Van Wilder: Party Liaison review

Forget Camp X-Ray: surely there can be no crueller place to be incarcerated at a young age than an American educational establishment.

Years of force-feeding the world so-called comedies about high school or campus life should have persuaded any enemy of the state that there are much worse perils than a prison camp on an American enclave in Cuba. Ritual humiliation, public embarrassment and the necessity to 'fit in' are the three keystones to life in these places, and there are enough films released on the subject to provide fodder for several doctorates in film studies. What's more, in a cunning ploy to destabilise global harmony even further, Hollywood continues to export them to an unwilling and unreceptive world. One could only imagine some sneaky form of revenge by making Grange Hill: The Movie and foisting it upon cineplexes across the fifty states.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back to the cinema, along comes Van Wilder: Party Liaison . While not quite the year's worst comedic offering, it's a pretty dire attempt at making us laugh. Produced under the National Lampoon umbrella, it's a far cry from even their glory days (ie anything with Chevy Chase in it).

For a start the premise is unbelievable. Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) loves being in college so much that he actually wants to stay there. Now in his seventh year, he is the king of cool, as his ability to succeed with the ladies and impress the guys shows. But when his father (Tim Matheson) decides to stop Van's tuition payments, his hazily enjoyable life looks doomed. At least until he decides to fund himself by throwing the best parties the campus has ever seen.

All of this is just an excuse for some 'grossout' comedy, an attempt to ape the success of actually funny films such as American Pie. Cue scenes involving a dog with huge testicles, sex with an ageing teacher, mistaking a penis pump for a bong and so on. Oh, and Tara Reid pops up as the glossy girl interest, playing the campus journalist determined to expose Van's tricks.

It all adds up to a very tiresome and more to the point, unfunny affair. You'd be much better off saving yourself the trip and renting National Lampoon's Animal House which would at least show that once upon a time there was some comedic mileage in the series.