Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I stumbled upon OLD SCHOOL through pure luck. While I like Jack Black’s movies – stuff like SCHOOL OF ROCK – I didn’t think I would ever enjoy a “Frat Pack” movie, mentally putting them in the Stupid Teen Comedies category occupied by the likes of AMERICAN PIE, ROAD TRIP, VAN WILDER, BRING IT ON, etc. But one night it was coming up next on HBO and I figured I might as well see what all the fuss is about (it’s very popular at my school).

So I was shocked when I later found myself laughing hysterically, something I rarely do when watching a movie on my own, at the mindless entertainment presented before me. The key word, of course, is “mindless”. There are no additional layers to OLD SCHOOL, no social satire, no internal or external image system, and the characters are all one- or two-dimensional, but who cares? Not the people who made it, which is why it’s so great. Writer/director Todd Philips isn’t planning on getting a letter from the Academy anytime soon or a good write up from Roger Ebert (who gave it one star), and his all-star cast practically guarantees box office success. With all this off his mind, all he has to focus on is making OLD SCHOOL as funny as possible.

After Mitch (Luke Wilson) walks in on his girlfriend Heidi’s (Juliette Lewis) orgy, he leaves her and moves into a new house near a college campus. To cheer him up, his buddies, Frank (Will Ferrell) and Beanie (Vince Vaughn), throw an enormous party and invite hundreds of people, including Snoop Dogg (who also appeared in Philips’s STARSKY & HUTCH). But, it turns out that a guy they used to beat up in school has become the dean of the college, and now he’s intent on getting his revenge. He tries to evict Mitch, saying that houses on campus ground must only be used by fraternities. Inspired by the great party, Beanie concocts a plan to start a fraternity so they can keep the house and never stop partying.

With three of the members of the recently crowned “Frat Pack” – which I believe also includes Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson, though I could be wrong – Philips has assembled the perfect actors for OLD SCHOOL, most notably the hilarious Will Ferrell whose comedic talents, much like Jack Black, can make anything funny, no matter how predictable. The good relationships between the actors and director come through in every scene (though I would have said the same about M*A*S*H if I had not known better), which only adds to the authenticity of the humor and the performances.

But the most important thing I learned from OLD SCHOOL, probably the only important thing I learned from OLD SCHOOL, is about being arrogant in selecting which movies to watch. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of Fellini, some Bergman, and other various art house films which have built me up into thinking that I’m above anything commercially appealing. But I’ve realized that you have to take a movie for what it is – Todd Philips doesn’t want to make another LA DOLCE VITA – so in comparing it to the other films of its genre, I am not in the least bit hesitant in giving OLD SCHOOL a solid four stars.

To analyze OLD SCHOOL, or to discuss it any further, would be untrue to its nature. It’s a comedy not meant to invoke long passages of carefully-worded prose, but instead to simply invoke laughter and a good time. And I can tell you that it does so very successfully.

Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Good for Groups