Review Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003

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"You think I like avoiding my wife and kids to hang out with 19-year old girls?" ­ Beanie (Vince Vaughn) CASS' CLIP (WARNING: **spoilers below**) Mitch (Luke Wilson), Frank (Will Ferrell) and Beanie (Vince Vaughn) are old college buddies suffering from the Peter Pan complex. Does growing up necessarily mean life is over for these three middle-aged guys? Well, that’s the premise behind Old School. Mitch Martin returns home early from a business conference and hears moaning noises coming from his bedroom. When he walks in, he sees his live-in girlfriend, Heidi (Juliette Lewis), not only watching porn but also hosting an orgy party. Problem is, Mitch wasn’t invited and now he has to move out. And just as Mitch’s relationship ends, his college buddy, Frank (Will Ferrell), temporarily ties the knot. Beanie (Vince Vaughn), on the other hand, is married and the father of two children, and the owner of an electronics company. After Mitch rents a house near Harrison University, Beanie seizes the opportunity to revisit the carefree days of college life and throws Mitch a fraternity-style bash, featuring Snoop Dogg. Of course, the local college students show up, and a night of free-flowing alcohol, sexy co-eds and K-Y jelly wrestling matches get out of control. Now Mitch’s house is the campus party spot. Since Mitch, Frank and Beanie aren’t college students and their new party haven violates the university’s zoning ordinance, Dean Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) takes great pleasure in evicting the threesome. What follows is a series of somewhat hilarious and not-so funny high jinks, pitting these fun-loving adolescent men against the revengeful dean. DA 411 What Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell bring to Old School is fun, in a mindless, acting kinda way. The women in this movie -- Leah Remini, Elisha Cuthbert, and Ellen Pompeo -- are just throw away characters. There was nothing profoundly funny about this movie, but after sitting through 4-hours of Gods and Generals, I overlooked alllll the "Animal House"-type stupid pranks and sat back and laughed at most of the predictable punchlines. CASS' CONCLUSION It’s obvious that Todd Phillips meant for Old School to be a slapstick and sophomoric movie. Well, I hope that was his intent. OLD SCHOOOL: back to top Copyright Cassandra Henry, 2003 EMAIL: cass@3blackchicks.com