plot looking like it was just about to stop ripping off Police Academy and start ripping off Animal House. The pranks where looking as lame and as funny as could be, and I just had to switch it off.

What is with all these stupid highschool/college party movies of late? Animal House and Porkys are what people will watch when you want something like that, or even American Pie ect... what the hell is this one doing? It's like the parody movies, they used to be funny, now there just seems to be one dumped out every 6 months like it is a trend, and they are all just getting worse. All this movie will prove is that the movie business is really scraping the bottom of the barrel and making movies that don't even try to be original anymore. Whats even worse, the lead character is just plain annoying. I guess he thought he would be original by acting like Jim Carey in Ace Ventura, but fails to make it funny in anyway possible, cast right next to the guy who plays little Stiffler in the later American Pie movies. It just seems way out of whack for this kind of film. Cause the whole time I was sitting there thinking, "wait, wasnt he Van Wilder in the last movie?" then it dawned on me he was Stiffler... so bad casting to whoever put this thing together. May as well get Micheal Keaton to play the Riddler in the next Batman movie.