Nat'l Lampoon's Van Wilder (Unrated)

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Daniel Cosgrove
Director: Walter Becker

Rating: R (violence, sex, language and drug content)

Review Posted: 8.28.02

By John Teves

You'll never think of bulldogs, pastries, protein shakes or tutors in the same way again… National Lampoon's Van Wilder stars Ryan Reynolds as a 7th year student who has no plans to graduate. Life is good for Van; he's got a coed in every closet and a party to go to every night. His slick reputation even catches the eye of sexy Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid), and on campus reporter determined to expose the naked truth behind his wild exterior. When Gwen enters his life and his father stops paying his tuition, could Van's days as the king of Coolidge College be over?

Van Wilder is the next Animal House for the new millennium. In spite of the gross style of humor, there are some genuine laughs in Van Wilder. The film does not have much in the style of originality, but it does have a personality to it. Ryan Reynolds is an accomplished performer, he creates a character in Van Wilder that is totally revolutionary, fun loving, desirable, impressionable, and bright.

Van Wilder is foolish and coarse but it’s rarely as dim-witted as some other films I’ve seen of this genre. If you don’t try to compare it to Animal House or American Pie, then you might just find plenty here to come away pleasantly surprised.

Van Wilder appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The image generally seemed to be sufficiently sharp, but some scenes displayed moderate softness and fuzziness. I did see occasional examples of jagged edges. Colors seemed to be accurate. For the most part, colors displayed acceptable clarity and deepness, and yet they seemed to be a bit weak.

Black levels seemed to be fairly deep and dense, but shadow detail showed some concerns. Ultimately, none of the concerns ruined the affair, and many parts of the film actually looked pretty good. However, Van Wilder presented a surprisingly weak visual experience for such a recent film.

Van Wilder is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The front channels offered decent ambience, but there wasn’t much of note to discuss in the 5.1 presentation as a whole. Some sounds panned cleanly from channel to channel, however this remained a quiet and refined track.

The music provided the most active elements from the surrounds, as I heard decent support of these elements from the rear. Some mild ambient effects also cropped up in the surrounds, but these were fairly moderate. Dialogue sounded natural and clear. Effects appeared clear and accurate at all times; no distortion or other problems with dialogue. As a whole, the soundtrack of Van Wilder provided a pleasant but unspectacular auditory experience.

Extras:

Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Comedy Central's Reel Comedy: Van Wilder
Burly Bear TV: Half Baked, Impostor, Movie Junky
Live Action Interactive Menus Hosted by "Naomi"
Music of Van Wilder
Van Wilder Campaign Art Gallery
TV Spots
Trailer Gallery
Trailers
Cast and Crew
Production Notes
Scene Index
Sugarcult "Bouncing Off The Walls" Music Video
Unrated Exclusive: Add'l "Topless" Tutor Deleted Scene

I thought Van Wilder worked well, it offered enough humor to keep me with it. The DVD provides an average picture and sound as well as a good roster of supplements on this 2-disc package. Van Wilder will likely go down as a comedy classic for the next generation. Highly recommended.

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