Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. And I don’t believe in apologizing or looking down on a film you like as “stupid,” but I understand where this first reviewer is coming from. To me, OLD SCHOOL is fairly smart when it comes to the way Todd Phillips set up a space for Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Farrell to all feel free to try anything as performers.
But like I said... I get what this guy means. When he says “stupid,” it’s a compliment. Right?
Hey Moriarty,
I have reviewed a variety of films for you. From The Royal Tanenbaums to the Hours. I’ve returned to review one of the stupidest movies of the year. One that I think you and I have the same take on. So with out further ado, I go into a theater in NYC and hear , “This is a rough cut, isn’t finished, so please be kind, blah blah blah. Now please enjoy Old School!” I have two different definitions of stupid. There is Glitter stupid, where a movie just sucks, and there is the good kind of stupid, like American Pie or Jackass. This falls into the latter category. This movie was ridiculously stupid, but in a really fucking hilarious way. This was STUPID GOOD! Spoilers included.
The story follows the typical college movie formula. You know the one...guy (Luke Wilson) has the perfect girl, decides to surprise her by getting home from work early and catches her in the middle of a gangbang, rethinks his life, buys a house across the street from his old college, and gets stupid drunk. People party, he hits rock bottom, the dean tries to shut down the frat, they find redemption, and Luke gets a better girl. Add Will Farrell and Vince Vaughn as his old buddies who come back to party with him and you have hilarious stupidity. The audience was rolling throughout the whole movie. This is good shit. Todd Phillips, director of Road Trip and Frat House knows exactly how to get it right. He lets each actor do exactly what they do best. Will Farrell does his “thing” and it got continuous laughs every time he appeared on screen. Seeing his nasty chest hair just never gets old. His naked body is funny. You just can’t argue with it. Vince Vaughn reprises his role from swingers, except now he is responsible for small children. He does “cocky swinger” well, and when he is carrying a small child and doing what he does best, it makes for a bucket of funny. Luke Wilson is mellow casual guy from every movie he has done. Let the 3 of them riff on a college setting with tons of booze and a frat house to run and you get a funny fucking movie. Also insert hot girls, one from “24”, the other from “Moonlight Mile,” both of whom are great actresses. And a couple of nude chicks in a K-Y jelly tub. Really funny. Really stupid.
You get your money’s worth in this movie. Everyone does what they do best and it keeps you laughing from beginning to end. Sean William Scott does a hilarious cameo involving horse tranquilizers with Farrell (and a ode to the Graduate), Andy Dick makes a brief kind of funny appearance, and Jeremy Piven and Craig Kilborn make great assholes. And the soundtrack is old school goodness. I’m buying the soundtrack when it comes out as it is awesome and it will make you want to rock out with leopard spandex and big hair. What really impressed me was that they were able to pull this off with only a tiny amount of grossout humor. For the most part the jokes stay out of the toilet and keep you rolling. The pledge class for their frat house does a great job as well, however I don’t know their names so I can’t really say much.
Only complaint, a very tiny one, Phillips, I hope you are reading this....that dream sequence isn’t funny and doesn’t go anywhere. Cut it or make it funny.
So, anyone looking for a great time at the movies go out and see this bad boy the moment it comes out. It doesn’t break any serious cinematic ground, but if you like Will, Vince and Luke you will laugh 90% of the time. FUCKING HILARIOUS. Anyone who doesn’t like this movie takes themselves way too seriously. Get drunk and see this with your old college buddies. Male and female. You will not be disappointed.
So I guess what I am saying is that I liked this movie.
A LOT.
I am the Key Master!
Louis Tulley
Well, listen, Vin, I’ve got the Key Master here, and I was thinking maybe you and I could check out what they thought of the film together, eh?
And, dude... how do you make your eyes glow like that?!
It's October 18 and I'm getting ready to go to a class at the worst law school in the world (cough, new york law school) when I get a call asking if I want to see an advanced preview of Old School. My first questions was, "what is Old School".
The reply simply was its a Todd Phillips' (Road Trip) new movie staring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell (zoolander), and Vince Vaughn that comes out next March. Considering the choices I had (watching a dvd movie on my laptop during class or seeing Old School), I was off to the Times Square AMC Empire 25.
Now, I'm not a fan of giving spoilers with my review, so rest assured that this review will only be a generalization with maybe a few specific scene descriptions depicting the most comedic scenes.
I don't have much time to get this out, so sorry if the grammer/spelling is off.
Right off the bat, this movie is going to make a ton of money. Simply, it is the most hillarious thing I've seen come out in the past few years. The downfall of the movie is that the story is basically just an collage of incredible commedic skits. Albeit, the screening was probably missing most of the story to see what jokes hit the hardest, I'm sure this problem will be fixed when the movie hits the screens in 5 months.
HILLARIOUS PLOT
The movie is generally about three 30 year old men that are questioning their lives (work is boring, wife is boring, etc.). When one of them finds out their girlfriend is cheating on him, he moves into a house right across the street of a college campus. Next thing you know, all three start turning back into the college frat guys they used to be. One has a revelation about starting a fraternity ... a fraternity where a man of any age can join. Everyone in town hears about this fraternity and after a few huge parties, pretty much every man in town wants to be in the fraternity. So our three 30 year olds carefully choose the ideal pledge class ... an 80 year old retired marine, a 40 year old japanese businessman .... and a handful of kids from the college ... Pitted against a dean who want the fraternity gone (the funny guy from PCU), this movie is hillarious.
This movie has an edge, something that I've never seen before, it is an uncaged comedy. I'm not talking about those comedies, in which crazy stuff happens (e.g., Something about Mary and the Weiner and Beans sketch), our settled 30 year olds turn into crazy uncontrollable fraternity guys; they don't care about the consequences; and are crazy.
To give you an example, I have picked two sketches which are each worth the $10 movie ticket price (I'm in NYC) to see in and upon themselves.
1. Pledge Picking -- After our three frat guys (unfortunately they aren't Pikes, but hey, at least they aren't SAE's) pick the idea pledge class, they put panthose on their heads, hop into an unmarked van, and speed around town picking them all up. Now what do I mean by speed? For example, in one instance you see the van plow through a few shopping carts in front of a food store, side-skid to a stop in front of a 40 year old couple packing groceries, hop out of the van, grab the dude, put him in the car, and have Ferrell say to the woman "you tell anyone about this and I'll kill you" (sees her scared face) "don't worry, we'll have him home by 10" ... jump to ... a college freshman riding a skateboard ... the van runs a read light ... plows through a mailbox ... Farrell opens the door ... and snatches the kid ... jump to ...
2. Ferrell has now become a superstar ... He was awesome in Zoolander, but after this hits, Ferrell will be asked to be in every movie ... I don't care if its Episode III or Pokemon 5, this movie denotes Ferrell becoming the new King of comedy.
Ferrell is asked by his wife not to drink when he goes to the fraternities first party .... (I'm laughing just thinking about this scene) ... She says "I don't want the tank to come out, we put him to sleep a long time ago and we don't want him coming back" ... cut to ... Farrell at a huge fraternity party with tons of college kids ... he is carrying two cans of coca cola when he is stopped and asked to funnel a beer. Farrell's answer is "can't promised my wife I wouldn't drink ... we have a nice Saturday planned ... going to Home-depot" he starts to leave but then turns around and says (with a grin) "OK, just 1". A second later the funnel is empty. Farrell jumps up with a huge smile "IT TASTES SOOO GOOD, IT TASTES SOO GOOD WHEN IT HITS YOUR LIPS, AGAIN AGAIN" (jumping up and down like a little girl) (theater is now crying with laughter). Next thing you know...
[SPOILERS DELETED BECAUSE I JUST COULDN’T LET SOMEONE RUIN THE MOMENT FOR YOU – “M”]
I can't say if everyone is going to like it, but as for myself and my friends (and from the sounds of 200 people) if this was released now, it would be considered the funniest movie of the year ... hands down.
Thanks, both of you. I appreciate you taking the time to write, and I can’t wait to see this film again m’self!!
"Moriarty" out.
