College
COLLEGE (2008)
Starring Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell, Kevin Covais, Haley Bennett, Katie Knighten, Nick Zano, Ryan Pinkston, Camille Mana, Nathalie Walker, Melissa Lingafelt, Gary Owen, Wallace Merck, Alona Tal and Verne Troyer.
Screenplay by Dan Callahan and Adam Ellison.
Directed by Deb Hagan.
Distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 94 minutes. Rated R.
The makers of College obviously want to remind people of the smart-but-naughty laughs of Superbad, but instead their film seems more like American Pie Presents Beta House somehow got a theatrical release.
College is an hour and a half of puking, feces, barnyard animals, binge drinking, hazing, oral sex, overflowing toilets, drugs and tits.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I personally have no problem with College taking the low road to higher learning. Variations of a lot of this stuff really happen, so why not explore it on film? I just wish that College could have lived up to the material.
Imagine taking all of the best parts of the college experience and then doing so little with them.
The movie takes the three types from Superbad – the cute-but-sensitive virgin (Drake Bell from Nick’s Drake and Josh), the fat party animal (Andrew Caldwell) and the four-eyed nerd (Kevin Covais – “Chicken Little” from season five of American Idol) – and has them visit a college.
Add in hot college girls who are stunningly tolerant of these jerky kids, a bunch of frat assholes, enough beer to fill a river, dumb pranks, mud & feces and lots of gratuitous nudity and you have a movie which is not so much titillating as it is kind of depressing.
Oh, yeah, there is also a completely mystifying cameo appearance by Verne Troyer. And Verne thought the sex tape was the worst thing that happened to him this year…? Think again, Mini-Me.
There is a long history of teen sex comedies and many can be very good, but College doesn’t bother with things like characterization and plot. It’s just looking for the gross-outs.
Well, that’s not 100% true. Marooned in all the filth is actress Haley Bennett (Music and Lyrics) who actually is able to create a nuanced, sympathetic character as the nice, beautiful girl who befriends the cute nerd. Their tentative love story seems completely tacked on and out of place here, but at the same time it is the only real genuine human emotion allowed on screen in College.
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©2009 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: January 28, 2009.
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