Adam and Eve

I loved National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Animal House so I thought "Oh, this must be an awesome movie!!" When me and my friend started it, we thought the beginning must be a lead in and the plot would start taking off soon. Unfortunately, this bullshit made up the entire movie. The acting in this movie was horrible-the guy couldn't act to save his life and is using his father's name to actually get parts in Hollywood. The girl's performance was okay, but she has basically screwed over her entire reputation because she chose to be in this movie. If you know what's right for you and don't want to waste $5 at Blockbusters, never ever rent and watch this movie.

No one expects a movie with National Lampoon in the title to be high theater, but most National Lampoon movies are funny in a low brow way. "Adam and Eve" couldn't cut the mustard. Emmanuelle Chriqui is GORGEOUS, but that alone couldn't save the movie. The love story is sweet, and the chaste Eve is treated in a respectful way, but the script wasn't funny, the supporting characters were not funny. George Dzundza, who I remember fondly from his Law and Order days, was wasted in this film. The male lead seemed too stoned and apathetic to care about anyone. Thank God this movie was on Starz and I didn't have to pay for a ticket.

When I think of National Lampoon I think of school-boy jokes, smut, innuendo, gross-out scenes and heaps of gratuitous flesh, beer and stupidity. It's the kind of thing I found outrageously funny at 13 (and still do 40 years later). There is scarcely any need for acting because the "actors" are playing themselves. But Adam and Eve is not like that. It has a plot, it has some character development, it even has some real acting in it. I enjoyed the basic premise of the story even if it has been done a hundred times before. It's an old theme, and it can do with re-examining on a regular basis as society changes (or doesn't). It had a few (relatively tame) gross-out scenes and some funnyish scenes but mostly it had what no National Lampoon should ever have: subtlety. Not great cinema, but a bit of good fun.

I admit when it comes to watching straight to video National Lampoon movies nowadays, it's expected to be something zany for the average couch stoner to watch on a Saturday when there's nothing else to do. This was advertised as a "Hilarious comedy in the spirit of Animal House and Van Wilder", and anyone who has seen Adam & Eve knows that we've been duped. Duped to no end. There were no laugh out loud moments of hilarity. The editing was horrid, the dialogue was horrid, and the music montages were too often. We get it, she's a virgin and needs to ponder if she's ready, while thinking back to the moments she felt secure with him... But did they need 8 separate montages throughout the movie to say it? That part killed me worse than the fact that this "abstinance love story" was nothing more than a way for someone to tag the National Lampoon name to a bad flick that most likely needed to recoup as much of it's low budget as possible. I guarantee there will be a lot of horndogs hoping for boobies and hi-jinx to grab it from the shelves, only to be disappointed when nothing funny or exciting happens well into the film. I sat through it, cringing and bored, hoping for a possible "hilarious" catchphrase to use one day. All I got was lethargic, disappointed, and an ending to a movie that sucked as bad as the main character's blue balls.

If you check the other comments, you'll hear about this being a great romantic comedy. It's not. As a romantic comedy, it barely passes muster. The laughs are few and far between, the plot is completely formulaic, and the only thing "National Lampoon" about this film is the title. Douglas is wooden as Adam, although Chriqui is very convincing as Eve. The frat-house shenanigans are tame beyond belief when compared to other Lampoon college movies, and the girl waiting for the perfect time to toss in her V-card is an old theme that isn't freshened in any way by this film. After great National Lampoon titles like "Van Wilder", "Animal House", and the "Vacation" movies, this one feels like the first attempt of someone straight out of film school.