Amazon.com Customer Reviews
We're going steaking!! - Review written on December 08, 2007
Rating: 5 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time.. First of all, it's very well thought out in regards to the relationships between the characters (Mitch and Nicole, Mitch and Darcie, Bernard and Lara). The most overlooked, but important detail is the connection between Mitch (Luke Wilson), Bernard (Vince Vaughn) and Frank (Will Ferrell) and Dean Pritchard (Jeremy Piven). If the four hadn't had a history going back to their school days, Dean Pritchard's relentless fight to end the fraternity would be lost in the mix.
Basically, the story revolves around three men who appear to be lost in their post-college years and decide to form a fraternity in the midst of Mitch's failed marriage and Frank's inevitability to grow into married life.. Living in a campus house and overcoming glitches within the system, the fraternity becomes the most popular group on campus to hang out with despite their unusual and questionable personalities. As the film unravels, the fraternity is forced to face real life challenges that test their friendship, loyalty, teamwork, and heart..
The chemistry between Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson is fantastic and demonstrates the true bonds of friendship.. The casting in this movie was brilliant and made it that much more hilarious. It includes some of the best one-liners you'll hear in the bizz.. It ranks alongside the American Pie films and is a modern day 'Animal House', an absolute must for any college student.
The only problem I have with this movie is its length. Some of the deleted scenes were not only hilarious, but essential to the plot and should've been used in the final cut. However, that's a minor detail in the final outcome.
In addition, if you're a fan of Whitesnake or Kansas, this movie has the music you're looking for.
Grade: A/A+
Old Fool - Review written on October 29, 2007
Rating: 4 out of 5
Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn, this is a buddy film. All the immature fools that hit 30 and pine for those carefree college days, even Old Blue, the 80 year-old pledge, oh, to go back to those nubile young drunken girls and the total lack of any reality based responsibility or meaningful relationship, those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end, etc.
Look, the jokes are college prat, but there's some laugh-out-loud. The Will Ferrell go-nutso scenes especially, the tranquializer dart scene, the nude romp in front of the wife's friends, and the zany hazing scenes are very funny. My special comedy success meter, the wifey laughed out loud as if on happy gas again and again.
A Homage That Doesn't Really Work--2 1/2 Stars - Review written on February 26, 2007
Rating: 3 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 2 did not.
OLD SCHOOL is a comedy that stars Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell. Wilson portrays Mitch Martin, a real estate lawyer who arrives home early from a business training seminar to find his wife about to participate in an orgy. This break off their relationship and Mitch finds himself alone again and moving into a house on the campus of the local university. Meanwhile Frank Richard (Will Ferrell), one of Mitch's best friends, is getting married. The other part of the trio, Bernard "Beanie" Campbell (Vince Vaughn) tries convincing Frank not to get married right up until Frank's bride arrives at the altar. Beanie has a successful business and is married to a very attractive women and has a couple of kids, but he's feeling trapped. The Dean of the University, Dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) threatens to seize Mitch's house, but Beanie discovers a loophole in the seizure clause and Beanie, Frank, and Mitch turn the house into a new fraternity that is open to men of all ages in the community, including those who have no association with the university whatsoever. A battle between the new fraternity and the dean ensues, while in the meantime the three founding fathers of the fraternity face relationship struggles of their own with the women they love.
OLD SCHOOL includes allusions to many movies, but seems to have been most heavily influenced by ANIMAL HOUSE and FIGHT CLUB and seems to be a homage to both of those films. The ANIMAL HOUSE allusions are obvious, e.g. popular fraternity that the dean tries to close down. The FIGHT CLUB references aren't quite as obvious, but they are there and there are many. For example, the wrestling matches take place in the basement, club propaganda is photocopied at work, the men appear disheveled at work, in many of the fraternity scenes Vince Vaughn dresses in outfits similar to those of Tyler Durden, etc. In fact director Todd Phillips has said that he thought of OLD SCHOOL as being a comedy version of FIGHT CLUB.
With such a talented cast and a witty script full of film references, one would think that OLD SCHOOL would be a memorable and hilarious movie. Unfortunately, it's not. There were some parts of OLD SCHOOL that I found incredibly funny. For instance, watching Will Ferrell streak through a party and run naked down a public street was hilarious. In fact, Ferrell is the funniest thing about the movie. Just about every time he is on screen I found myself laughing at the antics of his character. I also enjoyed Luke Wilson's performance. Wilson portrays Mitch as a very likeable, down-to-earth, and realistic person. However, Ferrell and Wilson are about the only two characters who work well in the movie. Vince Vaughn can speak almost as fast as an auctioneer, but his character just doesn't fit with the rest of the characters in the film. Jeremy Piven is a very talented actor, but in OLD SCHOOL I don't believe that his character used to be the guy that Mitch, Beanie, and Frank used to beat up and neither do I believe that was able to rise through the ranks of academia to become the university dean. Most of the women in the movie are only background characters that are used as fodder for comic material. There are a variety of scenes in the movie that seem funny at first, but are juvenile at best and then quickly become boring and dull. There are many sexual references in the movie that have very little to do with the plot and seem basically to have been thrown in simply to have thirteen-year-old males buy movie tickets or the DVD. The movie had a lot of potential, but it doesn't come together in a coherent manner.
However, with the movie on DVD, one can get a better understanding of what the movie could have been. Some of the extras on the DVD include the usual director's commentary, a spoof of "Inside the Actor's Studio", deleted and extended scenes, bloopers and outtakes, and a making of featurette. Most of the deleted and extended scenes that are included on the DVD probably should have been kept in the movie because they add a great deal to the characterization and plot development. For instance, there is a scene where a college girl wants to sleep with Beanie, but he refuses. The scene in the movie makes Beanie seem like a complete jerk while the extended scene allows the audience to relate to Beanie and actually seem him as a human being. I really enjoyed watching most of these scenes and they allowed me to appreciate the movie a bit more. The other special feature that I really liked was the "Inside the Actor's Studio spoof". I found it hilarious; seeing Will Ferrell have a conversation with himself as two different characters is hilarious.
Overall, OLD SCHOOL is a movie that will probably appeal most to teenage males and some college students as well as fans of Ferrell, Wilson, or Vaughn. Other than that, I'd skip this comedy and watch ANIMAL HOUSE instead.
One of the Funniest Moviest Ever Made - Review written on December 25, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
I've seen it a hundred times and it is always funny. Every scene is great. Each one outdoing the the last. Look at the look on Mitch's face when he is standing in the KY Jelly Wrestling Ring. It is classic. Every actor and actress in this does such a great job to make the whole insane story believable. This is definitely one of the greatest works of comedy ever made. It is on par with Anchorman, Harold & Kumar, The Big Lebowski, Road Trip, Starsky & Hutch, Wedding Crashers, Saving Silverman, American Pie, Waiting and Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
We're goin' Streeeeeeeaking!!!! - Review written on June 23, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
3 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
Okay, let me start off by saying, why I loved this movie so much. I love this movie because I feel like I can relate to the characters so well. I imagined them being in their late 30's (I'm in my early 40's now, but was in my late 30's when it came out) and I often times fantasize about doing college over again, and how much better it would be.
That in a nutshell, is what is so appealing to me about this movie. It is ensued halarity that I could imagine doing myself, or at least in a "movie fantasy" sense. And that draws you in to the story. Other details which draw you in are:
1)Luke's character is at an offsite meeting
2)Luke's office workplace scenes
3)Vince's family problems
4)Will's marriage failure (that's the world's shortest marriage I've ever seen)
etc.
Throwing in Snoop Dog appearing live at one of their parties, and Will running down the street naked is just icing on the cake.
This movie should be seen by every college student, male and female, and every 30 something wanna be college graduate!
Two thumbs up! MC White said check it out!
another corky, silly &funny movie i love - Review written on February 18, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
Old School, One of the Most Hilarious Comedies You'll Ever Witness
If you have not seen the comedy "Old School" then you are missing a great laugh. With Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson as the stars of the movie, you will not be disappointed with this two-hour long stretch of pure fun. This movie, while some parts are quite fictional, relates well to college students, especially those in a fraternity or sorority. Will Ferrell (Frank) and Vince Vaughn (Beanie) long to relive their college years at their friend's expense. Luke Wilson (Mitch) buys a house on a college campus, because he wants to get away from his broken relationship with his wife. Mitch comes home at the beginning of the movie to find her sleeping with another man. Frank and Beanie create the brilliant idea that they will start a college fraternity on this campus, but they run into a terrible problem because the dean remembers how ruthless these men were to him in college, and he is trying to get rid the campus of them. As three older men, who once lived the college life, try to start a fraternity, they meet many challenges with the college's administration. The challenges that these men endure are what make the movie so funny. In one scene of the movie, Frank loses his wife because of the time he spends at the fraternity house. "Old School" is a great movie based purely on the non-stop laughter you will have. Between the challenges of the commencement of the fraternity and the everyday lives of Frank, Mitch, and Beanie "Old School" gives every audience a sense of humor about their own lives. Not only is the movie hysterical in and of itself, it illustrates to everyone that life should not be taken so seriously. In the end, Mitch gets the girl that truly loves him, and Frank is finally happy once he becomes the president of the fraternity. Beanie goes back to his normal life of selling audio equipment, but he still lingers around the fraternity that he helped build. The final moral to the movie is how the founders of the fraternity take care of the students they pledged into the fraternity. Yes, the pledgeship that these students endure is quite comical, but when they are faced with being expelled from school, the three founders and all the students in the fraternity are what push them through the tough times. This is a movie that you must see if you enjoyed your college years and if you just need a good laugh.
I'm here for the gang bang... - Review written on February 17, 2006
Rating: 4 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful, 1 did not.
If you're at all like me, Old School is one of those movies you'll crave to watch again and again. It's a hilarious story about a group of guy friends (I think they're in their late 20's or early 30's) who, following a major breakup for one of them, all join forces to create a fraternity of sorts. It's great, great fun with a hilarious Andy Dick teaching the ladies a private class (absolutely hilarious, and although I'm quite sure most people have already seen this movie, I'd hate to spoil it for the one lone freak out there who has yet to see it), the initiation of the pledges, the pledges themselves (You're my boy, Blue!), and my all-time favorite moment is Will Farrell and the dart.
This movie never fails to make me laugh or cheer me up. Don't take it too seriously and you'll have fun with it too.