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National Lampoon's Van Wilder AKA Van Wilder: Party Liaison AKA Van Wilder
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak/Stevie McCleary (29th August 2007). |
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The Film
 It's hard to imagine there was once a time where Tara Reid didn't look like a science project gone awry. And yet here she is all non-silicone and with a stomach that doesn't have the appearance of being stapled together paper mache. Oh, and Ryan Reynolds is here too. Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is a 'party liaison' and helps groups hold really good parties. He's also managed to stay at University for seven years. And now his family has cut off his financial support. Meanwhile, fellow student Gwen (Tara Reid) is a Journalism major and she is forced to take up the ultimate challenge: get an interview with Van Wilder, Party Liaison. When Van refuses (because he's too busy planning parties to pay his tuition and too busy hitting on her) she writes an unflattering piece on him. Van tries to show Gwen a better side of him while trying to fight off her jealous boyfriend, Richard Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove) and along the way deals with his fears of graduating. This is an attempt to recreate the zany "National Lampoon" comedies of yesteryear...to varying degrees of success. It's a little bit of everything, and hence will cause you to probably laugh as many times as you consider throwing up. Ryan Reynolds is in good form, creating humor from where others may have a tendency to only illicit groans. This is much the same in everything Reynolds does though...and, in turn, he essentially does play the same character in every film he's in. This pretty much means you're either a fan of his or not. If you are a fan then you may find this film pretty much in the same league as "Just Friends" (2005) and "Waiting..." (2005), he's likeable without crossing over to smarmy. Tara Reid does her job well enough, assuming the role of an actress for once. That makes a nice change from her normal profession as a ditzy train wreck, ala "Wild On: Taradise" (2005). To be fair, she used to be one of those 'to watch' girls. Now, we watch her...but usually only to see what'll fall out of her dress next. Bit of a shame that one. The role of Reynold's assistant Taj Mahal Badalandabad is played by Kal Penn in one of his earlier roles that started getting him noticed in Hollywood. And yet somehow, after success with "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle" (2004) and a minor role in "Superman Returns" (2006), we were still put through the bitter torture of "Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj" (2006). 'Up, up and away', young Penn...not 'dive headfirst into the gutter'. A role which is quite entertaining in this movie is given the unnecessary sequel treatment and a dismal migraine is the result. Supporting characters in comedies rarely make a good transition to being the main focus, despite the talent involved. Cough-"Evan Almighty"-cough. Still, here Penn is actually one of the brighter parts, playing the Indian virgin cliché for more laughs than it probably deserves. While the film does degenerate to some pretty disgusting attempts at comedy, it uses the familiar 'teen romance' template as the basis of the story. Because of this the film has a mostly light-hearted feeling to it. All except that part with the bulldog. A million dollars to never have to watch that again... Still, I couldn't look away the first time, which puts this particular gross out gag into the 'hit' column rather than the 'miss'. "Van Wilder" might actually achieve semi-cult status one day amongst some groups (not any groups with a weak stomach or a low tolerance for sophomoric humor however). But it does possess some truly funny moments and is a lot better than many comedies made by its peers, especially in recent years. Give it a shot if you think you're in the mood, or are feeling a little quirky.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 this high-definition transfer is presented in full 1080p at 24/fps and has been encoded using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The standard DVD release wasn't the best presentation, the overall image was flat, soft and noisy with both grain and compression problems. This Blu-ray disc offers only a mild improvement. The image is still quite grainy, although compression artefacts aren't noticeable on this release. The image is occasionally soft and only detail and colors are slightly (only slightly!) improved. The film was shot on a very small budget so that holds it back but it was shot on film so a good transfer can be struck if the distributor started from square one but alas due to the film's limited appeal it was always in doubt that the option to do that was even a possibility. The result is an image that's best summed up as a mixed bag, with a few shots here and there look quite good but overall it's not the best.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in English uncompressed PCM 7.1 transferred at 6.1 Mbps as well as an English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX encoded track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its PCM track. Although the image is a let down the audio certainly is not. While being a comedy and with focus on dialogue a lot does happen in this film and audio elements such as music, ambient sounds and also sound effects all come out exceptionally well. The dialogue is crisp and clear without any distortion. The overall surround activity felt natural and well mixed within the sound space making for a rather solid audio mix. Optional subtitles are also included in both English and Spanish.
Extras
Lionsgate has included an audio commentary, a series of three featurettes, some interactive features, a music video, some deleted scenes, outtakes, TV specials, credits and a bonus trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have a "Drunken Idiot Kommentary" this is a feature-length audio commentary featuring some fans of the film getting drunk and playing a drinking game while watching the film. No members from the cast and crew are present instead we get a bunch of dumb-ass college students get ripped over the course of the film as they make stupid quips and deliver generally annoying words of wisdom hat make them seem like the biggest dicks on the planet, luckily for those involved they don't introduce themselves by name. It's certainly aimed at the college student demographic but even college kids should be wise enough to know that there is little value in this track to begin with and switch it off within a few minutes as it fails on almost every level including trying to be funny. I would have much preferred a cast and crew commentary instead of this garbage. The first featurette is entitled "Party Legends, Pledges and "Bull-ies" which runs for 15 minutes 56 seconds. This is the standard EPK clip that runs through all the basics from getting the film made to casting and shooting as the cast and crew tell us why this is such a fun flick to check out in the tradition of R-rated comedies like "Animal House" (1978). The second featurette is "Ultimate College Party Guide" which runs for 5 minutes and is an instructional clip on how to put on a great party, basically imparting the wisdom of Van onto the viewer. The third featurette is "Gwen-ezuma's Revenge" which runs for 7 minutes 36 seconds, this takes a closer look at the diarrhea dump that the character Richard takes in a garbage bin. We get a look at the shooting, sound design and overall impact of the silly scene in question. "Testicles of the Animal Kingdom" is a rather lame interactive quizzical, the game offers up a picture of an animal's testicles and four options to guess what animal they belong to. "Write That Down" follows and this is 11 pages of text quotes from and inspired by the film, the quotes are written on the walls and toilet of a public bathroom stall. "Van Wilder Blu-Book Exam" is an interactive game exclusive to this Blu-ray disc and basically offers up a series of questions relating to Van Wilder. You'll tire of this in seconds... A music video entitled "Bouncing Off The Walls" is next performed by the band Sugarcult and runs for 2 minutes 26 seconds, this is a fairly straight-forward rock clip that features scenes from the film. A collection of 8 deleted scenes follows, these scenes can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' function and are: - "Campus Legend" runs for 1 minute 21 seconds, a campus tour talks about the legend of Van Wilder. - "Little Sword" runs for 43 seconds, Van tries to impress Gwen by speaking in Japanese. - "Write That Down" runs for 22 seconds, Van urges the masses to join a club. - "Half Mast" runs for 1 minute 44 seconds, Van gives Taj a rundown of the guests at the pajama party. - "Shattered Stigma" runs for 15 seconds, Gwen has a go at Van about shattering his stigma on campus. - "Last Final" runs for 1 minute 2 seconds, Taj tells Van to get some sleep before his final exam. - "Frat Attack" runs for 1 minute 16 seconds, the frat boys attack Van but the starting 5 basketball team come to his aid. - "Campus Dreams" runs for 1 minute 29 seconds, Van dreams about being a 90-year-old college student. - "Topless Tutors" runs for 43 seconds, topless tutor for a gay couple. A series of 12 outtakes is next and can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' function, these clips feature alternate takes on dialogue, adlibbed lines, missed cues, the cast laughing in-takes and a few other oddities of b-roll footage. The clips included are: - "Fountain Banter which runs for 30 seconds. - "Goofball Sex" which runs for 17 seconds. - "Broke Down" which runs for 11 seconds. - "Oral Measurements" which runs for 1 minute 17 seconds. - "Back Side" which runs for 1 minute 17 seconds. - "Painful Potty" which runs for 4 minutes 46 seconds. - "Bad Japanese" which runs for 38 seconds. - "Big Assistant" which runs for 56 seconds. - "Twisted Tryouts" which runs for 1 minute 30 seconds. - "Costume Losers" which runs for 14 seconds. - "Flubber Hood and Man's Best Friend" which runs for 21 seconds. - "Little Too Cozy" which runs for 11 seconds. The disc also features 3 Burly TV specials, these can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' function and include: - "Half Baked" which is a cooking show featuring guest appearances by both Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid and runs for 12 minutes 40 seconds. - "Imposter" is a hidden camera show that features cast from the film getting in on the action and runs for 16 minutes 52 seconds. - "Movie Junky" the final clip is a show about upcoming movies and is dedicated to this film and features interviews of the cast and crew and runs for 14 minutes 24 seconds. Next up is Comedy Central's Reel Comedy: "National Lampoon's Van Wilder", another TV special which runs for 21 minutes 8 seconds, this clip is presented as an expose piece on the film's main character, Van Wilder as fellow college mates, campus staff and family comment on the campus legend. Also on the disc is a single page of information with credits for those that contributed to the production of this disc. Rounding out the film's extras is a bonus trailer for: - "Employee of the Month" which runs for 2 minutes 20 seconds.
Overall
This film has been reviewed by Stevie McCleary he DVD specifications and extras have been reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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