[yasr_overall_rating]
The most popular kid on campus meets a beautiful journalist who makes him realize that maybe he’s afraid to graduate.
I never saw “Van Wilder” until I received this review copy. I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s so National Lampoon had their stamp on many of the films I watched as a kid and teenager, “Animal House,” “Class Reunion,” and the “Vacation” movies with Chevy Chase and back then they were great campy fun. Watching “Van Wilder” however, was nothing like my youth-filled nights with friends watching National Lampoon do their thing, and maybe it’s because I’m all grown up now, or at least I think I am! Back then, with not much in the way of life experience, high school and college seemed like the best places on earth; you could party, have sex with all the pretty girls, get drunk, the sky was the limit and the teachers didn’t seem to mind. Wow, how far we’ve come since then.
As a kid I couldn’t wait to grow up, now as an adult, I would give anything to be able to go back and relive it all over again and in many ways, that’s what “Van Wilder” touches upon, not wanting to grow up. Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is a seventh-year senior at Coolidge College who has no plans on graduating and every during his finals, he deliberately fails them. His rich father, Vance Wilder Sr. (Tim Matheson), pays his tuition every year so Van is set. Living on campus he is the man, he drives around in his customized golf cart, throws parties for his peers, poses nude in art classes when required, all the other students adore him and women fall at his feet. When Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid), a journalist at the school newspaper, is given an assignment by her editor, Elliot (Tom Everett Scott), in which she is to interview Van Wilder, she initially refuses, citing that it is not proper journalism. He tells her it’s Van or nothing so reluctantly, she seeks him out.
In the beginning, Van doesn’t want to do the interview as he wants to remain a mystery but gradually, he becomes smitten with Gwen, and she him. She doesn’t want to admit that she is falling for a man she considers a loser but when she manages to sneak into the school administration office and take a peek at his school records, she is shocked to find that his SAT scores over the years have been through the roof. Eventually, he admits that he has no idea what he wants to do with his life and is scared of entering the “real world,” that is why he has chosen to stay back every year, to stay in his comfort zone. With a little encouragement from Gwen, he decides to take his finals one more time and, well, I’m sure you can figure out the rest.
“Van Wilder” is like every other college comedy out there, plenty of parties, drinking, sex, crazy escapades, it really offers nothing new and the only reason it works, is because of one Mr. Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds. The man is so damn likable it is very difficult to fault any movie he has made (with the exception of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” that is). He is the kind of character everyone wants to have as a friend because, on the outside, he is loud, brash, fun to be around, but when you are with him, one on one, he can surprise the hell out of you by being so attentive and downright caring. Kal Penn and Tara Reid co-star and add the necessary fun and sexy exposition to an otherwise formulaic entry into the college comedy genre. It feels good that I can now cross “Van Wilder” off my “to see” list but honestly, it was never that high on the list to begin with.
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