Rated R - Running Time: 1:30 - Released 2/21/03
OLD SCHOOL
Rated R - Running Time: 1:30 - Released 2/21/03
With Will Ferrell’s departure last season from Saturday
Night Live, I guess we’ll be seeing even more of him
on the big screen—the question is, is that a good thing?
I regard Ferrell as one of the most talented, versatile, and just
plain funny performers ever to be on SNL, but that doesn’t
mean his movies will be anything special if he doesn’t start
showing some more discretion when choosing his scripts. Most of
Ferrell’s previous outings, like Zoolander,
The Ladies’ Man, and
Superstar, have been marginally-funny-at-best
comedies which featured him as a supporting player (with the exception
of his co-starring role in the abysmal A
Night At The Roxbury), and that’s what he’s
doing here, playing the fool with pals Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn.
Together they make up a trio of middle-aged friends who, when
they can’t make their “serious” lives work (i.e.,
marriage, family, career, commitment), resort to starting their
own fraternity so they can re-live those fun, carefree, and alcohol-soaked
days of college.
Frank (Ferrell) knows he’s in trouble at his wedding when
his bitter, married groomsman “Beanie” (Vaughn) keeps
telling him, “She’s coming up the aisle—this is
your last chance to get out.” Although Frank is devoted to
his bride Marissa (Perrey Reeves), her agreement to marry him
is based on his promise to lay off the alcohol, his previous abuse
of which earned him the college nickname “Frank The Tank.”
Meanwhile, his best man Mitch (Wilson) is perfectly happy with
his live-in girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) until he discovers that
she not only has sex outside their relationship, but hosts regular
gangbangs at their home while he’s at work. Disillusioned,
he moves out and into a house owned by a recently deceased professor
from the local institution of higher learning, Harrison University.
This results in a full-blown housewarming party thrown by Beanie,
which results in Frank’s falling off the wagon, which results
in Marissa kicking him out.
But their totally awesome keg party draws over 100 people,
including Mitch’s old school friend and former crush Nicole
(Ellen Pompeo), who is now a single mom engaged to a first-class
jerk played by Craig Kilborn, and even features a special live
appearance by Snoop Dogg. Unfortunately, it also attracts the
attention of Harrison’s geeky dean (Jeremy Piven), the guys’
grudge-holding ex-classmate/prank victim, who immediately has
the house re-zoned for college use only. Though he thinks this
will force Mitch and friends to move out, they decide to form
a college fraternity, so they can be in compliance with the new
regulation while engaging in numerous ill-advised shenanigans
with a pack of fun-loving, masochistic freshmen. Meanwhile, Mitch
keeps trying to convince Nicole that he’s not doing what
he’s doing, he hasn’t done what he’s done, and
he isn’t what he is.
Written by Court Crandall, Todd Phillips, and Scot Armstrong, and directed by Phillips, Old School is the trashiest of trashy frat-boy flicks—a kind of low-rent, 20-years-later version of Animal House—but the presence of Ferrell keeps it from being a total waste. It’s one of those films where the scenes you see on the TV commercials (almost all of them featuring Ferrell) are the funniest scenes in the film, so when they come up, you know it’s time to laugh even though you’ve already seen the bit a million times. Wilson and Vaughn are obviously just going through the motions; they have bills to pay and this is how you do it. Still, there is enough of Ferrell’s antics to make you laugh out loud at least a couple of times, so if that’s enough to make you spend 8 bucks now instead of waiting two months to rent the DVD, knock yourself out. **
