Movie Info
Movie Name: Old School
Studio: The Montecito Picture Company
Genre(s): Comedy
Release Date(s): February 21, 2003
MPAA Rating: R
Wow, this school is so old school…hey, wait! I get it!
Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) isn’t having a good year. Returning home from a business trip early, he learned that his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) has been playing around…and more. One of his best friends, Frank Ricard (Will Ferrell) has just gotten married, and Bernard Campbell (Vince Vaughn) seems more preoccupied with his speaker company and staying away from his family. Mitch rents a house near campus, and he finds himself in party central. When Dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) tries to force him to move, Mitch (aka the Godfather), Bernard (aka Beanie), and Frank (aka The Tank) decide to turn the house into a makeshift fraternity. Now the party is on, and Mitch’s house is the place to be!
Directed by Todd Phillips, Old School is a gross-out comedy catering to adults with nudity and lots of vulgar humor. The comedy received average to positive reviews, but became a big breakout box-office success.
I hate clowns and I’m not a big fan of you Vince…
Old School feels like an evolution. The movie has throwbacks to the classic college comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House combined with early sex romps like Porky’s (which evolved into films like American Pie). If you saw any of these films, some of Old School might feel a bit redundant.
With the throwback feel, the story feel pretty generic. It has a lot of cliches of college films…though modernized by the story. You have Jeremy Piven “the Cheese” as the evil dean and the pledges following the orders of Blue (Patrick Cranshaw), Spanish (Rick Gonzalez), and Jerry (Simon Helberg) which feel they could have been substituted in Revenge of the Nerds. You also get crazy parties, and nudity. It also ends up just like you think it will end up.
Frank the Tank in his natural environment…
The story is pretty much a showcase for Wilson, Ferrell, and Vaughn. The movie mostly relies on jokes and humor from them…and they do work together. I’m not the biggest Vince Vaughn guy but he is rather amusing on occasion and this was one of his better roles. Luke Wilson plays the straight guy as usual and Frank the Tank works well with Will Ferrell’s acting. The movie is also loaded with other stars like Ellen Pompeo, Leah Remini, Craig Kilborn, Seann William Scott, Elisha Cuthbert, Artie Lange, Harve Presnell, Terry O’Quinn, and Andy Dick with Snoop Dogg, James Carville, and Warren G playing themselves.
Old School is just one of those fun, short, goofy comedies. It doesn’t have much of a sweet side or romance (the story between Owen Wilson and Ellen Pompeo really doesn’t go anywhere). With Judd Apatow making the “smart comedies”, it is fun to have the “dumb” comedies too. There was originally talk of a Old School 2, but as of now no one seems interested in doing it.
