National Lampoon's Van Wilder
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National Lampoon's Van Wilder (also known as Van Wilder, Van The Man and Van Wilder: Party Liaison) is a 2002 movie directed by Walt Becker and stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular young philanthropist/party animal.
Cast
- Ryan Reynolds as Vance "Van" Wilder Jr.
- Tara Reid as Gwen E. Pearson
- Kal Penn as Taj Mahal Badalandabad
- Paul Gleason as Professor McDougal
- Tim Matheson as Vance Wilder Sr.
- Daniel Cosgrove as Richard "Dick" Bagg
- Tom Everett Scott as Elliot Grebb (uncredited)
Box Office Totals
- Budget - $5,000,000
- Marketing cost - $15,000,000
- Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $7,302,913
- Total Domestic Grosses - $21,305,259
- Total Overseas Grosses - $16,970,224
- Total Worldwide Grosses - $38,275,483
Plot summary
Van Wilder is an outgoing, friendly, and highly popular student who has been at Coolidge College for seven years. For the past three years he has tried not to graduate, instead spending his time organizing parties and fundraisers, doing charity work, and posing for figure drawing classes. But after seven years with no return, Van Wilder's father decides it is time to cut his losses and stop paying tuition. Instead of leaving, Van decides to find some other way to pay his way through the rest of college.
Meanwhile Gwen Pearson, a star reporter for the student newspaper, is tasked to do an article on him for the front page of the graduation issue. Although that would be extremely important to her, she is rather put off when Van Wilder interprets her attempts to schedule an interview as romantic advances — especially because she already has a boyfriend. Gwen's boyfriend, Richard Bagg, happens to be the president of the student union, and he takes personal offence at Wilder's attempts to steal his girlfriend, leading to a brutal rivalry between Bagg and Wilder.
Trivia
- Tim Matheson, star of National Lampoon's original college classic Animal House, plays Van's father.
- Actors Erik Estrada (CHiPs), Edie McClurg (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Dr. Joyce Brothers all have cameos.
- NBA players Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Lamar Odom, and Michael Olowokandi all appear in cameos as Coolidge Chickadee varsity basketball players.
- The writers of the film make appearances as students auditioning to be Van's assistant(s) in the first scenes of the film. Also, the director, Walt Becker has a small part as a fireman after Taj's failed attempt to have sex with Naomi.
- Supporting actors Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds) and Tom Everett Scott (Dead Man on Campus) have both appeared in previous hit "college comedies."
- The film/DVD menus use four songs performed by Sugarcult.
- A sequel, with Taj (Kal Penn) as the lead, is expected to be released in 2006. It is currently titled , although it won't feature Ryan Reynolds.
- Johnny Lechner, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who has been attending college for 12 consecutive years, has been dubbed "a real-life Van Wilder", however he has overstayed the real Van Wilder's college tenure. The University of Maryland has a real Van Wilder who stayed exactly 7 years like Van Wilder did in the movie. His real name is [name to be filled in here]. [link]
Music
Featuring songs by Jimmy Eat World, Sugarcult, Abandoned Pools, Sum 41, American Hi-Fi and Zero 7's Sia Furler. The above performers' songs are available on the official soundtrack (on Artemis Records), that includes a previously unreleased acoustic track by Swirl 360.External links
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