National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Freshman Year – A Prequel Plot Summary

National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Freshman Year is a 2009 American sex comedy film and the third installment in the Van Wilder American comedy series. Serving as a prequel to the original Van Wilder film, it was directed by Harvey Glazer and released direct-to-DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on July 14, 2009. The home media release features both an unrated and a rated version of the film, giving viewers the choice between the two editions. The DVD and Blu-ray releases also include a variety of bonus features such as an audio commentary with actors Jonathan Bennett, Kristin Cavallari, and Steve Talley, as well as director Harvey Glazer.

Introduction: Back to College

The film follows Van and his friends as they navigate the highs and lows of college life, from pursuing romantic interests to outsmarting the college's administration. Sometimes when it comes to prequels, they can be hit or miss. In this prequel to the 2002 frat-party hit, cocky college freshman Van Wilder (Jonathan Bennett) arrives on the campus of Coolidge College to discover that, far from the nonstop party he expected, the school is run with military-style precision by Dean Reardon (Kurt Fuller).

The Plot Unfolds: From Amsterdam to Coolidge

Van Wilder has just graduated from high school and while he had planned on going to Amsterdam with his father, he is forced to go solo due to his father’s business. Nevertheless, Van is excited about attending Coolidge College, which was his father’s alma mater. Van Wilder embarks on his freshman year at Coolidge College, hoping to follow in his father's footsteps and have a memorable college experience. However, Coolidge College is not the big party school it once was. Today, the uptight, self-righteous Dean (Kurt Fuller) forbids smoking, drinking, drugs, and kissing. Van is not pleased.

Roommates and ROTC: Forming Alliances

Van finds himself rooming with pothead Farley and Chinese exchange student Yu. Reardon, fearing that Van will break his rules, forces him and his roommates to join the school’s ROTC program. Not only does Jonathan Bennett‘s Van Wilder not look anything like Ryan Reynolds, but he’s also older than Ryan Reynolds was when he created the role. That may not seem like a big deal, but the character is supposed to be seven years younger than he was in the original film, and Jonathan Bennett is almost 30.

Love and Rivalry: A Classic College Conflict

There, Van finds himself at odds with hothead Lt. Dirk Arnold and his cohort Corporal Benedict. To make things worse, Van finds himself falling head over heels for his ROT Commander, Kaitlin Hayes, an Army brat who just happens to be Dirk’s girlfriend. As Van attempts to win the heart of the beautiful Kaitlin Hays (Kristin Cavallari), he also faces off against Dirk in a series of humorous and outrageous contests.

Read also: A Prequel's Party Problems

Challenging the Status Quo: Bringing the Party Back

Undeterred, Van and his new friends Farley, Yu Dum Fok, and Dirk Arnold decide to challenge the new rules and bring the party back to Coolidge College. The plot of the film, if you want to stretch and say there is one, is that Van Wilder isn’t the super popular party maniac we know him as in the first film because the dean of the school won’t allow any of the awesome things we expect in a rated R college movie. Dean Reardon is a stuck up jerk who’s mad at Van Wilder’s father because he was a party animal when he went to that school. Yes it’s a boring terrible plot, but fear not! All of the recylced jokes from the first movie are BACK! That’s right Van Widler make’s friends with a stoner named Farely Marley, and a Chinese exchange student who’s desperate to get laid. And yes the exchange student has an obscene name! It’s Yu Dum Fok! ISN’T THAT CLEVER!? Of course there’s a girl in the film, and like in all college films she’s dating the douche bag that hates the hero. In this case the douche bag and his friend are two cadets in the dean’s ROTC program. Guess what… they have clever names too! Corporals Benedict and Arnold.

Climax and Resolution: Triumph and Heart

In the end, Van triumphs over Dirk and wins Kaitlin's heart. Van Wilder (Jonathan Bennett) is a rich kid, and his father (Linden Ashby) insists he attend Coolidge College, the school all the Wilders have attended and endowed over the years. Wilder Hall enshrines the former Wilder graduates, and there’s a placeholder there for Van.

Cast and Crew: Behind the Scenes

National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Freshman YearDVD coverDirected byHarvey GlazerWritten byTodd McCulloughProduced byRobert L. A Paramount Famous/Tapestry Films Production. Director: Harv Glazer. Producers: Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, and Andrew Panay. Writer: Todd McCullough; based on characters created by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner. Cinematography: Shawn Maurer. Starring Jonathan Bennett, Kristin Cavallari, Kurt Fuller, Jerry Shea, Nestor Aaron Absera, Steve Talley, Nic Nac, Meredith Giangrande, Irene Keng, Linden Ashby, Brett Rice, Sonny Shroyer, Mike Pniewski, Yvette Rachelle, Steve Warren, Debra Moss, Lynn McArthur and Shawn Knowles.Teleplay by Todd McCullough.Directed by Harv Glazer.Distributed by Paramount Home Video. 100 minutes. Not Rated. Steve Talley as Lt.

Critical Reception and Legacy

First came the legend of Van Wilder in 2002. Then, Van’s protégé Taj got his own spin-off/sequel in 2006. This time, the younger Van Wilder is played by Jonathan Bennett, who will most likely (if not already) will be unfairly compared to Reynolds. However, there are plenty of puns coming from Wilder and this time, his roommates are a stoner and a stereotypical Chinese student with a very stereotypical name used in this brand of comedy. However, actors Nestor Aaron Absera and Jerry Shea are fun to watch as Van’s buddies with the DTV American Pie sequels’ Steve Talley now playing the love rival who gets the brunt of the antics in hotheaded military nut Dirk, following in the footsteps of Daniel Cosgrove’s Richard in the original and Daniel Percival’s Pip in the sequel. Coming off her reality TV stints on Laguna Beach and its spin-off The Hills, Kristin Cavalleri has the chance to prove herself as an actress with the role of love interest Kaitlin. However, where Tara Reid’s Gwendolyn and Lauren Cohan’s Charlotte ooze that sensual side in the previous films, there seems to be something different with Kaitlin. Where Van Wilder is a cult classic and The Rise of Taj is a fun spinoff/sequel, Van Wilder: Freshman Year has a bit of a farfetched plot involving the school being a virtual military academy.

A Critic's Perspective: Is it Worth Watching?

Occasionally the life of a movie critic is a rough one. Sure we get ot see all the amazing new movies early and talk about them before they come out, but then once in a while we throw ourselves infront of a bullet and see a movie like “Van Wilder: Freshman Year” in order to save you from the pain. When you make a prequel you have a few options about how you can go about doing it. You can hire the same actor and hope they’re still in massively good shape like Hugh Jackman was for Wolverine, you can reinvent the character like they did with Star Trek and Chris Pine, you can go way back in time and make it a story about the same characters as kids, or you can do what this film did and hire an actor that looks nothing like the original actor to do a bad impersonation of the actor that created the role.

“Freshman Year” accomplishes what it sets out to do from the very start. It’s goal is to tell only the most juvinile of jokes while showing as much nudity as they can before being called pornography. It’s a relic in the world of R rated comedies. This style of film hasn’t been popular since American Pie was still on the big screen. The biggest reason to not watch this film is that it simply doesn’t matter. Does Van get the girl? WHO CARES!? Van was clearly single when the original film was made so whether he gets this girl or not, she won’t be in the picture for very long. He’s a party animal and whatever lesson he learns in this movie about being a nice guy was completely lost somewhere along the way. Same goes for all of his new best friends. Where were they in the original film?

Humor and Insensitivity: A Delicate Balance

For example, they name an Asian student Yu Dom Fok. Really. Even MAD magazine would be embarrassed to try to pull something like that off in 2009. However, if your side splits at the idea of hearing a dorky Asian student mangling the word cunnilingus (his roommates are certain he is saying “Can he ring us?”), then congratulations, you have found the right movie. Put your hand down, it’s nothing to be proud of. I hate to say this, because I have never been a fan of Ryan Reynolds, the original actor to play Van, but new lead Jonathan Bennett doesn’t have near the knack for playing a smug, selfish asshole as Reynolds does. In Reynolds’ hands, Van was a prick, but at least he was a kind of likable prick. Bennett, on the other hand, plays the character so detachedly that he seems like he is reading all of his lines on a teleprompter. I mean I get it that Van is supposed to be detached, but there is such a disconnection with the character that it spreads to the audience. If Van can’t be bothered to take anything that happens at all seriously, why should we? Snarkiness doesn’t really work in a romantic comedy - which in its strange way this film is trying to be - if the lead character can’t belittle himself enough to talk with the love of his life in anything but opening lines and sexual innuendo then why should we feel any urge for her to let him in her life? Is it supposed to be just because she has an asshole of an old boyfriend? Honestly, given the choice between the two guys, Kaitlyn would be better off single. Interestingly, Laguna Beach reality show star Kristin Cavallari, who plays Kaitlyn, is much more comfortable with playing a character than the supposed actors surrounding her. Particularly humiliated is the long-time respected comic character actor Kurt Fuller (Wayne’s World, Ghostbusters II, The Pursuit of Happyness, Ray) as the evil Dean of the college. Apparently Fuller was so horrified with the final product that it isn’t even listed in his film credits on IMDb, even though he has a very large role in the film. Now, I suppose that could just be some error on the site’s part, but everyone else in the cast is listed and usually an actor’s publicist will stay on top of things like that. When you consider some of the bad films that he has accepted credit for - such as Superhero Movie, Mr. John J.

A Harmless Mess? Evaluating the Film's Impact

For all its raunchiness, the movie is harmless enough. How do you make a film as bad as this? Is there a point where you stop caring? I’m genuinely curious. When a “bad” movie comes out like Coppola’s Megalopolis you can’t help but still find a sense of joy while watching it. This is a man who put his heart and soul into making this film, if we don’t like it then whatever. There’ll always be something else to watch. But this film is the exact opposite. It’s bad and lazy. Almost like the direct to video label meant the film was garbage. Shocking. I only watched this stupid movie for the fact that I’d seen the other two in the same day. I genuinely have to question my sanity after watching this because I HATED EVERY SECOND. Please never make movies again. Kristin Cavallari is GORGEOUS though. I’d like to watch more movies she appears in. .5/5 stars. I also think this is the longest in the series…. Fans of the original may find something to like about this, it has the same sense of humor. Very few funny moments, but the movie is still not much of a big deal. Horrible terrible trash cringe prequel that didn't have to happen.

Direct-to-DVD Sequels and Prequels: A Common Trend

No other film genre has had as many direct-to-DVD sequels or prequels to hit films than raunchy sex comedies. The perfect example of this is the long list of American Pie films. Back in 2002, a film called National Lampoon’s Van Wilder became a hit, mainly because of the performance of its star, Ryan Reynolds. Four years later, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj had a less than stellar bow in theaters and it featured Van Wilder’s old sidekick from the first film, Taj (still played by Kal Penn).

Similarities and Differences: Comparing to the Original

The plot of this film is pretty much a rip-off of the original Van Wilder with storylines from Animal House and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off thrown in for good measure. It also really doesn’t know what type of film it wants to be. At first, this film is your typical sex comedy, but then it turns into a romantic comedy halfway through. It doesn’t do either film genre that well. Much of this film is nothing more than the usual grossness, sex gags, sexual innuendo, nudity, and profanity. It doesn’t help that the acting is not that great either. Jonathan Bennett is decent enough as the lead here, but he is no Ryan Reynolds. Unfortunately, all of the characters and actors that play those characters surrounding him, aren’t that strong. Pretty much every other character is a stereotype from Van’s roommate, Farley Marley (Nestor Aaron Absera), a white pothead who talks like a black Jamaican to Van’s new friend Yu Dum Fuk (Jerry Shea), who is the standard Chinese exchange student who is desperate to have sex. You also knew there had to be a love interest and this one is played by Kristin Cavallari of MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills fame. Her performance is about as good as Tara Reid, which is not saying much. Guess what? She is also dating a militant Hitler thug who is a jerk and wants to get rid of Van Wilder. If you enjoyed the original Van Wilder, you probably won’t enjoy this film since it’s really the same film with not as good acting. Van Wilder: Freshman Year is also not that great of a prequel, since it doesn’t really matter what happens in this film, because we know that the Van Wilder in the original film is the same as the Van Wilder in this film.

Read also: A Look at Van Wilder's Origins

Technical Aspects: Video and Audio Quality

The video included is available in widescreen color presented at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The quality is pretty good with some slight graininess noticeable in some scenes. The audio included is available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear, so no major problems here either.

Bonus Features: A Look Behind the Curtain

There is a full-length audio commentary with the director, Harv Glazer, and all of the major cast members chatter. Nothing very insightful is said during this commentary, but they are entertaining to listen to. This runs 17 minutes and it’s your standard “making of” featurette. This runs 9 minutes and it features the cast on location filming in Decatur, Georgia. This is basically a Hills spoof starring Kristin.

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