Van Wilder - Aka Party Liason (Blu-ray) (2002)

Reel.com 7 of 10
National Lampoon's Van Wilder is idiotic as they come, but it's also a redemption of sorts for the all-but-extinct magazine. That's because it's the first Lampoon-endorsed comedy in two decades that's actually funny. We're not talking rapier-like-wit funny, but crass, lewd, and crude funny. Screenwriters Brent Goldberg and David Wagner borrow freely from the "jiggler giggler" T&A comedies of the early '80s and the Farrelly brothers' excretion-dispersing farces of the '90s. However, other than a few dramatic lulls in the third act, director Walt Becker keeps the tone raunchy and loony enough to keep the laughs coming...Co-star Kal Penn steals the show as Van's assistant, Taj. - Tor Thorsen
 
Los Angeles Times 6 of 10
I guess it all depends on when you turn 24. Once you pass that barrier, sight gags about bodily fluids and sphincter discharges begin to lose their--what is the word?--resonance. Still, the makers of such touchstones of gross-out-low-life-dirt-bag American slapstick as "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) and "Caddyshack" (1980) are pretty good about sending you on your way with enough awful memories and snappy insults to sustain you well past your first career humiliation..."National Lampoon's Van Wilder" fulfills this mandate, but barely. Those 24-and-unders who are looking for their own "Caddyshack" to adopt as a generational signpost may have to keep looking, if only because they've probably become inured to the shock of seeing alcohol-induced vomit flying out of school bus windows. In these reined-in days of safe sex and bottled water, the knockabout excesses of "Animal House" now seem Elizabethan when compared with the uplift of a "Shallow Hal" or the mealy-mouthed sentimentality of "American Pie." Maybe that's why, intermingled with the stench of secreted fluids of various kinds (and from various animals), there's an aura of golden-oldie nostalgia permeating this tale...Roughhouse scatology is piled on like players in a rugby scrimmage. Van's supernaturally endowed bulldog figures prominently in one gag involving eclairs and Bagg's frat house. As someone who's at least 2-times- 24, I preferred the exchange in which Van's henchman Hutch (Teck Holmes) suggests medical attention may be needed to "fix" the dog. To which Van suavely replies, "That's up to him"...Reynolds delivers these and other lines well enough to make you want to see him in something that doesn't require cleaning up afterward. - Gene Seymour
 
Chicago Sun-Times 5 of 10
Watching "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," I grew nostalgic for the lost innocence of a movie like "American Pie," in which human semen found itself in a pie. In "NatLampVW," dog semen is baked in a pastry. Is it only a matter of time until the heroes of teenage grossout comedies are injecting turtle semen directly through their stomach walls? "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," a pale shadow of "National Lampoon's Animal House," tells the story of Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds), who has been the Biggest Man on Campus for seven glorious undergraduate years. He doesn't want to graduate, and why should he, since he has clout, fame, babes and the adulation of the entire campus...Van Wilder is essentially a nice guy, which is a big risk for a movie like this to take; he raises funds for the swimming team, tries to restrain suicidal students and throws legendary keg parties..."On a scale of 1-10 shots of bourbon needed to make a pledge ralph," writes Bob Patterson of the Web site Delusions of Adequacy, "this film will get a very strong five from most college age film fans who are not offended by vulgar humor. Older filmgoers who might be offended by such offerings are encouraged to do something that is physically impossible (i.e., lift yourself up by your bootstraps)." Although this is obviously the review the movie deserves, I confess the rating scale baffles me. Is it better or worse if a film makes you ralph? Patterson implies that older filmgoers might be offended by vulgar humor. There is a flaw in this reasoning: It is not age but humor that is the variable...Laughter for me was such a physical impossibility during "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" that had I not been pledged to sit through the film, I would have lifted myself up by my bootstraps and fled. - Roger Ebert