Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (2006)

Taj Mahal Badalandabad leaves Coolidge College behind for the halls of Camford University in England, where he looks to continue his education, and teach an uptight student how to make the most out of her academic career.

Director:

Mort Nathan

Writers:

David Drew Gallagher, Brent Goldberg (characters),

Stars:

Kal Penn, Lauren Cohan, Daniel Percival

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kal Penn	...	Taj
Lauren Cohan	...	Charlotte
Daniel Percival	...	Pip
Glen Barry	...	Seamus
Anthony Cozens	...	Gethin
Steven Rathman	...	Simon
Holly Davidson	...	Sadie
Tom Davey	...	Percy
William de Coverly	...	Roger
Beth Steel	...	Penelope
Amy Steel	...	Alexandra
Jonathan Cecil	...	Provost Cunningham
Roger Hammond	...	Camford Dean
Kulvinder Ghir	...	Taj's Father
Shobu Kapoor	...	Taj's Mother

Storyline

Having graduated in the US as Van Wilder disciple, now self-confident Taj Mahal. arrives as 'don' (teaching assistant) history at England's super-prestigious Cambridge. He falls victim to the haughty, aristocratic leading fraternity's aristocratic president Pip's usual prank for 'commoners', landing in the derelict 'barn' with other 'social outcasts'. But Taj decides to band the rejects into a new fraternity, Cocks & Bulls, which under his leadership challenges Pip's in the annual all-round excellence championship.

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Plot Keywords:

bulldog | cockney accent | breasts | sequel | bare butt | 

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Taglines:

The Legend is Growing.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive crude sexual content, some nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 December 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,313,372 (USA) (1 December 2006)

Gross:

$4,259,591 (USA) (5 January 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Bauer Martinez Studios, Tapestry Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The two reporters' bylines in the newspaper articles are "Anita Hanjaab" and "Mike Oxsbig", which sound just like... Well, you can figure it out.

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Goofs

When Taj arrives at Camford he and Balzac do not have any luggage with them. When they are driving around on the golf cart a little while later there is luggage on the back rack.

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Quotes

Pipp Everett, the Earl of Grey: Roger, sometimes, the Almighty, in His infinite wisdom, likes to give a sliver of hope to the downtrodden and underprivileged to make up for their inferior haircuts and the fact they have to winter and summer in the same place.

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Connections

References Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Buckets of Beer"
Written by Anthony Duggins
Performed by The Tossers
Courtesy of Paddle on the Spot (ASCAP)
By Arrangement with Tantrum Management

User Reviews

Don't watch this

First let me start by saying I was a huge Van Wilder fan and enjoy all of Kal Penn's work, be it in Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar, and even American Desi. This film, however, was a disaster. The plot is unimaginative; Taj arrives in a British university and leads a misfit group of losers against a wealthy, socially elite house in an intra-fraternal competition. The object of Taj's affection unfortunately winds up being the girlfriend of his biggest antagonist, the head of the rival fraternity house (see the original Van Wilder for a blatantly similar romantic situation).

This just wasn't funny at all. I crack up pretty easily and laughed less than 5 or 6 times during an hour an a half. And even then, I was forcing it just because I felt like I forked down $10, and if I didn't even laugh once, I'd have been bamboozled of my money. The only redeeming scenes are those featuring Taj's parents, who are in the film for less than 10 minutes and managed to pull my rating from a 1 to a 2. Every other joke was corny, unfunny, and otherwise dull. The writing and directing were so uninspired that it was actually painful to watch this movie. The problem with this film was half conceptual too, since Taj was only funny in Van Wilder in the limited doses we got. Goofy Indian accents aren't enough to carry an hour and a half long poorly written train wreck, and that's what we saw here.

The thing that really bothered me was that I could feel Kal Penn's career dying before my eyes. I really don't know how anyone who read this script could agree to do it, especially him, because he was the only actor with a future in this movie. He had at least moderate buzz going for him after a string of decent performances, and then releases this nonsense. I can only hope that movie studios will forgive him, because it was difficult to watch this.