Van Wilder 3: La Première Année de Fac

It is kind of difficult to imagine why this movie came into being, and even more so to pretend that it is supposed to be a prequel to the original 2002 "Van Wilder" movie.

It is one of those types of movies where you just know that it is not going to be a grand experience, but you still sit down to watch it, hoping that there might be just a speck of entertainment to be had here.

"Van Wilder: Freshman Years" turned out to be a less than mediocre movie, and not an overly entertaining one either. And I will actually go as far as to say that you should definitely not view this as a prequel to the 2002 movie. Instead, view it as a stand-alone movie that has no ties to the 2002 movie.

This movie relies on cheap laughs, which are brought about mostly by humor well below the belt. But many times this humor just doesn't really come through properly. So it seems that it is the result of some half-hearted script writing.

The storyline in "Van Wilder: Freshman Years" is just not a very interesting or original one. It is all something that essentially has been seen before in similar late teen comedies. So don't count on originality being the key ingredient in this movie.

For a comedy of this type, then "Van Wilder: Freshman Years" was less than mediocre. And once you have seen it the first time, chances that you will return to watch it a second time are slim to none.

I loved Ryan Reynold's Van Wilder and I also liked Van Wilder 2: Rise Of Taj as Kal Penn is one of the funniest actors out there. My friend gave this to me to watch as he found it to be very funny and he knew that I liked the first two movies. But Van Wilder 3 is just a cheap spin-off of the franchise to make more money by using the name of Van Wilder. Standing on its own, this wouldn't even have made as much money as it did on the name of the franchise.

This film is a prequel of the first movie and starts by introducing Van Wilder (Jonathan Bennett) when he is in freshman year at Coolidge College. The college is run under the strict Dean Charles Reardon (Kurt Fuller) who is also a military guy. There is not much fun in the college, no parties, no kissing on campus and Van Wilder wants to liberate his college from sexual oppression and party dysfunction. He also meets a girl, Kaitlin Hays (Kristin Cavallari) who is very sexy, beautiful and she wants to be in the military! But he is head over heels in love with her, though she already has a boyfriend who is the dean's pet and training for the military. So, begins Van Wilder's journey into the as yet, unknown (for him) Coolidge College.

The first thing that hits you right in the face is Jonathan Bennett's immense effort to look and act like Ryan Reynolds (one of my favourite actors). Because, lets face it, he probably isn't that good an actor by himself. Also Kristin Cavallari is insanely sexy and hot. Instead of every other girl being naked, she should have been naked. It would have worked just fine for me. Kurt Fuller is a guy I have seen in so many movies and TV shows, but I never knew the guy's name. He is a pretty good actor, just doesn't work for this movie. But, I loved his portrayal of Zacharaiah in 'Supernatural'. The plot is the same as in many other college movies of this kind and the first Van Wilder movie also. I have no problem with that, but in that movie Van Wilder is actually a compassionate human being, rather than an all out party and sex animal. Here we have his two friends, one a pot-head Jamaican and the other is a Chinese named, Yu Dumb Fok (Ha ha! so funny, not). There is also his dog, Collosus's origin story here! There were some pretty hilarious moments though; the dildos beneath the bench at church was awesome, the dog sucking the Dean was funny too. Other than that, this was just another excuse to get girls naked and a cheap rip-off the Van Wilder franchise.

4/10

Van Wilder arrives at college after a vacation trip to Amsterdam. The surprise is that Coolidge University is no longer the sexual paradise of his father's time, but has been transformed into a military-style institution by Dean Reardon, who has a real hatred for the Wilders.

After a reasonable Party Time 2, which was infinitely superior to the first, we have a drastic fall again. Not very fun, cliché, misogynistic (disgusting situations, and unnecessary even for the time), boring, dispensable... Disgusting situations, worse than scatological, unwatchable and that cause such disgust and nausea, Yuck, definitely unpleasant... The best part is when it ends, and the post-credits come, just as strange, but more fun...

Wanna know a better way to spend an hour and 38 minutes? Beat your head against a wall, you'll get more out of it. Why is there no option for zero stars?

This movie tries to follow the format of the original film. Thus, there are T&A galore, raunchy humor, bizarre characters, and wild parties. Bennett even kind of looks like Ryan Reynolds.

But generally, this flick doesn't do it as good as the original. Some of the jokes are kind of funny, but most are tepid or even complete knockoffs of old jokes I've heard before. While the original used eccentric characters and outlandish situations as springboards for humor, this one just goes deep into Bizzaro World (a college run by its ROTC director, who has posted "No Partying" and "No Kissing" signs, and can involuntarily enroll students in ROTC?).

Bennett decently mimicked Reynolds, but he didn't have the same charisma. Cavallari was charismatic, though, and I liked her as the love interest. Meredith Giangrande was downright sexy as forbidden- fruit Eve.

If you love being grossed out, this film ups the ante from the first one on the disgusting factor, although that's not particularly my thing. I do have to say, however, that the soft-porn aspects of this film are better than the original. There are scenes involving girls with vibrators, and a sex-ed class that illustrates intriguing positions (although with clothes on, but still), which may almost make you forget you're watching a comedy.