I loved Van Wilder. It was a story that hit close to the heart for me, and
Ryan Reynolds played the role perfectly - with his facial expressions that make the lamest jokes fly. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited this movie. And I was pretty disappointed.
The story loop follows the first movie almost exactly, and the characters seem to be new incarnations of exactly the same, like
Pipp Everett (played by Daniel Percival) and his character that mirrors
Richard Bagg (played by Daniel Cosgrove) from the first movie to a tee. Sure it's funny at a lot of points,
Kal Penn is of course hilarious, and even Pipp has a couple of great lines, but the lack of effort put into creating the characters. How hard is it to create new characters instead of just picking up characters from the first movie and remaking them in the second? How hard is it to change the story so it doesn't unfold exactly the same? Taj facing expulsion from Camford (the movie's take on Oxbridge) is just the final straw.
I must say, though, that
Lauren Cohan is very cute.
