From its basic concept to its characters, everything about the new gross-out comedy Old School is old.
That doesn't mean it isn't as lively as those American Pie flicks and it proves you can make teen comedies with characters and actors who are over 25.
John Landis's 1978 frat house farce Animal House is a landmark of this genre. Its silly nonsense connected with a generation and inspired dozens of subsequent campus comedies, including Old School, which opens in town today.
Like the misfits in Animal House, the characters in Old School just want to drink beer, meet women and party hardy. And darned if, once again, there isn't some meddling college administrator who's determined to shut things down and make everyone as miserable as he is.
Thirtysomethings Mitch (Luke Wilson), Beanie (Vince Vaughn) and Frank (Will Ferrell) aren't exactly over-the-hill but they're definitely feeling the strain of climbing uphill.
Beanie has built his stereo business into a booming concern but his responsibilities as a husband and father are a crushing weight on his shoulders. He longs for his carefree bachelor days. Frank is so smitten with Marissa (Perry Reeves), he vows to give up his wild ways and settle down, much to the chagrin of Beanie. The wedding ceremony is hysterical with Beanie warning and pleading with Frank right to the moment his lovestruck buddy says 'I do'.
What spurs the trio of old friends into action is Mitch's discovery that his girlfriend Heidi (Juliette Lewis) belongs to an Internet swingers club and swings big time whenever he's out of town on business.
When Mitch gets himself a new house on the edge of the local campus, Beanie hatches the idea of turning it into a frat house and the recruits range from students to an octogenarian navy vet. Of course, like Animal House's Kent Dorfman, there's the obese guy with a heart as big as his girth. He has two of the funniest moments in the film including one with a cinder brick.
Todd Phillips, who wrote and directed Road Trip, is pretty obvious in the way he sets up laughs. You can see the punchlines coming a mile away but it's still funny.
What makes Old School seem fresher than it really is are the performances of Wilson, Vaughn and Ferrell. If they didn't have a blast making this movie they're doing some of the best acting of their careers. You can almost sense them winking at each other and the camera.
Wilson relies on disbelief to get his best laughs.
Poor Mitch's discovery of his girlfriend's extracurricular sexual activities, the underage girl in his bed one morning or the cheating antics of the boyfriend of the girl (Ellen Pompeo) he'd like to woo are classic examples of understatement.
Vaughn's the fast-talking salesman whether he's organizing an initiation ceremony, a beer fest or just presenting convoluted arguments to his buddies.
Ferrell is given all the wackiest moments like streaking, singing opposite Snoop Dogg and disrupting children's birthday parties. At every turn Ferrell proves himself a master of comic timing.
Old School delivers on its promise.
Like the members of the old boys' fraternity, check your common sense, decorum and inhibitions at the door and you'll have a wild time.
(This film is rated AA)
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