Ivan Reitman has always specialized in big, boisterous comedies that toe the line between PG-13 and R ratings, so as to offer half-in-the-bag frat-boys, community college attendees and guys named Troy the casual swearing and partial nudity E! cannot provide them.
Reitman is, after all, the creative mind behind seminal beer-swilling fare like “Animal House” and “Meatballs,” but his humor of late has taken an unfortunate turn away from mildly heartwarming schmaltz to overbearing caffeine highs (see the excruciating “Evolution”).
His presence looms large over the work of writer/director Todd Phillips, whose “Road Trip” (produced by Reitman) bears many of the same qualities as much of Reitman’s early efforts — a collective of male protagonists, all given the same unsatisfactory amount of character development, a plot structured only to move from sight gag to sight gag as quickly as possible, and, when the pace inevitably slows, gratuitous T & A.
Reitman and Phillips collaborate again on the latter’s “Old School” which, were it not for its infinitely more talented cast, might as well have served as a sequel to “Road Trip.” The three dolts under Phillips’ spell this time around are Beanie (Vince Vaughn, “Made”), Mitch (Luke Wilson, “Legally Blonde”) and Frank (Will Ferrell, “Zoolander”).
Mitch is a stagnant middle-manager who, after discovering his girlfriend’s swinging side, buys a house on the local campus. However, the university stipulates that all campus housing be reserved for students and their activities, so Mitch gets the notion from Beanie and Frank that the best way to keep their party pad is to make it into a fraternity.
This greatly displeases Dean Pritchard (an absurdly miscast Jeremy Piven, “PCU”), who would much rather see his former high school bullies shut down than become the big men on campus.
“Old School” delivers its comedic money-shot within the first act and spends the final hour desperately seeking another arousal. Love interests are introduced and disposed of without much motivation or explanation, but who needs those when you’ve got cameos by Snoop Dogg and Craig Kilborn to squeeze in?
Phillips leaves himself with no choice but to milk tried-and-true clichés for laughs, and anyone who has been remotely conscious of the comedies of the past 10 years will see them coming from a mile away — a cast of colorful supporting players, each with an easily exploitable physical characteristic, a gag montage set to Smash Mouth-esque contempo-rock and a half-assed finale that unsuccessfully tries to salvage the previous 100 minutes.
The most disappointing aspect of “Old School” is that Phillips refuses to use his characters’ age as a source of fish-out-of-water comedy. Thirtysomethings Mitch, Beanie and Frank slip right back into their college environs without giving any thought to the difference between themselves and today’s college kids.
This results in characters that are not really people but merely bodies upon which joke after joke is piled. Thankfully, Phillips and Reitman chose just the right bodies.
Wilson is quite ideal as the film’s passive protagonist, his body language ably communicating Mitch’s discomfort every time his cohorts conjure up another scheme. Vaughn, who is beginning to fashion a nice little career out of playing motor-mouthed sidekicks, complements Wilson’s moodiness with pitch-perfect vexation.
It is Will Ferrell, however, whose comic persona comes to dominate “Old School.” As gifted a physical comedian as he is an improviser, Ferrell commands attention whenever he is onscreen and rewards it with anything from a subtle twitch of the face to a stark-naked jaunt down the street.
He seems poised to become the next superstar launched by “Saturday Night Live” — just keep him away from future projects with Phillips and Reitman attached.
Grade: B/C
