National Lampoon's Van Wilder (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

Seriously, I think it went more like this:

#1: Hey, let's have the DVD menu printed on a tight t-shirt on a girl's chest, sticking right in the camera, so they see teets all the time. Won't that be funny/sexy? Heh.

#2: Yeah, that's be great. Like a wet t-shirt contest kinda thing. And when we change menus, she just has a different t-shirt on.

#1: Hey, that's good. And we could SHOW her changing her t-shirt, with an animated menu. That would be great for the horny bastards who buy this stuff. The bra she where could be some custom Van Wilder bra or National Lampoon bra or something.

#2: Who says she has to wear a bra? We'd just make it sexier by having her nekkid, with a black bar across the good parts.

#1: Who says there has to be a black bar? :leer: We'll sell even MORE copies!

#2: Well, we DO have those deleted scenes. Let's go for an unrated version! Why should American Pie have all the fun? This is a great gimmick...a first!

#1: Great, great. Who could we get?

#2: "Naomi"! She'd do it!!

 

[Tino]

Good job reviwing the DVD Matthew but...
I rented this one yesterday out of sheer curiosty. I should have known better.
While not as bad as AP2, I thought this film was pretty bad. Unoriginal, sophomoric, dull and worse of all, painfully unfunny.
Recycled jokes, cheap gags and annoying performances, especially from Tara Reid, make this film another bad generic "teen" comedy.
At least we agreed on Blue Crush Matthew.

 

[Morgan Holly]

Actually... I pitched the concept, Artisan loved it, then my wife designed the T-shirts and the menus. Boy that was a fun shoot. Kinda uncomfortable with my wife there though

 

[Patrick Sun]

Bless you, Morgan.

 

[Matt Stone]

I finally just got around to seeing it. I must say, it was quite a bit funnier than I expected. AP2 kinda soured me on "teen gross-out comedy" genre...but I'm really glad that I gave this one a shot. It's definitely on my "to buy" list now...and the menus/easter eggs only futher that

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Morgan, you are a god. You need to pitch more ideas like that.

 

[Nick Sievers]

Maybe we can take the heat off Chmiel now, and focus on Matt Stone

 

[Matt Stone]

Haha

 

[JamesHromadka]

Well tonight, after the Rams-Chargers game got out of hand, I was, um, comparing the FS and WS versions of Van Wilder, and the movie was definitely matted for widescreen, so if you want to see chapter 14 with Naomi in all of her glory, the FS version offers more.
For those having trouble with the easter eggs, I suggest VideoLanClient, which makes it easy to see all the video chapters on a DVD. I couldn't find a way to watch the menus, though.
While I'm at it, I'll admit that I thought the movie was pretty good, although the dog scene was a little much!

 

[streeter]

Oh my, was this movie horrible! I picked it up last night (blind purchase) and THANK GOD that it was just $15.99 and came with a free Weekend at Bernie's (which is Oscar material compared to Van Wilder).
This was one of the most horrible movies I have ever seen. I counted, and I laughed a total of 3 times and in addition to that, I smiled once. The rest of the time, I was looking at the screen and reconsidering my views on man's right to bear arms.
The performances were as horrendous as anything. Tara Reid, who isn't all that hot either, needs to retire from acting altogether. Kevin Reynolds tries to act like Jason Lee, but in the end it is Kevin who sucks on toast. I was also very disappointed in how the comedic genius that is Curtis Armstrong was completely ignored.
This waste of time was as bad as, if not worse than, Senior Trip, Last Resort, Class Reunion, and the Lampoon cable movies. It is an insult to everyone involved in making "Animal House" and I'm willing to bet that John Landis' career is spinning in its grave.
As for the DVD menus: They're an enjoyable and fitting gimmick - appropriate for this type of movie (quality notwithstanding). The movie (and menus) could have used some FRBRGRGe though.

DO NOT BUY THIS ON A BLIND PURCHASE! Rent it first if you really want to see it.

Matthew Chmiel - there was a Van Wilder event/party in Vegas in July, as part of the VSDA show. But that's beside the point. It is my fault that I made a blind purchase on a new release. I should have known that blind purchases should only be made on catalogue titles, or if a New Release, only on the Oscar-caliber fare. But I bought this title because it was so cheap and came with a free Weekend at Bernie's DVD (Thank GOD or it would have been a complete waste)... and also because you were praising this movie to the heavens. All I have to say to you is: GRRRRRRRR!!!!!

 

[Kajs]

I thought the movie was alright. I liked it better than American Pie 2. It was worth $6.78 I paid for it, if not for the menus alone.

 

[Rob W]

You guys obviously are not aware of this film's dirty little secret :

THIS IS NOT A NATIONAL LAMPOON MOVIE !!!!!

The film was written and shot simply as VAN VILDER .The producers purchased the rights to use the name NATIONAL LAMPOON purely as a marketing tool after the fact. NL had absolutely nothing to do with the film other than cashing a check for selling their name.

 

[David Illingworth II]

I wouldn't have picked this up except that it came with Weekend at Bernie's and some imaginative menus. I'd been thinking of getting Weekend at Bernie's for a while anyway.
Watched this and Sweetest Thing together, and this was better than Sweetest Thing, and a lot better than I had thought. Ryan Reynolds is really good. The dog scene should have been cut way down, and I could have done without the painful line that happens during the revenge on the doctor guy at his interview. Some stuff is just too gross (like the kissing scene in Not Another Teen Movie).
This was pretty decent, but I actually was unaware that it was a two-disc set. For some reason that just cracked me up. It is pretty loaded with extras though.

 

[Peter Kim]

Thanks for the nice review, Matthew. Based on it, I picked this up for a guilty pleasure watch. Had fun for a couple of hours.

BTW...how the hell were you able to discover all of those easter eggs by yourself? Prior to reading your post on the easter eggs, I just couldn't seem to activate many of them (e.g., the red had pointing to 'fullscreen').

Keep up the good reviews on this genre.

 

[Peter Kim]

Forgot to add, since no one else seemed to mention it. For all of the boobies that were exposed, a little cameo by Kim Smith zipped by. Although she did not bare, we were witness to an eye-popping body accentuated by a pair of skin-tight, cheek-revealing shorts and too-tight-but-oh-so-right baby-tee. I can now understand why Fred Durst has a yearning for this glorious Guess girl.

Anyway, in the spirit of this thread, I thought others might find this nugget appealing.

 

[Matt Stone]

Kevin Reynolds tries to act like Jason Lee, but in the end it is Kevin who sucks on toast.

First off...It's Ryan, not Kevin...secondly, I agree that he tried to act like Jason Lee. Where I disagree is that I thought he did a damn good job at it. Especially with the "write that down" deliveries. I'm not a Tara Reid fan, and luckily...she didn't seem to be very obtrusive in this film, so she didn't bother me. For me, this ranks right up there with Road Trip, as one of the good post-American Pie teen flicks.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Quote:

DVD-ROM. I moved my mouse around to see where the easter egg buttons were located and then learned how to get to the easter eggs with the remote.
And exactly who was Kim Smith in the movie?

 

[Peter Kim]

Cannot remember the name of Kim Smith's character, but she was shown once - Van Wilder called Tara (yes, I'm awful with names) to confirm whether she was indeed engaged. However, he got Kim, who said that she was just using Tara's computer and that Tara was away at her engagement party.

Again, not nekkid, but wow! she is buxom and voluptuous. I didn't know that shorts could contour so deeply between the cheeks...

 

[Matt Stone]

Yah...those were some tight-ass shorts. I don't even know if shorts is the right word...they were more like "an extra pair of skin."

 

[streeter]

Thanks for the Kevin/Ryan correction. Kevin Reynolds is the Waterworld guy, right?
Regarding the NL title - from what I understand, NL licensed their name for the cable movies. I wasn't sure about their involvement in Van Wilder.
I thought 'Vegas Vacation' wisely went without the lampoon title. After all those cable movies, the title was meaningless and IMO had become a negative association. From watching the trailers and commercials for Van Wilder, I thought maybe the good old Lampoon was back. I was disappointed, but after those cruddy cable movies, Senior Trip, Last Resort, etc., definitely not surprised. I'm interested to see what movie NL will do next, but based on how successful Van Wilder was, I will not keep my hopes up. In fact, after Van Wilder's ENORMOUS video push I'm sure their next movie will be a Van Wilder clone.

BTW, did anyone get the 'sucks on toast' reference?