Gross-out sex comedies are going to have to work hard to parallel the smut in this one. "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" revolves around its title character (Reynolds), as does everyone at Coolidge College. He is a seventh-year senior who's finally facing the end of his college career when daddy pulls the plug on Van's tuition. But the big man on campus has big plans for pajama parties, puff pastries, prurient pooches, and payment plans for one more year. Teck Holmes of MTV's "Real World" stars as Hutch. (Suzanne Hodges)
New special features for the Blu-ray Disc include Drunken Idiot kommentary; the 16-minute "Party Legends Pledges And 'Bull'-ies," five-minute "Ultimate College Party Guide," and eight-minute "Gwen-ezuma's Revenge" featurettes; a Testicles Of The Animal Kingdom game; Write That Down, which are quotes from and inspired by the film; and a Blu-Book exam. The special features that are the same as on the DVDs reviewed in Issue 65 include Sugarcult's "Bouncing Off The Walls" music video; nine deleted scenes (one is a "Topless Tutors" Unrated exclusive); 12 outtakes; three Burly TV specials: Half Baked (13 minutes), Impostor (17 minutes), and Movie Junkie (15 minutes); Comedy Central's 21-minute Reel Comedy special; and previews.
The H.264 AVC-encoded 1.85:1 Blu-ray Disc looks flat, with relatively high black levels and less-than-ideal contrast balance. The entire presentation has a reddish hue that can be distracting. Details are not captured and delivered as well as in the best releases, and pixilation and edge enhancement is noticeable. (Danny Richelieu)
The Dolby® Digital Surround EX™ 5.1-channel and uncompressed linear PCM 7.1-channel soundtracks are mixed at differing levels in the surround channels, with the Dolby encoding providing slightly more surround distinction. While the LPCM encoding is directed more towards the screen, resulting in a less dimensional sound, fidelity is improved with dialogue that sounds smooth and natural. Both encodings are overly bright and an edginess can be heard from time to time. (Danny Richelieu)