I have had knee-shaking, ass-skewering hemorrhoids that were funnier than this so-called comedy, which doesn't inspire a single laugh, smirk or smile in all of its running time. There is unequivocally no reason why such an asinine, energy-deprived waste of time has reached theaters. As the competition grows fierce, Taj finds himself falling in love with the beautiful Charlotte (Lauren Cohan), who happens to be the girlfriend of their nastiest opponent, Pipp Everett (Daniel Percival).įlavorlessly directed by Mort Nathan (2003's " Boat Trip") and seemingly penned on a napkin by David Drew Gallagher, "National Lampoon's Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj" has direct-to-DVD written all over it. In doing so, Taj and his students, including nerdy whiz Gethin (Anthony Cozens), silent Percy (Tom Davey), and blunt-mouthed Sadie (Holly Davidson), decide to compete in the college's Hastings Cup Tournament against the rich, snooty "Fox and Hounds" fraternity. Having learned the tricks of the sexual trade from buddy Van, Taj travels to prestigious, London-based Camford University and sets out to teach confidence to the members of a misfit co-ed frat house. With Van Wilder missing in action, the reigns are woefully handed over to Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn), a supporting character in the predecessor who didn't need his own movie. With the stench of resigned mediocrity coursing through its every miserable minute, the picture quickly becomes patently offensive for all the wrong reasons.
AMY STEEL NATIONAL LAMPOON VAN WILDER MOVIE
With an expiration date several years passed, this hopeless cash-in features a barely-there plot, stock stick figures posing as human beings, and diluted, would-be gross-out gags so innocuous the movie might as well have shot for a PG-13 rating. Even so, it had more going for it than "National Lampoon's Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj," a pale imitation that no one asked for. It was a mild sleeper success at the box office, but came off as a mostly uninspired copycat of virtually hundreds of other youth-oriented raunchfests released before it. The 2002 original, titled, of course, " National Lampoon's Van Wilder," starred the usually charismatic Ryan Reynolds as a seven-year college slacker and big-time player and Tara Reid as the journalism student he falls for. Van Wilder is nowhere to be found and only passingly mentioned in the rancorously unnecessary "National Lampoon's Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj," but the loss of the title character turns out to be the least of this shameful sequel's problems.