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26
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19
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15
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82
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42
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15
Disaster Movie
36
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54
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49
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34
Happening, The
78
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71
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55
House Bunny, The
61
Incredible Hulk, The
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
79
Iron Man
57
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73
Kung Fu Panda
52
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24
Love Guru, The
51
Mamma Mia!
43
Meet Dave
35
Mirrors
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
64
Pineapple Express
53
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53
Sex and the City: The Movie
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
36
Space Chimps
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
51
Step Brothers
47
Swing Vote
60
Traitor
71
Tropic Thunder
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
93
WALL-E
64
Wanted
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
93
WALL-E
82
Dark Knight, The
79
Iron Man
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
61
Incredible Hulk, The
60
Traitor
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
House Bunny, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Rocker, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
51
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
42
Death Race
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
Happening, The
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
26
Babylon A.D.
24
Love Guru, The
19
Bangkok Dangerous
15
Disaster Movie
15
College
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

85
Alexandra
40
America the Beautiful
66
American Teen
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
65
August Evening
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
62
Baghead
58
Beautiful Losers
xx
Beer for My Horses
47
Before the Rains
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
56
Bottle Shock
75
Boy A
55
Bra Boys
61
Brick Lane
64
Brideshead Revisited
47
Burn After Reading
61
Bustin' Down the Door
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
xx
Cthulhu
86
Edge of Heaven, The
66
Elegy
52
Elsa & Fred
80
Encounters at the End of the World
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64
Fall, The
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
82
Frozen River
71
Girl Cut in Two, A
62
Girls Rock!
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Goal II: Living the Dream
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54
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25
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44
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76
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72
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63
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46
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67
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62
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63
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78
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50
Last Stop for Paul
70
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61
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89
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62
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85
Momma's Man
74
Mongol
46
My Mexican Shivah
80
Order of Myths, The
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
54
Ping Pong Playa
77
Pool, The
72
Priceless
61
Red
71
Roman de gare
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
51
Savage Grace
55
Save Me
73
Secret, A
57
Sixty Six
58
Sukiyaki Western Django
xx
Surfer, Dude
83
Tell No One
56
Then She Found Me
71
To the Limit
72
Transsiberian
81
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
86
Up the Yangtze
79
Visitor, The
61
Wackness, The
54
What We Do Is Secret
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
67
XXY
54
Year of the Fish
xx
Young People F**king
75
Young@Heart
89
Man on Wire
86
Edge of Heaven, The
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Momma's Man
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Tell No One
82
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
77
Pool, The
76
I Served the King of England
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
74
Mongol
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Secret, A
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Girl Cut in Two, A
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
67
XXY
67
Jellyfish
66
Elegy
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
August Evening
64
Brideshead Revisited
64
Fall, The
63
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Kabluey
62
Mister Foe
62
Baghead
62
Girls Rock!
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Man Named Pearl, A
61
Red
61
Brick Lane
58
Beautiful Losers
58
Sukiyaki Western Django
57
Sixty Six
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Save Me
55
Bra Boys
54
Year of the Fish
54
Hamlet 2
54
Ping Pong Playa
54
What We Do Is Secret
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
52
Elsa & Fred
51
Savage Grace
50
Last Stop for Paul
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
47
Burn After Reading
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
46
My Mexican Shivah
44
Henry Poole is Here
40
America the Beautiful
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
25
Hell Ride
xx
Young People F**king
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Cthulhu
xx
Goal II: Living the Dream
xx
Surfer, Dude
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Old School
DreamWorks Distribution LLC
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for some strong sexual content, nudity and language
Starring
Luke Wilson,
Will Ferrell,
Vince Vaughn,
Ellen Pompeo,
Craig Kilborn,
Juliette Lewis,
Leah Remini,
and
Matthew Carey
A raucous comedy about a trio of thirty-something buddies who try to recapture the outrageous, irrepressible fun of their college years by starting their own off-campus frat house. (DreamWorks Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Todd Phillips (also story)
Scot Armstrong (also story)
Court Crandall (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Todd Phillips
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 10, 2003
Video: June 10, 2003
Theatrical: February 21, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
91 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Baltimore Sun
Jay Boyar
The whole plot is a shambles. And yet none of this matters much when you're laughing as hard as this film makes you laugh.

80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Starts out silly, gets sillier by the minute, and frequently had me and most of the people around me in stitches.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
In terms of sheer belly-laugh count, this one's in the same plentiful company as "There's Something About Mary" and "Road Trip."

80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
It's blissfully, pants-wettingly funny from beginning to end.

80
Film Threat
Kevin Carr
Will Ferrell is a fearless comedian, and he commits completely to his insanity in the film, and that makes it work.

75
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
It's also a message movie, about as weighty as Lara Flynn Boyle and twice as absurd. But I'd like to report that I had an excellent time.

70
Los Angeles Times
Manohla Dargis
The disconnect between what men say and what they do makes Old School funnier than most of its gags and it also invests the movie with curious pathos.

70
The New Yorker
David Denby
Its party time, and the movie is wild and crude without being mean--its a comedy of infantile regression, Animal House for grownups. [17 March 2003, p. 154]
70
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Ferrell owns the screen.

70
LA Weekly
Chuck Wilson
The 1978 frat-house classic "Animal House," starring the late, great John Belushi, is the model for testosterone-mad comedies such as this, and while it hasn't that film's scope or finesse, Old School does have Ferrell, a man clearly in touch with his inner Belushi.

63
USA Today
Mike Clark
In lieu of a toga party, one scene treats us to an octogenarian fraternity member wrestling two topless townie lookers slathered in KY Gel. Hey, there's no stopping progress.

63
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
Ultimately, the immensely personable and talented lead actors manage to push aside the disquieting notion that this group of men are so emotionally stunted that they're happy to abandon their wives and children for the sake of a party.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Old School is exactly what director Todd Phillips intends for it to be: low-brow, moronic to a fault, and occasionally side-splittingly funny.

60
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
A good laugh is almost never a bad thing and almost every frame of Old School is grade A goofball fun.

60
Variety
Dennis Harvey
This year's kinder, gentler "Animal House."

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
To call the haphazard string of gags a story is to give it far too much credit, but it is funny in a blunt, profane frat boy way, thanks to the bulldozing energy of Ferrell, the smarmy manipulations of Vaughn and the anything-for-a-laugh excess of Phillips.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Under Reitman's deanship, Ferrell lets his freak flag fly and Vaughn unlooses a notably funny, light-on-his-feet lunkheadedness.

50
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
With little cohesion and no respect for the editing process, Old School often feels like someone threw film clips on the floor and strung them together willy-nilly.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The saving grace of Old School is that it has about a dozen funny moments. These moments aren't mildly funny or chuckle funny but really funny.

50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Only fitfully funny, except when Ferrell is onscreen -- then you won't stop laughing.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Speaking of funny things, director Todd Phillips has been down this path before in "Road Trip." There, toiling in the same lame genre, he actually showed a hint of comic ingenuity. Here, the hint has dwindled to a hoarse whisper.

50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Like a half-empty glass of Coke that's been sitting out for a couple of days; sure, it looks like cola, but one sip tells you exactly what's missing.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
A deliberately stupid movie whose crazy charm wins you over in the end.

50
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Phillips and co-writer Scot Armstrong waste too much time on a silly love-interest subplot for Wilson; that time is much better served by the frat-boy idiocies, like Frank beer-bonging himself into streaking.

50
TV Guide
Angel Cohn
The frat brothers have some surprisingly touching moments, and their diverse but perfectly matched personalities generate a fairly steady stream of laugh-out-loud moments.

40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
A comedy with a terrific premise and little else.

40
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
A dumb guy comedy about dumb guys by dumb guys and for dumb guys.

38
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
The movie is never more than the sum of its scattershot jokes; it's sloppily put together, with scenes seemingly cut mid-dialogue.

38
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Old School has all the ingredients of an uproarious campus comedy, but it lacks a boisterous short-order cook who could whip up a food fight or three.

30
Village Voice
Ed Park
A flatland of lowest-common-denominated retro-collegiate wackiness.

25
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The movie has been slapped together by director Todd Phillips, who careens from scene to scene without it occurring to him that humor benefits from characterization, context and continuity. Otherwise, all you have is a lot of people acting goofy.

25
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
If you're going to be offensive, by all means be offensive. Be tasteless! Be "There's Something About Mary." But at least stick to your guns, and don't wuss out when it counts.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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