The conflict between Richard and Van sets the stage for a veritable clash of the titans as each man tries to best the other with a series of increasingly disgusting pranks. In the course of attempting to win her heart, Van wins the scorn of her boyfriend, a fraternity leader named Richard (Daniel Cosgrove). Van must now concoct a plan to graduate, pay for his education, and solidify his legacy at the college.Īlong the way, he catches the attention of Gwen (four-time Oscar winner Tara Reid), a reluctant journalism major who's assigned to write a story on the aging campus demigod. But as Van prepares to start a new semester, his world is turned upside down when his father (Tim Matheson) cuts off his tuition payments and forces him to fend for himself. And why should he? He has a girl around every corner, he has the security staff in his pocket, and he selects his own personal assistant from a long list of applicants each year (his current assistant is a foreign exchange student played by Kal Penn). The film itself tells the tale of a self-proclaimed slacker named - you guessed it - Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds), a seventh year college legend who refuses to graduate. Twenty-five years after 'Animal House' hit the scene, the floundering brand agreed to attach its name to a flick about another group of college misfits, 2002's 'National Lampoon's Van Wilder.' Unfortunately, 'Van Wilder' isn't just the blatant bastard-child of 'Animal House,' it's an exhausting mix of desperate hope and cheap thrills that doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence. In the years following their reign of '80s comedy, National Lampoon arguably lost its touch - at least in theaters, where the brand quickly became synonymous with straight-to-video mediocrity.
Before the end of the decade, the small publication had become a brand - one that branched out beyond print media with the theatrical release of the uber-classic frat-boy epic, 'Animal House.' Audiences embraced the film's edgy comedy and helped give birth to an entire subgenre of gross-out flicks that have popped up in theaters ever since. "National Lampoon" first entered the national consciousness in the early '70s when a group of Harvard graduates began publishing a satirical magazine that skewered culture and politics.
0 kommentar(er)
