Old School (2003)

Three men are disenchanted with life and try to recapture their college days.

Director:

Todd Phillips

Writers:

Court Crandall (story), Todd Phillips (story),

Stars:

Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luke Wilson	...	Mitch Martin
Will Ferrell	...	Frank Ricard
Vince Vaughn	...	Bernard 'Beanie' Campbell
Jeremy Piven	...	Dean Gordon 'Cheese' Pritchard
Ellen Pompeo	...	Nicole
Juliette Lewis	...	Heidi
Leah Remini	...	Lara Campbell
Perrey Reeves	...	Marissa Jones
Craig Kilborn	...	Mark
Elisha Cuthbert	...	Darcie
Seann William Scott	...	Peppers
Matt Walsh	...	Walsh
Artie Lange	...	Booker
Patrick Fischler	...	Michael
Sara Tanaka	...	Megan Huang

Storyline

Mitch, Frank and Beanie are disillusioned with their personal lives begining when Mitch's nymphomanic girlfriend, Heidi, cheats on him, then former party animal Frank gets married, but unwilling to get go of his wild life, and Beanie is a family man seeking to reclaim his wild and crazy youth. Beanie suggests that they form their own fraternity in Mitch's new house on a college campus to re-live their glory days by bringing together a variety of misfit college students, losers, middle-aged and elderly retirees as their new friends and later try to avoid being evicted by the new Dean of Students, Pritchard, whom still holds a personal grudge against all three of them.

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Plot Keywords:

college | friend | party | house | fraternity | 

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Taglines:

Why do men act like boys? Because they can.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong sexual content, nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 February 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Old School - Wir lassen absolut nichts anbrennen

Filming Locations:

1803 Bushnell Avenue, South Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$24,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$688,346 (Australia) (30 May 2003)

Gross:

$1,300,030 (Australia) (13 June 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Montecito Picture Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 92 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last scene shot was Mitch-A-Palooza.

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Goofs

Darcy's father says that, "It's hard to believe that in just seven months you'll be graduating from high school." This means that the current month would have to be November or December, yet all the trees and shrubbery in the movie are in full bloom.

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Quotes

Frank: A little housewarming gift.
Mitch: I actually gave this to you for your wedding.
Frank: This model?
Mitch: That exact one.

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Crazy Credits

During most of the end credits, there are scenes showing what happened to the main characters.

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Connections

Referenced in Entourage: Pilot (2004)

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Soundtracks

"The Farmer in the Dell"
Performed by The Countdown Kids
Courtesy of Madacy Entertainment

User Reviews

Not perfect, but a solid comedy

Like many others, I heard a lot of buzz about "Old School" before it was released. Things like "it's the new animal house" or "an instant classic". Well, unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case. However, that doesn't mean its a bad movie. In fact, I loved it and would highly recommend it.

As someone in the same age group as the main characters, perhaps I related too much, but the idea is great: Three 30-something guys who are solidly on the path of a normal, mature life (marriage, kids, real job, etc...) decide to start a fraternity and recapture their college glory days. No, there's no real reason to do this, and no, its not realistic at all.

But who cares? Anyone who has ever been to a raging college party, done a few beer bongs and whippits, screamed along with some loud music, and hooked up with a random coed can immediately relate to this film. Not to mention there really are some gut-busting funny scenes throughout. Luke Wilson is the perfect actor for the steady, reserved professional guy. Will Ferrell is hilarious of course, and Vince Vaughn does what he does so well, playing the instigator trying to help a best friend have fun again. Unfortunately one of his funniest scenes only made it to the deleted scenes section of the DVD.

Which brings me to my main gripe with this movie: what was left on the cutting room floor. The deleted scenes, which can be seen on the DVD of course, aren't just trivial sections that you can understand were cut, some of them are classic. The movie was only an hour and a half long, and for the life of me I can't figure out why the 10 minutes of deleted footage didn't remain. I think some of them really would've changed the entire feel of the movie. The last act kind of changes into this "Rushmore"-ish Wes Anderson knock off, and I think at least a few of the deleted scenes would've helped it make more sense.

Despite that, this movie ranks alongside Dumb & Dumber, Meet the Parents, Kingpin, and American Pie as one of the best comedies of the last decade or so in my humble opinion. No it's not a classic, but it will stand the test of time as a very good comedy that you'll laugh at with each replay.