Van Wilder
Review by David Bjerre
Genre: It's a Guy Thing
Keywords:
College, parties, perpetual student.
Did you know that...
Ryan Reynold used to date singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette. They called off their engagement in June in 2006.
REVIEW
Van Wilder is The Man. He's the go-to guy on Cooldige College, and it's been that way for seven years. Seven years? you say. What the hell is he studying? Nothing actually. Or if you want to get technical, life! For the better part of a decade he's been living the sweet life on campus, earning a solid reputation as a ladies man, a party planner extraordinare, and the guy to look up, when you've got a strange rash you can't show to your girlfriend. But all that is coming to an end. When it dawns on his workaholic father that he's still paying for his son's tuition, he cancels the latest payment, forcing Van to re-evaluate his education plan.
Enter Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid), a reporter for the collage newspaper. Her serious and well-researched articles do her proud, but now her editor commands her to write something that people will actually read. Her new assignment: Do a piece on Van Wilder. Her protests fall on deaf ears.
Gwen seeks out Van, and immediately dislikes him. He's rude, sexually obsessed and shallow. Naturally they go at it like cats and dogs, but after a while Gwen discovers that Van is also exciting, different and has a healthy carefree outlook on life. Everything her loser boyfriend Richard hasn't got. Richard is the kind of rich-boy born to be lawyer type that there's already too many of in the world. He's passive-aggressive and shows sign of latent homosexual tendencies. He's got their whole life planned, and Gwen feels suffocated. Against her better judgment, she begins to spend more time with Van. You know, for the article. Soon they discovery a certain mutual attraction, which of course isn't decimated by the fact that it's highly improper. Has Gwen finally found a guy who hasn't got his entire life planned? and has Van found a girl who can give him both lip and ass?
"I'm flattered, I'd love for your piece to be on me."
Ryan Reynolds stars as Van the Man, and he's just damn likeable. He's a friend to all guys. a sex bomb to the girls, and he'll charm his way into the heart of any mother-in-law before she ever knew what hit her. He's the perfect leading man for the new millennium. Reynolds' got a perfect command of his facial expression and great comic timing. He was perfect in the sitcom "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place", but also surpassingly well cast as buff action hero in "Blade 3". Mark my words... he'll do great things.
Opposite him we find Tara Reid, in her pre-enlargement days. She made a name for herself in the "American Pie" movies, and she's exactly right for this kind of film. With that killer body, the rusty voice, perky lips and painted-on shirts, she looks damn fine, but Reid also radiates intelligence, and that more than anything is the reason she's not easily forgotten.
I also have to mention Van's assistant, Taj Mahal Badalandabad, played by Kal Penn from "Harold & Kumar go to White Castle". He's a young Indian exchange-student, who has travelled to America to learn "the great art of muff diving", and who better to teach him than Van Wilder? Kal has the ability to poke fun at his own race, in a heartfelt and honest manor that doesn't feel like he's exploiting his heritage.
Following in the footsteps of other National Lampoon movies, and building on the foundation raised by "American Pie", "Van Wilder" is one scary beast of a movie. It's irresponsible, coarse and features one of the most vile things ever committed to film, a gag involving a large quantity of dog semen. It never misses a change to flash a pair of naked breasts (for your complete viewing pleasure, check out the unrated DVD), or show some lewd teen behaviour involving drinking and smoking. But buried beneath the fratboy antics, "Van Wilder" is actually a sweet and naive film, with a message. It's the kind of film where good guys win, bad guys lose, and our hero gets to go home with the girl in the end.
College is a great place, but you can't stay there forever. At some point you're going to have to go out into the real world, and face life. When you get past all the fart and sperm jokes that's what "Van Wilder" is really about.
