Van Wilder

Plot

Vance “Van” Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is a confident and cheeky-chappy seventh year senior at Coolidge College. With no ambition to graduate, Van spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, organizing soirees for his peers and interviewing for a new assistant, whom he eventually finds in the sexually repressed Taj Badalandabad (Kal Penn).

Upon learning that his son is still in school, Van’s father (Tim Matheson) decides to sever Van’s financial support. Faced with disenrollment due to unpaid tuition, Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar. After having sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place.

Gwen Pearson, though talented with her journalism for the school paper, they do not generate interest from the student body. Her editor assigns her to get an “unattainable” human interest story on Van Wilder. After a couple of attempts to get money fast, Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity, offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party and boost their popularity.

Overhearing two of the Lambdas expressing their excitement over the party’s success and their satisfaction with Van’s work, Gwen writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Though Van hates the article at first, he realizes it can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school. Van eventually agrees to sit down with Gwen for the follow-up piece.

Gwen’s boyfriend, Richard “Dick” Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove), is a pre-medical student and the president of his fraternity Delta Iota Kappa. As he learns of Gwen’s work with Van and suspects a growing bond between them, he moves to sabotage their prospective romance. Van and Richard exchange escalating pranks until it culminates in Van, Taj and Van’s roommate Hutch (Teck Holmes) replacing the cream filling of a batch of pastries with canine semen taken from Van’s English Bulldog Colossus.

Gwen accesses Van’s records from the Admissions & Records office while doing background work on her piece; learning that Van has actively avoided graduating for the past seven semesters. Angry that Gwen dug into such personal details, Van disassociates himself with Gwen and takes a contemplative look at his life.

Richard arranges to sabotage Van's latest party with Jeannie (Emily Rutherfurd), a member of a sister sorority by smuggling underaged children into the party and get them drunk, then call a campus police officer to the scene. As a result, Van is arrested for selling alcohol to minors and faces expulsion from Coolidge. The student body pools its resources to defend Van against the charges before a university panel featuring, among others, Van’s collegiate adversary Professor McDougal (Paul Gleason), Deloris and Richard.

While the law club invests time coaching Van to plead innocent to the charges, the rest of the student body works to generate support for Van. Having learnt from his past mistakes and what Gwen has shown him, Van goes off book during the hearing and takes responsibility for the kids at the party. He throws himself at the mercy of the court and asks that rather than expelling him they force him to graduate since he is only 18 units shy of his degree. With Professor McDougal as the swing vote, he surprises everyone by casting the 3-2 vote in favor of Van’s reinstatement, and Van studies for the quickly-approaching finals.

In retaliation for Richard's underhandedness, Gwen spikes Richard’s ritual protein shake with a powerful laxative just prior to him taking the MCAT. Unable to hold out, Richard “dials down the middle” of most his multiple-choice exam sheet and hurriedly exits the exam room. As he rushes to find a bathroom, he is intercepted by one of the doctors from the group meant to interview him for admission to Northwestern Medical School. Unable to hold himself any longer, Richard strips off his pants and has violent diarrhea in the waste basket in the room, to the revulsion and horror of the doctors present.

Van utilizes the entire exam period for his last final with Professor McDougal, finishing with a negative attitude. McDougal himself delivers the news to Van, who informs him that he passed. McDougal notes that he had been so hard on him all those years because he believed Van wasn't living up to his potential.

The university celebrates Van’s graduation with a wild party held in Van’s honor. Van’s father appears, admitting he was wrong and expressing his pride in Van’s success. Gwen then arrives, lovingly reuniting with Van.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on March 26, 2002. It omits the song "Hello" by Sugarbomb, "Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Stuck in America" by Sugarcult. Other artists with songs omitted from the soundtrack included Atomic Kitten, Michelle Branch, Sprung Monkey, Bird 3, Spymob, Mint Royale, and Tahiti 80.

1. "Roll On" - The Living End (Chris Cheney)
2. "Bleed American" - Jimmy Eat World (Jimmy Eat World)
3. "Hit the Ground" - 6gig (6gig)
4. "Bouncing Off the Walls" - Sugarcult (Sugarcult)
5. "I'm a Fool" - American Hi-Fi (Stacy Jones)
6. "Girl On the Roof" - David Mead
7. "Things Are Getting Better" - N*E*R*D (Chad Hugo, Pharrell)
8. "Okay" - Swirl 360 (Kenny & Denny Scott, Tonio K)
9. "Blind Spot" - Transmatic (Transmatic)
10. "Makes No Difference" - Sum 41 (Sum 41)
11. "At Auntie Tom's" - Fuzz Townshend (Fuzz Townshend, Matt Machin, Roger Charlery)
12. "Little Man (2002 Mix)" - Sia (Sia Furler, Sam Frank)
13. "Start Over" - Abandoned Pools (Tommy Walter, Pete Pagonis)
14. "You Get Me" - Michelle Branch (Michelle Branch)

Box office

Van Wilder opened with $7,302,913, ranking number 6 in the domestic box office. It grossed $21,305,259 domestically with $16,970,224 overseas for a worldwide total of $38,275,483. Based on a $5 million budget, the film was a box office success.

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews from critics, but positive reactions from audiences. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 19% based on 96 reviews, with a 73% audience score. The critics describe the film as being "A derivative gross-out comedy that's short on laughs." Despite the consensus, it has become a cult classic On Metacritic, the film has a 26 out of 100 score based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Home media

Despite being theatrically released from Lions Gate Films, Van Wilder was released via VHS and DVD by Artisan Entertainment on August 20, 2002. The DVD was presented in rated and unrated editions, both editions containing a cropped full-frame transfer, and a widescreen version in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The two-disc set also contained deleted scenes, outtakes, three Burly Bear TV specials, a Comedy Central: Reel Comedy TV special, "Bouncing Off the Walls" music video performed by Sugarcult, trailers, and other promotional material like television ads and poster art.

On November 28, 2006, in a way of promoting the sequel to Van Wilder, The Rise of Taj, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a 2-disc special edition DVD with new bonus features including a "Drunken Idiot Kommentary" (featuring National Lampoon editors Steven Brykman and Mason Brown), behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and crew.

The film was also released on Blu-ray on August 21, 2007 which had almost the same features as the 2-disc special edition DVD. Also included (and exclusive to the Blu-ray edition) is the "Blu-Book Exam", an interactive game that focuses on Van Wilder trivia questions, plus a series of "Blu-line" options including a pop-up film-progression menu that allows you to set bookmarks and skip around the feature film.

Sequel

A sequel, entitled The Rise of Taj, followed this, centering on the character of Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn); the film was released theatrically in 2006.

Prequel

A direct-to-DVD prequel to this film was also released in 2009, entitled Freshman Year; the film follows Van (Jonathan Bennett) as he deals with his freshman year of college.