Thursday after work I caught a screening of Old School and, even
though I had picked a long hair out of popcorn and had seen Will Ferrell's naked
body within 17 the first minutes, it managed to fulfill the promise of
pretty good reviews by making me laugh out loud several times.
Some of the jokes were original (a foul-mouthed wedding band, Andy Dick
giving group blowjob lessons) but many more gags made me feel as if I was
watching a sequel to Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds,
Back to School or Porky's. Pick a cliché — too-young
girls, too-old guys, mascots gone wild, inappropriate wedding toasts —
it was there. But I laughed anyway, 'cause not not every movie tries to be Airplane! or Dumb &
Dumber, which were consistently novel and hilarious with no serious
character courtship to ruin the mood, which should be non-stop goofiness,
not bliss.
The movie's biggest asset is, by far, Ferrell, who can go from deadpan to
physical comedy as well as Steve Martin, but his jokes are so deprecating
— ugliness, awkwardness, etc. — that I'm scared he's going to kill
himself someday. I found Vince Vaughn's character to be an effective
instigator, while Luke Wilson could have been replaced by a decorated
boulder and no one would have noticed the difference. None of the pledges
made any lasting impression.
Overall, I give it a B-.
(As an aside, one of the previews was for Malibu's Most Wanted, where
Jamie Kennedy portrays a white rapper. I suggest they summon the bomb squad
to the premier of this dud-in-waiting. The only people who are going to see
this are ones who walk into the wrong theater for The Hulk.)
In Five Words or Less: Comedies Come a Lot Worse
Links:
• Collection of Reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
• Memorable
Old School Quotes
• DVD to Include Inside the Actor's Guild Spoof
• Will Ferrell's Greatest SNL Moments
I thought Old school was fricken hilarious too. It would have bombed w/o Ferrel, though.
Posted by Scooter at April 11, 2003 10:01 AM