Genres

Visitors Review

Jerry Smith 2013-05-23 10:08:02

Good, yet stupid

Van Wilder follows the National Lampoon tradition of having a college flickwhere everybody guzzels beer and has sex. It actually follows Ryan Reynoldsas Van Wilder, a "legend" at his college whose father cut him off fromgetting any money to go to college. It is up to him to have some crazyparties and get some money. Ryan Reynolds is an entertaining Van Wilder and I thought he was good. TaraReid is a pretty good Gwen and her character wasn't too bad. The otheractors and actresses who play the characters weren't that bad and, actually,there presence were likable. The only big problem this movie has is it's stupidity. Some of the jokeswere just completely not funny and just won't let a laugh break through. Theplot isn't that good the way it's brought out. It could be a lot better. Theother problem is that it has nothing to do with National Lampoon's. The only"connection" is the guy who played Otter from Animal House plays VanWilder's father, Vance Wilder. That's not even a connection.Overall this would've been a good time for Jason Voorhees to kill thesehorny kids. Rating 5 out of 10.

2013-05-23 00:17:06

Hysterical

You'll never be able to eat an eclaire or canoli again! Its one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. College humor, but not quite the "Animal House" of this generation. It is worth the money to rent or buy, I recommend this movie. The DVD has some great features... The un-rated vision is the only way to go.

bob the moo 2013-05-20 22:32:43

A crude and obvious genre movie with few if any laughs

After the better part of a decade in college, Van Wilder's father pullsthe plug and leaves Van with little option but to drop out. Howeverwhen he is offered money to organise a party for a terminally uncoolfraternity, Van realises that he maybe has a chance. An unkind exposeon Wilder in the college paper by conveniently gorgeous Gwen, actuallyserves to increase his reputation and soon he has people queuing up topay him to organise more parties. Meanwhile though, Gwen wants morestories on Van, whereas Van just wants more Gwen.The film opens with a title sequence that is cheap looking and lacksstyle and moves straight into a scene where an old Oriental womanappears to be giving oral sex to "our hero". And so it continues inthis vein with no obvious or crude joke left undelivered. We have stiffIndians talking dirty (see the clever contrast there?), fartingstrippers (for no reason other than delivering a rubbish "blow job"joke), sandwiches made with dog ejaculate and so on. We are never indanger of the film being better than this and indeed nobody involvedseems concerned with ticking all the basic genre boxes and leaving itat that. The material is uninspired and uninspiring; occasionally bitsof it made me laugh but most of it was either boring or just crude tothe point of being puerile. I imagine that fans of college comedies mayenjoy this but for the casual viewer and most people over the age of21, there will be very little to justify watching this for.The cast match the material in absolutely doing the basics. Reynoldsmugs his way along but is more annoying than anything else – he learnsthe hard way that you can't force charm and screen presence, because hegives it all he can here but fails. Of course compared to Reid,watching him is like a masterclass in the art of acting. Reid does thesame character that she always does; I know she had had personal issuesjust before this film but it is hard to excuse her very weakperformance. Matheson, Gleason, Armstrong and Estrada (yes, you heardme) all appear in tiny adult roles that add nothing but did make mewonder why they bothered. Penn does what the material requires eventhough it is rather racially questionable. The performances of the restof the cast is only noticeable for the very male & teenage depiction ofwomen, which can be summed up by watching the scene in which Van callsGwen's room but gets her flatmate who, for some reason, was on the PCin a tight vest and pants. The film doesn't explain why she was dressedthis way or why this scene was necessary but it is clear that thetarget audience is teenage boys and that the depiction of women isslanted accordingly.Overall then a mostly unfunny and obvious genre movie that goes throughthe motions but does very little else. Calling it crude doesn't reallydo it justice and generally if there is a simple bodily function orgross out joke that can be delivered, it will be delivered here – evenif it means structuring parts of the plot for the sole purpose ofgetting to that joke. Those that love this sort of thing will alreadyhave flocked to it (and the unnecessary sequel) but for the casualviewer I say this – you're better than this.

negativdrama80 2013-05-20 17:05:05

Very Good .... Very Cute

I had heard that this movie came out in the theatres and never went to goand see it... I did not really care for a ridiculous movie with comedythatmade no sense... :0) However, I am glad that I finally rented it at thevideo store and was completely angry with my self for not watching in thetheatres. Van Wilder(Ryan Reynolds) was a fantastic movie. It was funnyandI never stopped laughing. I fell in love with Ryan Reynolds. He was thebestchoice to play Van. His spunky attitude and facial expressions alone areunique. I was not impressed Tara Reid as Gwen(Van's girlfriend). She hadnopersonality and was very dry. Though her blonde hair and pouty lips madeherseem attractive to the boys. But for those of us out there that want towatch talent and not puke pick someone else to play these type of roles.Themovie in all was great. I now own the movie on DVD and I have watched itconstantly. I have yet to get tird of it. So my vote is on. IT COULD BETHENEXT ANIMAL HOUSE.....

Brian Fleury 2013-05-17 21:02:37

Worst movie of the century!

This is without a doubt, the worst movie I have ever seen. The maincharacter, chosen no doubt for his uncanny resemblance to a young ChevyChase, is funny but the plot simply does not exist.The gags (when they're there) are trite, hackneyed, and old as rock. Thismovie will even die in videoland.In my 47 years of life, I have seen a lot of movies. I have walked out onbetter movies than this. I did leave 10 minutes before the end becauseafter I visited the bathroom I just wanted to get back into my car and gohome.Not a good movie!

2013-05-17 09:21:45

Funny classic movie DVD.......

This review is from: National Lampoon's Van Wilder (R-Rated Edition) (DVD) Funny classic movie DVD.......National Lampoon's Van Wilder (R-Rated Edition)...Love Ryan Reynolds this is an oldie but goodie!~ My son loves this movie!~

bogsbautista 2013-05-11 09:20:00

funny enough so that I don't feel bad about watching it by mistake :)

My girlfriend and I actually went to see this movie by mistake. I made herpick the movie and she wanted to watch a comedy. She actually thought "VanWilder" was "Mr. Deeds" starring Adam Sandler. :) I was actually surprisedshe picked this one and when we saw a trailer for "Mr. Deeds" before thismovie came on, she realized she just dragged me into the wrongmovie.I did enjoy this movie. We were laughing every two or three minutes and wethought the jokes were OK (even the sicker ones). Good enough, but in mybook, this would still be the kind of movie I'd only watch if there was noother movie available, or if I thought it was "Mr. Deeds.":)

2013-05-10 16:43:09

Decent "Frat" Movie: No More, No Less

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER is a decent comedy that lies in the shadow of ANIMAL HOUSE. There are parts of this movie that had me laughing hysterically. There are other parts where the crude humor fell completely flat and even I was a little taken aback (and that is saying something). One interesting part of this film is that it seems to get tired with the "campus craziness" routine and opt for a college romance movie instead. I'm not sure whether I approve of the decision. As a college comedy, VAN WILDER ranks among the better ones, but it cannot really maintain any believability for its love story. Overall, I was entertained by this film, but its somewhat inexperienced cast give it a bit of an "amateur" feel. Check it out if you love "fraternity" movies or enjoy simple comedies.

fleaoncrack 2013-05-04 14:31:48

Don't wear your thinking pants to this flick...

Simply entertaining- nothing more, nothing less. Not the classic NationalLampoon satire(chevy chase et all) that leave those corny jokes hanging inyour teeth or spit stains on the front of your shirt from snarfing beer...but Van Wilder is more along the lines of American Pie. Expect lots ofhotchicks, alcohol, and a bulldog with elephantiasis (you'll understand soonenough). This movie will soon be forgotten, but hey, watch it if you can(at least to *cough* analyze the epitome of the fantasized collegeexperience).

2013-05-04 09:12:21

GREAT

This review is from: National Lampoon's Van Wilder (Unrated Special Edition) (DVD) great movie. i love reynolds and think he is clever and whitty. im glad i bought this movie. :) it is one to watch over and over again

rory_robinson 2013-05-02 10:29:40

American pie's time is up!!!!!!!

This is the greatest teen flick i have ever seen,honestly,this beatsAmerican pie,Road trip,Scary movie and Not another teen movie.Van wilder is up for his 7th year at coolage when his dad thinks he isa bad investment and cuts his cash flow for the year leaving him tomake money the old fashion way.....Being able to throw one heck of aparty.After shifting himself from girl to girl he finally falls for TaraReid,A school reporter who has been hired to write a paper on himleaving to drastic resultsRyan is brilliant in this and was born to play the part,Tara Reid isgood but not brilliant but still better then her role in American pie.Its a great laugh but still with an love story feel about it leaving atear..........4/5 Ryan 10/10

Bartha02 2013-05-01 22:46:30

hilarious

I just love this movie, it's fun and it has a few nice chicks in it;D.what makes it so good is that it inspires you and you'll get good laughsallthe time.

2013-04-27 13:53:26

Great trashy fun!

This review is from: National Lampoon's Van Wilder (Unrated) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) This movie is spectacular if crude humor is your thing. Ryan Reynolds must have studied Chevy Chase's character from the National Lampoon's Vacation movies for hours on end. His joke delivery and expressions fit Chase perfectly. If your not into drug and sex jokes, you may not like it. If you are, you'll laugh for an hour and half.

Mondo-Cane 2013-04-27 10:46:28

Utter Crap.

Someone at National Lampoon seems to think they can recreate the success oftheir legendary college comedy Animal House. While I admit lots of reallyreally bad movies targeted to young people these days have had somesuccess,I have faith in my generation, that they will avoid this crap collegeflick,like they would avoid the cops when transporting alcohol in their backpacksto their desired party destination when they are underage. While I like tojoke about college as much as the next guy, Van Wilder seems to have beenwritten from every played out, cliche bit of college humor and comedy,rarely a scenario being close to accurate of real college life either.

TBuc 2013-04-24 08:41:48

It was great

This movie was very funny. I thought it had to have been one of the best I have ever seen. I think everyone should see it. If you haven't seen it see it.

FaeChild98 2013-04-23 20:53:50

I waited for it to be funny....

All of my friends who saw Van Wilder told me it was hilarious, that Ihaaadto seeit. They must have been stoned off their a***s. This movie has been toutedas"the next Animal House" (in fact I believe that was part of theadvertisement), butlike some of the other reviewers have stated, the only similarities wereTimMatheson (who basically plays the same character he had in "She's AllThat")and the fact that it takes place at a college. "Animal House" was fresh,wellwritten, and had an incredibly talented cast. This movie consisted of onebeaten-to-death gag after another (i.e. anything sexual with a pastry).TaraReidproves once and again that she absolutely cannot act and the other actors'perfomances were bland at best. None of them had any sense of comedictiming, which made the film drag on forever and ever and ever andever..........Brainless comedies work when at least some of the material is original,thescript is somewhat coherant, and you have actors who understand comedy.VanWilder has none of those things. Watch if you're under the influence ofsomething, that's the only way you'll get a laugh out ofit.

2013-04-22 09:55:44

Not as bad as I expected

This movie is definitely not a masterpiece and it has its share of stupid, toilet humor kind of jokes. But if you will be able to put all this stuff aside what's left is nice, light romantic comedy. Good acting by Ryan Reynolds (playing a guy that so used to life at the campus he doesn't want to graduate). Even Tara Reid is adequate. You can enjoy this movie if you don't expect much from it.

Schembri 2013-04-21 21:56:19

Movie sums up real university life.

This movie should be familiar to all uni students who live on campus. Thedirty and disgusting things that we get up to (the "creamed" rolls), themates, the parties, and other funny stuff really made me relate to themovie. This movie couldn't of touched more on this reality of uni thatgoeson everyday.Uni StudentQLD Australia

lilcookie100 2013-04-20 21:59:08

Hysterical

OMG! This movie is absolutely hysterical! I almost pissed myself laughing. Thank God for whoever wrote this movie-- It's one of the funniest. You'll never find a better movie with humor about college parties and a loser who makes his money from throwing parties. LoL Go Ryan Reynolds!

deadpanwalking-1 2013-04-20 05:14:31

Pleasantly Surprised

I think this was on Comedy Central one night when my other choicesconsisted of "Lumpy Lout Who Lives In An Outer Bourough With AnInexplicably Hot Wife And Argues Incessantly With His Ridiculously DaftAnd Profane Parents And/Or Siblings While Perpetuating Only The MostMundane Male Stereotypes Which Leave This Viewer Wondering Why His HotWife Doesn't Ditch His Boorish Ass" and "Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye". I choseVan Wilder. I was only familiar with the name of the movie, as I hadlong been threatening my friends with a "Van" concept movie night:"Okay, this time we're going to do it. Van Helsing and Van Wilder, onenight, the battle to see which is worse." Well, Van Helsing turned outto be completely unwatchable, while Van Wilder was actually prettyfunny and heartwarming in the tradition of dumb comedies like Zoolander(one of my favorites) and American Pie (not nearly as bad as it shouldhave been). I think Ryan Reynolds is primarily responsible, he reallypulled off the character, made you believe his motivations, held thewhole thing together, blah blah blah. Tara Reid is coherent throughoutfor which she deserves an Oscar (Don't scoff, they gave best picture to"Crash", remember?) And the supporting players pulled their weight. Thescript and direction was on target. If you're looking for dumb fun, andthere's nothing else on, you'll probably like this film.