National Lampoon's Van Wilder (*)
review by Jon Waterman

Van is the man you should know, if you can. He’s the super-senior who refuses to leave because he’s having too much fun. Oh, and let’s throw in a love interest so that we can get some conflict in there.

"Van Wilder" was National Lampoon’s bid to win their credibility back. Well, I hope they can scrounge up a few more million so they can try again. The movie had almost all of the ingredients to making another "Animal House." They forgot about the importance of a big, good supporting cast, the element of pacing and, most importantly, humor.

Here’s what they did have:
1.The uptight perfect frat-recruiter boyfriend with the girlfriend that everyone wants.
2.The desperate need to find a way to stay in college.
3.Gross-out moments.
4.Semi-threatening faculty members.
5.Parties and drinking.

The movie actually had some potential, but the writing didn’t connect. "Van Wilder" needed a couple writers from the sketch comedy world. Get a couple Groundlings or Second City people to write it, or better yet, get some people from the National Lampoon itself, if it still exists. Instead we got the writers of the Mary Kate and Ashley opus, "Holiday in the Sun," Brent Goldberg and David Wagner. And these are young kids, too. They both played very small parts as interviewees for the position of Van’s assistant. In short, no expertise, and it shows.

I’ll tell you, this is one of the only times I’d suggest that the writers steal from other movies more. If you want to make a great college comedy, then study college comedies and see what makes the good ones good and the bad ones bad. It just makes sense to borrow something that works if it’ll work again.

A personal note to National Lampoon: maybe you should give up. You should have stopped at "Christmas Vacation." And please, no "Senior Trip 2."

respond to jon@filmbrats.com