12 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FILM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2003
Movie shows fun of college in your 30's
Like the party-dude younger brother of Jesus Christ, filmmaker Todd Phillips has been sent from heaven to save the juvenile American comedy.
REVIEW
That's no small task either, given the wasteland that Phillips has to work in. (National Security, anyone?) But after his boisterous Road Trip debut and now Old School, the verdict is in: This guy knows what's funny.
Stephen Shupe
sshupe@kansan.com
A mile-a-minute tummy-tickler, Old School follows the travails of three 30ish friends unwilling to leave behind the glory of their collegiate yesteryear.
Mitch (Luke Wilson) has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend. (He walked in on the early stages of a gang bang).
Beanie (Vince Vaughn) is sick of married life and wants a little something extra on the side.
And Frank (Will Ferrell) is newly married but already a contender for divorce because of a drinking and streaking problem.
After broken-hearted Mitch moves into a house near the local university, Beanie throws a wild party, hilariously named "Mitch-a-Palooza," to get his friend laid. The dean (Jeremy Piven) doesn't approve,
A mile-a-minute tummy-tickler. Old School follows the travails of three 30ish friends unwilling to leave behind the glory of their collegiate yesteryear.
so he moves the school zone to try to take over the house. If they're going to stay, Beanie decides they'll have to form their own fraternity.
The hazing sequences that follow are rowdy but never offensive. Phillips, who made a controversial documentary a few years ago called Frat House that was never released because Phillips had reportedly
staged much of the footage, seems to have learned his lesson this time around.
Even a stunt involving a cinder block and a rope tied to a man's genitalia is saved by an inspired special effect.
The pledges range from a fat AfricanAmerican kid named Winksy (a scenestealing Jerod Mixon) to a crusty old white guy who can drink with the best of them. The latter's final scene, set in a pool ofKY jelly with two voraciously game, halfnaked coeds, is a good example of the film's racy sex appeal.
Wilson is bland compared to brother Owen, while Vaughn seems destined to never again reach the comedic heights of his role in Swingers. Both have their moments, though, and Ferrell, in his first major movie since leaving Saturday Night Live, has more.
Whether flashing "Little Will" for the camera or twirling a ribbon to the flamboyant Chariots of Fire theme, Ferrell's performance is a three-ring circus act, a sidesplitting one-man show that effortlessly incorporates the improvisational style he developed on SNL.
And for that we can thank Phillips, who's an ace at satirizing public per-
OLD SCHOOL ... B+
Starring: Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language
Playing at South Wind 12 Theatres, 3433 Iowa St.
sonae. Even without Ferrell, the director would earn plenty of brownie points for casting Craig Kilborn as a shark boyfriend, Andy Dick as an oral-sex guru and Sean William Scott as a redneck cousin to Joe Dirt.
Phillips and his writing partner, Scot Armstrong, are also tremendous cultural pranksters. Airport security and drunken wedding receptions are only two of many targets in a movie that has an exquisite sixth sense for the kitsch 1980s nostalgia most yuppies just can't escape. It's hard to resist a film that takes a groaner like "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and turns it into a profane comedy classic.
Shupe is an Augusta graduate student in journalism.