Old School

2/22/03 - Review

In his sophomore effort, Road Trip director Todd Phillips of  gives us another taste of college life from his creatively humorous mind.  Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) is a 30 year old lawyer who senses that something is missing from his life.  He came home one day and saw his girlfriend and two other people half naked in his bed.  His two friends see that he is depressed so they jump in and try to help him out.  Frank (Will Ferrell) and Beanie (Vince Vaughn) try to help him by having a Mitch Lollapalooza fest which turns into being a huge success.  With that success, the three decide to start a fraternity as a way to relive college life and to capture the feeling they got with the party for Mitch.  The fraternity becomes very popular for students and non-students alike.  The Dean for the University is trying to shut them down from the beginning but the three band together to help take the frat to the top.  The movie features many well known celebs, such as Juliette Lewis, Sean William Scott, Jeremy Piven, Leah Remini, Elisha Cuthbert, Craig Kilborn, and Snoop Dogg. 

This is a movie that you can actually sit back and relax and not have to worry about having a low IQ.  Much like Road Trip, this movie is all about the comedic values, but it isn’t as raunchy.  I have to say that the movie was very funny and worth the price I paid for admission.  It is not going to win any awards but it fulfils the funny bone.  The three main guys that are in this movie, Wilson, Ferrell, and Vaughn are great together.  You have a funny guy, a serious guy, and a guy that sets the plan in motion.  With that you have all you need for a pretty good comedy.  The rest of the cast adds to the three’s story.  Will Ferrell is a lot funnier than I thought he was.  He is the funny one of the three guys and he does a good job pulling that off.  He acts that same way in Saturday Night Live so he really doesn’t have to stretch himself that far anyway.  There is actually a good theme going here of people not wanting to let go of their life when they were younger.  The movie is not that serious though otherwise it would have sucked.  The movie has a lot of funny parts that will have you cracking up but it lacks a certain punch that throws it over the top.  In the end, it’s a decent comedy that does what it is supposed to do.  Make you laugh. 

Grade

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