R, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By: Deb Hagen. Release Date:
Aug 21, 2008. DVD Release
Date: Jan 27, 2009.
****REPOSTED FROM THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH NEW EDITS
AND COMMENTS****
I enjoyed this movie in the theaters
(as a matinee), but I have mixed feelings about it. The parts I enjoyed, I
really enjoyed. The parts I didn't like, I really didn't like. But, the overall
impression I had of the movie was positive, so I went ahead and bought it.
For those folks who want to
reminisce about their college (and fraternity/sorority) days, this might be
somewhat of a walk down memory lane. Some of what I saw here was applicable to
my own college days, with the exception of farm animals, blow up dolls, and a
homosexual slant to nearly everything in the sake of making the story “funnier;”
all were reminiscent of those days. However, it kind of worked. Most of the
antics, while ludicrous, were pretty funny in that way that makes you
embarrassed that you laughed. The movie
also highlights the psychological changes that most of us undergo as we
transition from high school to college, and does a moderate job of retelling
the college/coming of age story.
The one weakness I found in the
story line was unfortunately, the major premise. The interaction between these
frat guys and the potential Freshmen of this college was unrealistic. Pledges
are the lifeblood of any social Greek organization, and even if they'd decided
they would not be attempting to pledge these three Freshman (and one of them was
a semi-Legacy, so he likely would have been given a bid regardless), they would
have been polite... that kind of polite that indicates to the person on the
receiving end that whatever potential for interaction had been in play was now
over. They would have been polite because you never know who these guys were
friends with, and I've seen more than one house lose pledges because of how
they treated those pledges' friends.
But, you watch this kind of movie
for the same reason you watch Animal House. For the antics. And College
had antics to spare, although they were more or less mean spirited and lacked
the sense of fun the frathouse classic had. Whether realistic or not, there was
some stuff there to find funny.
