National Lampoon’s Van Wilder – The Rise of Taj
(Unrated Too Hot for Theaters)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B- Film:
C
The girls
are hot the film is not! National Lampoon’s Van Wilder – The Rise of
Taj (Unrated Too Hot for Theaters) is now on DVD for all to ponder
why? This film is a sequel to a National
Lampoon film (Van Wilder) that was actually humorous, even with its weak
storyline. The Rise of Taj follows Van Wilder’s (Ryan Reynolds; who does not
appear in this film) star pupil of sexology and cool, Taj Badalandabad (Kal
Penn), as he travels to jolly old England to study at Camford University as a
history grad student. The basic
storyline is that once at University Taj is rudely welcomed by a group of
elitist Fraternity boys known as the Foxes and Hounds, and is quickly ousted to
a less reputable Fraternity.
At his
new dwellings Taj discovers his new brethren are not the coolest or even
socially acceptable blokes. The movie
then changes its focus to Taj enlightening these helpless souls in the areas of
sex, cool, and history. In the classic
way of such films as Revenge of the
Nerds or Animal House, Taj and
his friends set out on a mission to best the evil elitists at the Foxes and
Hounds fraternity; but this is where the film similarities end. The film was unnecessary and not very
funny. Actor Kal Penn (Taj) is very
talented and fun to watch, but did a better job in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
The main
problems with this film are lack of storyline, bad dialogue, and predictable
stunts. The film could have offered up a
lot more, but failed to deliver.
For the
movie not being so great the technicals for this particular DVD release are
quite good. The picture is presented in
a 1.85 X 1 Widescreen. The picture is
crystal clear throughout and has good color qualities. The sound is also nice in its 5.1 Dolby
Digital Surround presentation. The sound
is balanced and you can hear every ass slap and fart joke to its fullest. The extras are plentiful and nicely
displayed. Extras include a couple music
videos of music that appeared in the film (from Jonny Lives and Mario Raven),
Deleted Scenes, a Gag Reel, a Making of The Rise of Taj featurette, and an ‘On
the Set’ featurette. Overall, the
technical aspects of this DVD are admirable.
In the
end, this film was a big miss. There
were a few chuckles here and there, but overall lacked substance. The next venture for Kal Penn is apparently Harold and Kumar 2, which audiences
anxiously await.
- Michael P Dougherty II
