By Ned Jordan
Van Wilder: Freshman Year pretty much sticks to the script for college party
movies, never aiming any higher than it has to, but managing to stay out of
gross-out and scatological humor territory. Van Wilder (Jonathan Bennett) heads
to Coolidge College to find that it is improbably run by an uptight Army officer
dean (Kurt Fuller) and that all of the women on campus (who are all gorgeous of
course) have joined a religious society and taken a vow of chastity. With the
help of his stoner roommate, a Chinese exchange student, and his ever wiggling
eyebrows, Wilder pulls off a few pranks, hosts a few parties, and beats the
formerly BMOC ROTC cadets at the inevitable climactic athletic competition for
all the marbles.
To its credit this film is not nearly as bad as it could be, but it's nothing
that you haven't seen a thousand times before. Cool kid takes on uptight dean
and campus jocks and comes out on top through a philosophy of partying-hard,
wins the heart of the formerly uptight cute chick, and never has to worry about
attending a class (unless it's Sex Ed). The "Unrated" moniker slapped onto the
DVD's case implies that the film is far more ribald than it is, and in fact it's
rather tame when compared to similar films. Overall I wouldn't really call Van
Wilder: Freshman Year laugh-out-loud funny, but it's a mild enough diversion
when you want to watch something light that won't require much, if any, thought.
The DVD release of the film comes with a number of special features, which is
more than you'd typically expect from a straight-to-video production. Most deal
with the film's production and its cast in one way or another, and how much fun
everyone had making the movie. Some are extensions of the film, such as
the Coolidge College Orientation Video. They're all kind of fun in their
own way and round out a surprisingly complete release.
Final Rating:
