Metascore
26 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 24
  2. Negative: 15 out of 24
  1. An unabashedly bad movie full of cliches, claptrap, fairly good rock 'n' roll and stomach-turning gross-out gags.
  2. Those 24-and-unders who are looking for their own "Caddyshack" to adopt as a generational signpost may have to keep looking.
  3. 30
    Merely labeling National Lampoon's Van Wilder "sophomoric" or "vulgar" doesn't do justice to the perpetrators' dedication.
  4. 25
    Laughter for me was such a physical impossibility during National Lampoon's Van Wilder that had I not been pledged to sit through the film, I would have lifted myself up by my bootstraps and fled.
  5. 25
    This utter waste of time has next-to-nothing to do with the infinitely wittier golden-age National Lampoon movies.
  6. A movie that shouldn't be allowed on the same campus as "Animal House."
  7. Has to go down as a failed comedy. It's just not enough of a comedy.
  8. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    25
    Even by teen gross-out movie standards Van Wilder makes "Sorority Boys" look like "Some Like It Hot."
  9. A very funny movie ... in some alternate universe, maybe.
  10. 20
    Reynolds and Reid's white-bread romance begs to be left on the cutting-room floor, but then again, so does just about every other scene in Van Wilder, which distinguishes itself only in featuring a level of ejaculate rarely found outside of hardcore porn.
  11. Reviewed by: Bill Stamets
    20
    Painfully unfunny.
  12. 10
    Much too aggressively juvenile crass.
  13. 10
    Painfully flat gross-out comedy.
  14. The movie is really just an elaborate excuse to show repeated close-ups of an elephantine dog scrotum.
  15. 0
    This is the sort of low-grade dreck that usually goes straight to video -- with a lousy script, inept direction, pathetic acting, poorly dubbed dialogue and murky cinematography, complete with visible boom mikes.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 51 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 34
  2. Negative: 4 out of 34
  1. Van Wilder is a new college classic with a great script and some pitch-perfect comedic delivery from Reynolds. It echoes 'Animal House' like nobody's business. Full Review »
  2. This movie had some funny moments most notably with the Indian guy. Otherwise the movie bored me to shreds. The story seemed to have fit perfectly well into the movie of him being in school for 7years as there are many students in school for the fun of it. Full Review »
  3. SeanF
    9
    I shall admit from the beginning of this review that I was seduced by Van Wilder (or should I say Ryan Reynolds) from the start. For me he plays the role of a man-child not wanting to leave university perfectly. The character of Van could have so easily been an unlikeable, unlovable idiot in the wrong actors hands, but Reynolds injects charm and a Jim Carreyesq humour that works. Admittedly this is not Shakespeare, and I Full Review »