Old School
Directed by Todd Phillips
Written by Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong
Starring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn

 

Old School

"Old School" is a film that asks the difficult question: How much raunch is too much? Is thirtyish Will Ferrell shotgunning beer and then streaking naked through a party and down a street until he happens to run alongside the car his wife is driving too much? Is coed open-pit K-Y Jelly wrestling between an 80-year-old man and two naked young women which ends with his fatal heart attack too much? Is Luke Wilson coming home early from a conference to find his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis in a great cameo) in bed watching porn and awaiting the blindfolded group she's invited to the orgy to come out of the bathroom too much? Is Ferrell's wife Marissa (Perrey Reeves) getting her friends together for a group lesson from a gay expert in how to give a blow job too much?

Probably, but if you're not too picky about it you just might find your adolescent self having a good time in spite of all your best intentions. The film plows old ground that goes back to the godfather of raunch, "Animal House," which did it all much better than "Old School." And yet the very sweet Luke Wilson, at the center of events here, manages to emerge with wit and integrity intact. The film gives us Wilson and Ferrell and Vince Vaughn as three overage wannabe frat boys who decide to relive their college days by renting a house next to their old campus and throwing it open to all their unscratched itches. Naturally they have an enemy: the old butt of their college jokes who now is the dean (Jeremy Piven). What plot there is revolves around that conflict, but not to worry; it's hardly there.

This is not a good film, but it does have its moments, in most of which you will find yourself saying "Good God! Can it get worse than this?" and yes, of course, it does. And in a strange way it cleanses the palate for better films; it's like the bread crust between wine tastings.