Movie Review: Van Wilder

"Van Wilder" is part of the vast nincompoop conspiracy in Hollywood that thinks it's time to remake "Animal House" over and over again.

"Van Wilder," to its credit, is just about twice as funny as "Sorority Boys," It has the same bodily fluid-scatological frat-boy humor orientation as "Sorority." But "Wilder" has Ryan Reynolds, late of TV's "Two Guys and a Girl." And Reynolds, playing the prissy, deadpan and effortlessly cool title character, gives this movie just a smidgen of heart and soul.

Van Wilder is a seven-year veteran of Coolidge College. He's a beloved figure on campus, so much so that he never wants to graduate. But Dad, played by Tim Matheson, the one "Animal House" survivor not to appear in "Sorority Boys," cuts off Van's tuition money. Van and his sidekick, Hutch (Teck Holmes), and new assistant, Taj (Kal Penn), have to come up with the cash, by any means necessary -- topless tutoring, party-planning and other schemes ensue.

That makes this the perfect time for pert little Gwen (Tara Reid) from the student newspaper to write an in-depth profile of Coolidge's famous career student.

Reynolds takes a stab at playing Wilder as a young Matthew Perry; straight-faced, droll and just a wee bit effeminate. His line readings are the biggest giggle in this thing.

"I'm still looking for that 'Dare to be great' situation," he tells various adults who wonder about his lack of a degree. And then there's my favorite, Wilder's way of sending the hilariously virginal Indian Taj (not quite a stereotype) after a nubile young thing. "Her name's Naomi. That's I moan, spelled backwards!"

The gross stuff consists of canine genitals, projectile vomiting, projectile defecation and the like. And really, what comedy since "Dumb & Dumber" hasn't dropped to that level?

But Van Wilder is a benevolent figure, a guy loved by his classmates in a Ferris Bueller way "because he cares about us." And the movie's not pro-fraternity but anti-frat boy. Wilder's nemesis is president of Delta Iota Kappa. Do the initials.

Here's a tepid endorsement. If you must see an excessive, sexual gross-out campus comedy this spring, "Sorority Boys" isn't it. "Van Wilder," inspired by the same magazine that brought us "Animal House" -- The National Lampoon -- is. When it comes to collegiate humor, nobody knows lowbrow like our friends at the Lampoon.