The first thing I must say about College is that since the beginning, its IMDb rating has been flawed due to a number of studio-funded plugs claiming it to be a genius comedy (which of course it isn't). These false reviews are easily recognized by both the fact that they are positive and their complete lack of any detail about the film. In fact, if you replace the various movie titles with other movie titles in these reviews, it still works. Not a great review. Then, further corrupting the rating came a series of one-star reviews from people who had not seen the film and were merely infuriated by the studios pitiful interference. I can sympathize with the feeling, but it is nonetheless partially their fault that College will never have a realistic rating. The regulators at IMDb really need to go through and delete these false reviews. However, for those of you who are curious, I saw College last night, and here is my take on the film. From the get-go, you feel like you've seen this before. Drake Bell, who plays Kevin, the nice smart kid in the movie (the characters in College really are just stereotypes *sort of* brought to life), is getting ready for a college visit with his friend Morris, played by Kevin Covais who is semi-famous for being known as Chicken Little on American Idol. Covais is atrocious, but we'll get to him. In comes Carter, as portrayed by Andrew Caldwell, the apparently mandatory overweight obnoxious kid who wants to get laid and constantly talks about doing so. This guy's bound to draw some comparisons to Jonah Hill's character in Superbad, but I assure you that is both groundless and insulting. Hill's character Seth in Superbad was obnoxious, but was in fact being so to cover up his concerns with losing his friend because of his going to a different college. Caldwell is unredeemed. He just goes about throughout the movie running his huge mouth and mocking others, particularly Morris, whom he also abuses physically on a routine basis.
This constant cruelty is one of the film's greatest failures, but it also disturbingly gratifying, because quite frankly, Morris's character is unbearable. His voice is whiny and aggravating, and he spends the entire movie complaining. I found myself pleased to watch bad things happening to him, and that made me realize how terrible the filmmakers are at their craft. How can you make a movie about characters that are meant to be sympathetic, but that people instead hate? Even a character like The Silence of the Lambs's Hannibal Lecter has some appealing qualities, but this teenage boy has been portrayed so unpleasantly that I would genuinely rather have him be one of the torture victims in the Hostel series. That's not right!
When the three boys get to Fillmore University, the school that they are visiting, they find that the girls want nothing to do with them because they are high school students, and the dorm they have been assigned to stay in is inhabited by a heavyset student who is engaged in a rousing bout of self abuse (if you don't know what that means, just think of something crude that a guy could be doing in a room by himself). Thus, our single-minded "friends" decide to go stay at a frat house of which Crater's cousin is a legacy. Naturally, the frat members treat them poorly throughout the rest of the movie, bringing about retribution and so on, so forth.
The major sub-plot involves the fact that Kevin's girlfriend dumps him before the visit for not being enough fun, and thus he wants to prove her wrong. Once at Fillmore, the three boys meet three sorority girls who for some reason find them attractive, and of course don't know that they're high school students. The most shocking thing is the attractive blond girl who is attracted to Carter. Looks aside the kid's a total jerk, and besides, she could do better. In fact, nothing in this movie is remotely realistic. I'm in college, and college is not at all like College.
The gross-out humor in this is excessive and unforgivable. Half the time instead of laughing you'll be gagging. This would be a great film to show in a film class to just demonstrate who easy it is to make a pathetic cliché-fest. My favorite line in the movie is when Kendall, played by the adorable Haley Bennett, says to Kevin "you're not like other college guys". This is obviously meant to be dramatic irony, and thereby funny. It's not. Nothing in this movie really is.
This constant cruelty is one of the film's greatest failures, but it also disturbingly gratifying, because quite frankly, Morris's character is unbearable. His voice is whiny and aggravating, and he spends the entire movie complaining. I found myself pleased to watch bad things happening to him, and that made me realize how terrible the filmmakers are at their craft. How can you make a movie about characters that are meant to be sympathetic, but that people instead hate? Even a character like The Silence of the Lambs's Hannibal Lecter has some appealing qualities, but this teenage boy has been portrayed so unpleasantly that I would genuinely rather have him be one of the torture victims in the Hostel series. That's not right!
When the three boys get to Fillmore University, the school that they are visiting, they find that the girls want nothing to do with them because they are high school students, and the dorm they have been assigned to stay in is inhabited by a heavyset student who is engaged in a rousing bout of self abuse (if you don't know what that means, just think of something crude that a guy could be doing in a room by himself). Thus, our single-minded "friends" decide to go stay at a frat house of which Crater's cousin is a legacy. Naturally, the frat members treat them poorly throughout the rest of the movie, bringing about retribution and so on, so forth.
The major sub-plot involves the fact that Kevin's girlfriend dumps him before the visit for not being enough fun, and thus he wants to prove her wrong. Once at Fillmore, the three boys meet three sorority girls who for some reason find them attractive, and of course don't know that they're high school students. The most shocking thing is the attractive blond girl who is attracted to Carter. Looks aside the kid's a total jerk, and besides, she could do better. In fact, nothing in this movie is remotely realistic. I'm in college, and college is not at all like College.
The gross-out humor in this is excessive and unforgivable. Half the time instead of laughing you'll be gagging. This would be a great film to show in a film class to just demonstrate who easy it is to make a pathetic cliché-fest. My favorite line in the movie is when Kendall, played by the adorable Haley Bennett, says to Kevin "you're not like other college guys". This is obviously meant to be dramatic irony, and thereby funny. It's not. Nothing in this movie really is.