Review: Van Wilder: Party Liaison (2002)

Directed by: Walt Becker | 93 minutes | comedy | Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Kal Penn, Tim Matheson, Teck Holmes, Daniel Cosgrove, Deon Richmond, Alex Burns, Emily Rutherfurd, Paul Gleason, Erik Estrada

“Van Wilder” is a typical teen comedy full of jokes about sex. The characters are stereotypical, but still worth seeing. The film does not add anything new, is not very original, but fun nonetheless. “Van Wilder” is not slow and the jokes follow each other at a brisk pace.

The cast is virtually unknown except for Tara Reid (“American Pie”, “American Pie 2”, “Josie and the Pussycats” and “The Big Lebowski”). The director Walt Becker still has little to his name. He did give himself a cameo as a firefighter in this movie. In this film, Tara Reid plays the role of a journalist named Gwen from the school newspaper, who has to write a story about Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds). Van Wilder has been at this school for seven years. He has become a household name there. Everyone knows him and comes to him for advice. He also organizes the best parties and collects money for various charities. His father faithfully pays school fees every year, but now finds out that his son is actually not studying. He therefore decides to stop the payment. As a result, Van Wilder is forced to earn money himself in order to be able to pay his school fees. At first he organizes tutorials, but later on these become parties. Gwen has asked several times if he would like to participate in her story, but he is too busy for this. He even has a personal assistant who manages his calendar. She then only writes a story based on the information she receives from others. It goes without saying that this story is incorrect. Van Wilder challenges her to find out his true story, but in reality wants to go into bed with her. There is one problem, however; Gwen has a friend who thwarts Van Wilder’s plans.

A comedy like this has a happy ending, of course. You have to judge for yourself whether watching this film is a party. If you like this kind of humor, you will probably have a lot of fun with it.