- National Lampoon's Van Wilder
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National Lampoon's Van Wilder 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Walt Becker Produced by Peter Abrams
Robert L. LevyWritten by Brent Goldberg
David T. WagnerBased on Bert Kreischer Starring Ryan Reynolds
Tara Reid
Kal Penn
Tim MathesonMusic by David Lawrence Cinematography James Bagdonas Editing by Dennis M. Hill Studio Myriad Pictures
Tapestry FilmsDistributed by Lions Gate Films (Theatrical)
Artisan Entertainment (DVD)Release date(s) April 5, 2002 Running time 92 minutes
94 minutes (Unrated cut)Country Germany
United StatesLanguage English Budget $5 million[1] Box office $38,275,483[1] National Lampoon's Van Wilder is a 2002 comedy film directed by Walt Becker that stars Ryan Reynolds as the main character. The film also stars Kal Penn, Tara Reid, and Daniel Cosgrove. It features Sophia Bush's acting debut.[2] The movie is based on Bert Kreischer.[3]
Contents
Plot
Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is an outgoing, friendly, and extremely popular student who has been at Coolidge College for seven years. For the past six semesters, he has made no effort to graduate, instead spending his time organizing parties and fundraisers, doing charity work, helping other students, and posing for figure drawing classes. But after seven years, with no return on his investment, Van's father (Tim Matheson) decides it is time to cut his losses and stops paying Van's tuition.
Meanwhile, Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid), a star reporter for the student newspaper, is asked to do an article on Van. It proves to be so popular that she is asked to write a follow-up article for the front page of the graduation issue. Although that would be a big win, she is rather put off when Van interprets her attempts to schedule interviews as romantic advances—when she already has a boyfriend, Richard Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove), who happens to be the president of the student union and the leader of a fraternity. He takes personal offense at Van's attempts to steal his girlfriend, and becomes very stressed out at having to deal with this burden on top of preparing for medical school and leading the Delta Iota Kappa (DIK) fraternity. Subsequently, a rivalry develops between the two men.
The rivalry grows as they perform increasingly disgusting pranks on each other. For instance, one scene involves Richard inviting Van over to a dinner with him and Gwen's family to prove a point about Van's lackadaisical attitude towards life (in which Gwen's parents are only pleased by Van's easygoing attitude, and Gwen, increasingly turned off by Richard's stress, only feels that Richard's actions were too underhanded.) In one infamous scene, Van and his friends replace the cream inside some pastries with dog semen and send them to Richard's fraternity, where the frat brothers begin eating and don't realize what it really is until it's too late.
At one point, Richard has intercourse with another woman from a sister sorority, which would be the final straw for Gwen later on. Richard also sets up Van at one of his own parties in which there are some (very) underage drinkers and reports it to the police, which leads to Van almost being expelled. However, Van proposes an alternative punishment: that the school force him to complete a semester's worth of work in the six days remaining, and then graduate. The committee agrees to this by a three-to-two decision.
Gwen is impressed that Van is taking the initiative to get his life together. She then learns of Richard's setting up of Van, as well as his infidelity, and decides to take retribution. On the morning of Richard's medical school entrance exam and interview with Northwestern Medical School, Gwen laces his ritualistic protein shake with a powerful laxative. Since there are no bathroom breaks allowed during the test, Richard rushes through the 2-hour exam in 20 minutes, "dialing down the middle" towards the end and disgusting the other test-takers with constant flatulence. Afterwards, just as he reaches the bathroom, he unexpectedly runs into the medical school interview committee. They pull him aside into an office to begin the interview and Richard ends up shitting explosively into a trash can right in front of them. He is briefly seen again in the film, reading Gwen's article in the school paper in the bathroom (presumably, his medical school dreams are ruined, as he mentions to Van in a deleted scene). Meanwhile, Van does well on his finals and celebrates his graduation with Gwen.
A subplot depicts the saga of Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn), an Indian foreign exchange student who is accepted (out of many "talented" applicants) to be Van's personal assistant. The main reason for his application for this position, Taj explains, is he wants to have sex with an American girl before he goes home. He meets a girl named Naomi (Ivana Bozilovic), and Van pushes Taj to go for her ("Naomi- that's 'I moan' backwards," Van explains) but Taj accidentally sets himself on fire with massage oil. At the end of the film, Taj meets another Indian girl, and it seems like they are going to hit it off.
Cast
Van and Gwen in Van's golf cart. An example of the film's humor - Van makes a joke and then looks directly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall.
- Ryan Reynolds as Vance "Van" Wilder, Jr.
- Tara Reid as Gwendolyn "Gwen" Elizabeth Pearson
- Kal Penn as Taj Mahal Badalandabad
- Tim Matheson as Vance Wilder, Sr.
- Paul Gleason as Professor McDougal
- Daniel Cosgrove as Richard "Dick" Bagg
- Teck Holmes as Hutch
- Emily Rutherfurd as Jeannie
- Deon Richmond as "Mini Cochran"
- Alex Burns as Gordon
- Chris Owen as Timmy
- Ivana Bozilovic as Naomi
- Sophia Bush as Sally
- Simon Helberg as Vernon
- Quentin Richardson as Q
- Michael Olowokandi as Leron
- Darius Miles as Darius
- Erik Estrada as Himself
- Edie McClurg as Campus Tour Guide
- Michael Waltman as Coach Ken Massey
- Aaron Paul as Wasted Guy
- Tom Everett Scott (uncredited) as Elliot Grebb
- Walt Becker (uncredited) as Fireman
Production
Location
The movie was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, much of it at UCLA, except for the basketball scenes, which were filmed in and around the Matadome at Cal State Northridge.
During the trial scene, the outside view is of Sather Tower and California Hall at the University of California, Berkeley.
The pool scene is filmed at the Belmont Olympic Plaza in Long Beach, CA.
Music
Featured in the film are songs by The Living End, Jimmy Eat World, Sum 41, Abandoned Pools, Sugarcult, N.E.R.D., American Hi-Fi, Zero 7's Sia Furler, and Swirl 360. Some artists with songs omitted from the soundtrack included Atomic Kitten, Sprung Monkey, Bird 3, Spymob, Mint Royale, and Tahiti 80.
Artemis Records released the official soundtrack, though the track listing does not exactly match the lineup heard in the film; it omits the Sugarbomb song, "Hello".
Release
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 18% based on 87 reviews.
The critics describe the movie as being "A derivative gross-out comedy that's short on laughs"
Box office
- Budget - $5 million[1]
- Marketing cost - $15 million
- Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $7,302,913
- Total Domestic Grosses - $21,305,259
- Total Overseas Grosses - $16,970,224
- Total Worldwide Grosses - $38,275,483[1]
Home media
Van Wilder was released by Artisan Entertainment on VHS and DVD on August 20, 2002. The DVD was presented in rated and unrated editions, both editions containing a cropped full-frame transfer, and a widescreen version in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The two-disc set also contained interactive topless menus featuring model Ivana Bozilovic, who is "Naomi" in the film. With each new menu, she would take her shirt off and put another shirt on with different options on it. Bonuses included deleted scenes, outtakes, three Burly Bear TV specials, a Comedy Central: Reel Comedy TV special, "Bouncing Off The Walls" music video performed by Sugarcult, trailers and other promotional material like television ads and poster art.
On November 28, 2006, in a way of promoting the sequel to Van Wilder, The Rise of Taj, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a 2-disc special edition DVD with new bonus features including a "Drunken Idiot Kommentary" (featuring three young men who are not actually involved in the film), behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and crew. The re-release did not include the topless menus from the previous set.
The film was also released on Blu-ray on August 21, 2007 which had almost the same features as the 2-disc special edititon DVD. Also included (and exclusive to the Blu-ray edition) is the "Blu-Book Exam", an interactive game that focuses on Van Wilder trivia questions, plus a series of "Blu-line" options including a pop-up film-progression menu that allows you to set bookmarks and skip around the feature film.
Legacy
Sequel
See also: National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj and National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Freshman YearA sequel, National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, followed this, centering on the character of Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn); the film was released theatrically in 2006.
Prequel
A direct-to-DVD prequel to this film was also released in 2009, entitled Freshman Year; the film follows Van (Jonathan Bennett) as he deals with his freshman year of college.
References
External links
- National Lampoon's Van Wilder at the Internet Movie Database
- National Lampoon's Van Wilder at AllRovi
- National Lampoon's Van Wilder at Box Office Mojo
- Van Wilder soundtrack Questions, answers and other music information.
Films directed by Walt Becker National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) · Buying the Cow (2002) · Wild Hogs (2007) · Old Dogs (2009)
Categories:- 2002 films
- German films
- American films
- English-language films
- National Lampoon films
- 2000s comedy films
- American coming-of-age films
- American sex comedy films
- American teen comedy films
- Directorial debut films
- Films about fraternities and sororities
- Disco films
- Artisan Entertainment films
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