National Lampoon's Van Wilder

"Don't graduate. Celebrate."

2002 1h 32m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 2,067

ComedyRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Van Wilder has been attending college for far too many years and is scared to graduate, but Van’s father eventually realizes what is going on. When he stops paying his son's tuition fees, Van must come up with the money if he wants to stay in college, so he and his friends come up with a great fund-raising idea – throwing parties. However, when the college magazine finds out and reporter Gwen is sent to do a story on Van Wilder, things get a little complicated.

“Don't graduate. Celebrate.”

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Cast

Ryan Reynolds
Van Wilder
Tara Reid
Gwen Pearson
Tim Matheson
Vance Wilder Sr.
Kal Penn
Taj Mahal Badalandabad
Teck Holmes
Hutch
Daniel Cosgrove
Richard Bagg
Deon Richmond
Mini Cochran
Alex Burns
Gordon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Walt Becker
Writers: Brent Goldberg, David Wagner
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "National Lampoon's Van Wilder Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Walt Becker, shot by James Bagdonas. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dennis M. Hill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid and Tim Matheson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Don't graduate. Celebrate.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0283111 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Walt Becker directs. James Bagdonas behind the camera. Dennis M. Hill cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 6.5× over at the box office.
2Released 24 years ago.
3Part of the "National Lampoon's Van Wilder Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Walt Becker, shot by James Bagdonas. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Dennis M. Hill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid and Tim Matheson carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Don't graduate. Celebrate.".
8IMDB entry: tt0283111 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 16 themes, including "college", "slacker", "crude humor", "locker room".
10Released under 15 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: James Bagdonas
Editing: Dennis M. Hill
Production design: Rachel Kamerman
Costume design: Alexis Scott
Makeup / hair: Timothy Considine
Stunt coordinator: Johnny Martin
Runtime: 92 min · 1h 32m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $39,241,323
Return: 654% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002)

Part of

National Lampoon's Van Wilder Collection

Van Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is an outgoing, friendly, and extremely popular student who has been at Coolidge College for seven years. For the past six years, he has made no effort to graduate, instead spending his time organizing parties and fundraisers, doing charity work, helping other students, and posing for figure drawing classes. But after seven years, with no return on his investment, Van's father (Tim Matheson) decides it is time to cut his losses and stops paying Van's tuition.

Also by

Walt Becker

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-03-18
★ 4/10
I'm not exactly what one might call "in to" American comedies, and gross out humour/romantic comedies are pretty much at the bottom of even that list. For a movie that most certainly contains both those two things (the latter in especially heavy doses), I actually didn't mind Van Wilder that much. But it's all about context, if instead of comparing it to a list of similar things that I hate you compared it to, say, the entire history of cinema overall, then National Lampoon's Van Wilder is pretty bad. One additional note, the friend of mine who I put this on for told me that the movie was from the era of "When Tara Reid was still hot". Now personally I've never found any iteration of her attractive, but it did make me have a parallel thought, is Van Wilder from the era when Tara Reid was a better actor? I'm not saying she has been some sort of Oscar-worthy great at any stage, but if I compare her in this to her in, for example, Sharknado 47, despite the extra years of experience, she's definitely worse now, right? Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.

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