Customer Reviews

Van Wilder - The Rise of Taj

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

 

 

Van Wilder was one of those comedy movies that had some over the top humor that was crazy and often really childishly stupid, but that is what made it a great comedy classic. Of course, the studio went back to the well to cash in on Van Wilder's cult following by makeing Van Wilder 2, The rise of Taj. And getting Kal Penn back to revive the role of Taj gave them what they thought was a green light to bring Van Wilder back to the big screen. But, they should have went strait to DVD because now they will never sell one after a few brave souls (like me) wasted my money to see this in theaters. Just not funny, and the story line was thin, and what Happened to Taj's girl from the end of the last movie, and this is just a hint at the problems.
The story, if you haven't figured it out, is based around Taj, the secretary/understudy of Van. Well, I guess Taj graduated from Coolidge and is now going to Camford in England to get a Doctorate and work as a teaching assistant, following in his fathers footsteps. Well, He doesn't make the "fox and hounds" fraternity, so he makes due with the characters he meets at the place he was sent to "the Barn" And, All of these people are "loosers", and Taj takes them on as his new Fraternity naming themselve "[...]". Of course, in revenge of the nerd style, the [...] are taking on the Fox and Hounds (as well as other Fraternities) in a campus competition. As we soon see, the gang of loosers are actually brilliant in their own ways (and the woman of the gang is smoking hot, does not fit the nerd role anyway). Taj, as van wilder did, falls in love with the woman that is dating their arch rivals. And the ending is the same too, Taj gets the girl and the team wins. They might as well have called this movie Revenge of the Nerds, because the overall story line was the same, with just a few similarities to Van Wilder. The biggest change to this movie....ITS NOT FUNNY. Save your money, rent this one when it comes out if you must see it, or sucker a friend to rent it for you. Best if you can share this agony with someone else.

This movie was funny, shipped fast and was worth the wait. I couldnt find it in stores and my original copy was damaged. Great product!

National Lampoon, or more specifically post-1990 National Lampoon, is usually synonymous with 'crap'. Therefore, any post-1990 movie associated with the name is treated with the lowest of expectations. Somehow I guess my low expectations were exceeded, or maybe the planets were aligned or I went crazy, because "Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj" wasn't that horrible. A post-1990 National Lampoon movie...not that bad? Bizarre. To be fair, the first "Van Wilder" wasn't bad either, but since this is the "Short Circuit 2" of sequels (considering both movies had the main lead being replaced with Indian sidekicks), it could've gone downhill at the first minute. But it does have a few pluses.

Kal Penn as Taj Badagaddadavida is a pretty likable character. He may not have the screen presence and confidence as Ryan Reynolds (at all), but unlike characters from certain Lampoon movies, he mostly cared about a ragtags group of losers instead of his groin. The film does have are pretty competent characters as well, except for the outrageously racist and villainous upperclassman. Plot-wise, it's like "Animal House" in Europe, where Taj was transferred to a prestigious British university, but then the rich upperclassjerks made him bunk on the House of scalawags and it's up to him to make the House cool and have his team rise up from the higher-ups in the form of a competition rally. The losers consists of Harry Potter, a hooker, an Irish Stereotype, and a gamer who does and says nothing, and though cliche as they are, I got nothing against them. They are concerned about their well-being and just wants to step-up instead of randomly going to parties and do stupid things; okay, Taj influenced them to eventually do those things, but they didn't fool themselves too much. Taj also met a highly-acadmeic love-interest who doesn't appreciate his unorthodox ways of helping his peers, but quickly admires him; she was way too easy to fall for him after just one day and a field trip, but at least she tried to make herself interesting rather than another ditz or whiner.

This is still a National Lampoon movie, so it does have all the annoying vulgar elements like a guy sitting on poo, dog 'sauce' spewing on the audience, embarrassing sexual overtones, girls obsessed with the act of whoopee, and Balzac the Bulldog's trademark massive marbles. Gross and humorless as they may be, at least the movie was tamed on these regards (although it might be due to watching the rated version). Otherwise, I was pretty okay with "Rise of Taj". It's an average underdog tale with little ill will to speak of.

I actually own the first Van Wilder on dvd and it has some laugh out loud moments,this movie,however never produced any laughs. Even the commercials for the movie didn't look that funny...plus it only had Kal Penn and I am not a fan,so I passed.

It showed up on my directv guide and I still found something better to watch (like,Dewey Cox in Walk hard,which is actually funny) but,when I couldn't find anything better to watch I gave this a try and I wish I didn't. It's one of those movies where you think to yourself...It's going to get better,while you are watching people leaving the theater,but you stay,thinking its going to get better,hoping its going to get better but this movie never does.

Boring and Bland and it makes you want to root against "Kumar" every chance you get. You will learn to hate Kal Penn if you force yourself to watch this garbage. Kal Penn Actually had a hand in producing this. He should be slapping himself.

I really can't stand Kal Penn. I used to watch the Television series 'House' but when I noticed that Penn was on the show,there was no way I would ever watch it again. Is House jumping the shark?

Van Wilder- The Rise of Taj
If you watched to first Van Wilder then you know that Taj was Van Wilder's assistant. Van was one of the coolest people on campus and taught Taj everything he knew. This time Taj tackles his own journey in the United Kingdom. Upon arriving in the United Kingdom he looks to join one of the most prestigious fraternity. He is told that there was a "typographical error" and is told to go to The Barn. The Barn is where all the rejects are. Taj sees potential in these freaks and wants to makes something out of them. He tells them that they can even win the Hastings Cup if they try hard enough. The Hastings Cup is a challenge for all fraternities on campus to compete in. It is a series of academic, athletic, and recreational challenges. Taj and the barn make their own fraternity and join in the games.

The first Van Wilder was much better. Taj was just too uninteresting to make an entire movie about. I'm not saying that this movie doesn't have its funny parts, but for the most part it's just an average movie.

The actors in the movie don't really do a good job of making themselves interesting. The movie itself really lacks any emotion to it. In the original Van Wilder there was a deep moral behind the story. This movie is just an average comedy not worth watch again.

You get music videos, gag reels, deleted scenes, and making of stuff that is all fairly interesting to watch. It's not enough to save this movie from being completely average though. If you really want to check out this movie, I would suggest renting it.

I enjoyed this movie as a comedy, however, it did not measure up to the original Van Wilder. I think they would have had a much better response to this movie if they had not used the name Van Wilder in it. It is worth a little chuckle here and there.

What do you get when you mix Revenge of the Nerds with Van Wilder but remove Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ryan Reynolds, and Tara Reid? You get this movie, which isn't quite as bad as Nerds in Paradise, but close.

The only thing rising with THE RISE OF TAJ is the number of people who are unwilling to pay money to see movies at the theatre, or buy DVDs.

I wasted $3.75 renting the thing.

VAN WILDER 2: THE RISE OF TAJ is a movie that has every silly cliche that every college movie has ever used. The nerds. The frat. The competition. The frat guys girl. The nerd with the super wanger. I have never in my life rolled my eyes at a film so much. The lines are corny, poorly written, predictable and poorly executed. I didn't laugh once in the whole film.

Kal Penn, who plays Taj Mahal Badalandabad has actually been pretty funny in some other movies, but in this, his comedic execution is destroyed by either a poor director or a poor script. Not to mention, for an indian guy, his indian accent is terrible. It comes and goes and in some scenes it's heavier than others.

The only redeeming quality to the entire movie is a collection of attractive women, including Lauren Cohan, who hopefully can bounce back and have a career.

The real shame is HOW THIS MOVIE EVEN GOT THE GREENLIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE!! I've seen dozens of comedies written by unknown writers who are getting walked over and forgotten because they don't have the connections, and dozens of movies like this get made every year. It's disheartening.

Ultimately, Hollywood is killing themselves by making 50 comedies like this a year, and actually only one or two are any good. Makes you not want to even bother paying to see movies anymore. They just use recycled plots and recycled scenarios and put them to lousy scripts and then stick an UNRATED on the box, hoping all the teeny-boppers will salivate. Don't. This movies junk.

I loved Van Wilder. It was such a great movie. This DVD was not worth the time. It was the same story line. Nothing original at all, all the jokes and ideas were a carbon copy of the first.

this movie is one of those campy comedies, it's not raunchy, but there are some scenes with a little nudity-but it was very enjoyable.