Charming and brutal

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Van Wilder wants to be the next iconic gross out teen movie. It has all the necessary ingredients, but it takes those ingredients and mixes in a little bodily fluids and serves it to you uncooked on a soggy paper plate.I don't think this movie delivered one worthy laugh. It has jokes, but they're not funny. It has gross out gags, but they're so gross that they're impossible to enjoy. It has a smarmy leading man who hadn't fully realized his charm. It has a comatose leading lady whose best years were already behind her. And it has supporting characters who are so one dimensional you can't be bothered to pay attention to them. The story tells of an undergrad who can't be bothered to grow up and graduate. He'd rather be the big man on campus. A reporter is sent to write a piece on him, and they eventually hit it off. Her pre-med boyfriend has other plans. Hi-jinks ensue. If this sounds familiar, it's because it is. It does nothing story-wise that hasn't been done before and better. It has a lame final act where Van must get his life together and prove his worth to his school, to his girl, and to his dad.Ryan Reynolds is likable, but he's not quite likable enough to make up for everything around him. Tara Reid, who I'm crushing on at the moment due to recently seeing her in Urban Legend, is bad here. She's unable to emote convincingly in her face or voice and she looks much worse for wear than in her late 90s heyday. This discrepancy makes the central romance fall completely flat when it should have been the movie's heart and highlight.

I can't believe I didn't watch this movie sooner. Ryan Reynolds plays the main character, Van Wilder, who is a college student at Coolidge that has been going there for 7 years. His reputation of being an party animal made him ultra popular, known and loved by everyone at school...well almost everyone that is. The stunning Tara Reid, who personally I thought looked the hottest she has ever looked...ever, plays a young journalist who is assigned to write about Van. When her boyfriend, a intelligent frat boy who has his life set for the next 10 years, gets hold of this information he is not happy. He sets out to ruin him. My opinion is this. I loved it, and I have no idea how you can think any bad of it. If your watching this your most likely an adult, so grow some balls like Colossus and get over the gross scenes...they're hilarious! Ryan Reynolds carried this movie, he was spectacular. Taj's character was a great addition and was a good assistant. He had many funny moments that kept me laughing throughout the whole movie! And Tara Reid. I haven't seen any other movies she was in, but God DAMN was she gorgeous. She acted pretty damn well & fit the role really really well. Her intertwined with the story and everything, pretty much portrays my dream girl. She is INCREDIBLY sexy, and for fuck's sake she can play hockey! (In the movie not in real life). And oh man the ending...that last scene...is like a perfect visual of like the perfect situation for a guy. Being a guy like Van struggling the entire movie for that one girl that was just not that easy to get than any other girl. The plot was very original, and the story through the whole movie was great. Excellent movie, a classic and a legend, I give it 10/10. P.S. Watching this movie right before my first year in college is making my imagination run wild man...I'm hyped!

I saw only ten minutes of this movie. It opens with Van Wilder, the main character, giving a speech at the commencement ceremonies. I thought it was for college, because everybody in cap and gown looks to be in their twenties. I was shocked when they made it clear that it was a high school graduation. As the popular class president continues speaking, the next speaker, a female valedictorian, crawls under the podium and proceeds to give Van Wilder oral sex as he delivers his speech. This was very demeaning to women and was extremely vulgar. Then, we see that Van Wilder's father is a tycoon, he gets whatever he wants, and the most gorgeous supermodel-type girls go crazy over him. This doesn't make sense, because the smirky Van Wilder doesn't seem to possess any special looks or charm that would make him desirable to women. At this point, I turned it off and, judging by the other comments; including the doggie/eclair scene, I'm very glad I did.

College student and party enthusiast Van Wilder (Reynolds) is put in his place by an unavailable up and coming reporter (Reid) There have been many attempts at conveying the real life portrayal of school life in cinema over the last 10 years. From the largely successful crude American Pie to the down right tough nut drama Kidulthood there are many versions of how college life is seen. To generalise, most American films centre on the comedy genre when tackling these stories whilst British cinema aims to portray realism, and at the end of the day everything is exaggerated, but is marvellously funny and entertaining nonetheless, and the same goes for this almost American Pie riff.Ryan Reynolds is the main reason to watch as with all his previous roles he brings that contained side of cheekiness to his character and executes his comic timing to perfection with some well spoken phrases and equally amusing physical attributes. Though his comedy isn't on the brilliance of Just friends, he generates a feeling of coolness and gets the laughs that this genre always needs.As these are films about aging students, there are always repetitive ideologies encoded for the preferred reading. So we have sex, parties, losing virginity and "complicated" relationships. If you thought American Pie was crude, wait till this hits your screen. There is one particular moment that is irrevocable. Lets just say a dog and a spatula get a less than pleasant introduction, not to mention Wilder's sacrifice to get a form to carry on learning. It is definitely crude with that sense of physical comedy that we teens apparently love so much.As there is plenty of comedy there is still enough room to match the cheesy conventional plot that follows the rule book practically word for word. Well, to be fair the plot is springy because of the comedy input, but once more in this genre does a guy have to like the one girl he can't have and it's only going to end up one way. If this was tweaked a bit to add some surprise and energy we may have had a different feeling come the credits and feeling rewarded for the film's diversity, but once more we pay money to see the same concept repeated except with some fresh faces.Apart from the weighing down involvement of the conventional romance ideology, this is a very enjoyable picture. The characters, all pretty much stereotypes, bring their own spice to the plot, especially the teacher and Wilder's assistant Taj. We have the geeks, the jocks, the scientists, the swingers and so forth. All familiar and therefore its easy to transfer into entertainment. There is no silly character development and we are left with simply the person on screen with their own agenda.Van Wilder is a simple crude story wrapped with a wonderful central performance by Reynolds. Where this 2001 picture won't give fans the same satisfaction and buoyancy as American Pie or Euro trip, there is enough crude comedy to reward the target youthful audience for their money.