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Van Wilder - Freshman Year is directed by Harvey Glazer.
The film stars Linden Ashby (Mortal Kombat), Kurt Fuller,
Jonathan Bennett, Steve Talley, and Kristin Cavallari. ***
Though the third film in the Van Wilder series, this
is actually a prequel to the first film. Van Wilder has
just started going to school, and he's ready to get down
and party hard. But it's a dull place thanks to an overzealous
dean and girls who have voted to keep their purity. It's
up to Van Wilder to save the school from this lame state
of being the only way he knows how. ***
If you've seen the other two Van Wilder movies, you'll
know what to expect from Freshman Year - it's all raunch
and no substance. If you like your movies deep, meaningful,
and engrossing, look elsewhere. On the other hand, if you're
just looking for some laughs, this movie has plenty of them
to go around. ***
This isn't a great film, and it certainly isn't going
to dethrone Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds for the
coveted title of “Best College Movie.” But it is what it
is, and it pulls it off well. The jokes are hit and miss,
but most of them stick, and if you're into straight-up comedies,
you're going to be laughing until it hurts. You can file
this movie under “guilty pleasures.” Normally I don't go
for this “all laughs and no heart” stuff, but Freshman Year
had this reviewer laughing himself silly on more than a
few occasions. ---
Image And Sound:
About what you'd expect from a direct-to-video film
in this day and age. It's a very clean transfer, and there
aren't any major negative elements in the picture to speak
of. The image can be a little soft and lacking detail at
times, but as a whole it looks and sounds fine. As a dialogue-intensive
film, it's a bit front-heavy in the sound department, but
then again, it was never the kind of movie that was meant
to rock your speakers anyway.
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| Special
Features: |
In addition to a commentary track and some laugh-out-loud
funny bloopers, the disc features a ton of featurettes,
which chronicle numerous elements of what went on during
the making of this film. None of this stuff is really “must
see” material, but fans will want to check it out.
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