This weak attempt at college humor takes all the juvenile escapades of ANIMAL HOUSE and blows them out into cartoonish proportions. All the sense of nostalgia and youthful rebellion that was in the National Lampoon classic has been replaced with pointless man-boy raunchiness. ANIMAL HOUSE relied on characterization, while OLD SCHOOL barely reaches caricature.
Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson, BOTTLE ROCKET) comes home from a business trip to find his girlfriend Heidi (Juliette Lewis, NATURAL BORN KILLERS) engaged in an orgy in their bedroom. Distraught, Mitch gets plastered at the wedding of his friend Frank Ricard (Will Ferrell, ANCHORMAN) and tries to suck spilled coffee off the dress of his high school sweetheart Nicole (Ellen Pompeo, MIDNIGHT MILE). Set up at a house close to the campus of their alma mater, Harrison University, Mitch’s best friend Bernard (Vince Vaughn, WEDDING CRASHERS), a married stereo store owner, throws an elaborate bash to lift Mitch’s spirits. The party makes Mitch a legend, but the bash draws the attention of Dead Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven, TV’s ENTOURAGE), who was the butt of jokes from Mitch and friends during high school. Dean Pritchard wants to get them kicked out of the house, so the man-boys devise a plan to turn the house into a frat.
When the film isn’t outright copying ANIMAL HOUSE Mitch sleeps with a high school student named Darcie (Elisha Cuthbert, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) who turns out to be his boss’s daughter the film has these 30-something men indulging in mindless debauchery like a freshman let off a leash. It’s supposed to be some comment on guys reliving the good ole days of college in contrast to their boring desk jobs. It’s not funny or ironic as the film hopes for, but simply pathetic.
Not an ounce of reality touches this flick. Bernard hires Snoop Dogg for the big party. That’s some crazy successful stereo store. During the prerequisite hazing montage, beer is consumed, humiliation is endured and balls are busted… literally at times. Dean Pritchard is a slimy sweater-wearing stick in the mud with a stick up… you get the point. If one cartoon bad guy isn’t enough, Nicole gets a fiancée named Mark (Craig Kilborn), a condescending, womanizing jackass. But of course Nicole thinks he’s a saint and Mitch has some issue with telling her the truth. At the end, the man-boys have to compete in some competition to save the frat and these epitomes of slackerhood now excel at everything.
Through the sheer force of his talent, Ferrell elicits the film’s few laughs. But every other attempt is a futile gesture.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
