Old School 

Reviewed by Rich Drees

     There’s the old familiar saying that youth is wasted on the young. It’s that sentiment that lies at the core of the comedy Old School.

     Returning home from a business trip early, Mitch Martin’s life is turned upside down when he finds his live in girlfriend cheating on him. After almost having a public breakdown while giving the toast at his friend (Will Farrell) Frank’s wedding, Mitch (Luke Wilson) moves into a new house located just off-campus from the local university. His married friends (Farrell and Vince Vaughn) see his re-emergence back into single life as a way to vicariously regain some of the glory days from their own bachelorhood and soon pressure Mitch into starting a new fraternity for the school that doesn’t bother with such distractions like schoolwork.

     As usual, where there’s a frat having fun, there needs to be killjoy college Dean out to stop them. In this case, it’s Jeremy Piven who fills out that role in a nice reversal of his part as the head rabble-rouser in the 1994 campus comedy PCU.

     Much like director Todd Phillips’s last film Road Trip, Old School owes much to Animal House. (It helps that Road Trip’s executive producer was Animal House’s producer Ivan Reitman) In fact, this film will probably resonate the most with men in their early 30s (like myself) who grew up in the shadow of John Belushi and the rest of the residents of Delta House. Unfortunately, the film itself never quite escapes that shadow and carves out a territory for itself.

     The plot is skeletal enough to help hold together the various comedic set pieces, but that’s it. There are many scenes, such as the identity of Mitch’s first one-night stand, that seem to serve as set ups for plot lines but instead receive no follow up. Fortunately, the filmmakers didn’t feel the need to push for a lot of the gross-out humor a la the Farrelley Brothers.

     Will Farrell turns in a nice performance as the newly married Frank, whose fears about commitment manifest themselves in his drive to recapture his glory days as “Frank the Tank.” Vince Vaughn’s Beanie seems to be living the worst nightmare of his Swingers’ character- in a position to score with lots of young ladies but can’t because he wants to remain faithful to his wife and family.

     This film is packed with many good comic actors- The King of Queens’s Leah Remini, Rob Coddry of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Matt Walsh of the comedy troupe Upright Citizen’s Brigade and The Howard Stern Show’s Artie Lange- who float through the film, sadly without much to do. Road Trip alum Andy Dick and Seann William Scott also make cameos.

     As far as campus comedies go, Old School delivers some laughs, but is no classic. Still, it's diverting enough that it should turn up on many people’s “guilty pleasures” list.