National Lampoon's Van Wilder

Boston Globe Loren King

Reynolds is the best thing about Van Wilder.

LA Weekly John Patterson

The film's sheer likability and very impressive gag-to-giggle ratio derive more from sweetness and sharpness than from shit jokes.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The result is a movie that is both laugh-out-loud funny and cringe-worthily silent.

Variety Scott Foundas

There's nary a comic idea in Van Wilder that isn't ripped off from a recent Farrelly brothers movie. But that doesn't stop Van Wilder from being very funny, provided you're not easily offended.

TV Guide Steve Simels

While not for every taste, this often very funny collegiate gross-out comedy goes a long way toward restoring the luster of the National Lampoon film franchise.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Studded with Lampoon/John Hughes anachronisms.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Ellen A. Kim

The gags on which it rests its laughs have been lifted from every other raucous comedy, campus-oriented or not.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The laugh-out-loud jokery is in short supply, and Reynolds and Reid's kicky charm only goes so far. Bluto Blutarsky, we miss you.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

What's lacking is the sense of structure that might have made Van Wilder more than a meandering succession of random gags.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An unabashedly bad movie full of cliches, claptrap, fairly good rock 'n' roll and stomach-turning gross-out gags.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

Those 24-and-unders who are looking for their own "Caddyshack" to adopt as a generational signpost may have to keep looking.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Merely labeling National Lampoon's Van Wilder "sophomoric" or "vulgar" doesn't do justice to the perpetrators' dedication.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Has to go down as a failed comedy. It's just not enough of a comedy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A very funny movie ... in some alternate universe, maybe.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A movie that shouldn't be allowed on the same campus as "Animal House."

Miami Herald Charles Savage

This utter waste of time has next-to-nothing to do with the infinitely wittier golden-age National Lampoon movies.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Even by teen gross-out movie standards Van Wilder makes "Sorority Boys" look like "Some Like It Hot."

Chicago Reader Bill Stamets

Painfully unfunny.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Painfully flat gross-out comedy.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Much too aggressively juvenile crass.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The movie is really just an elaborate excuse to show repeated close-ups of an elephantine dog scrotum.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

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.