Old School

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.

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.

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."

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's blissfully, pants-wettingly funny from beginning to end.

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.

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.

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.

The New Yorker David Denby

It’s party time, and the movie is wild and crude without being mean--it’s a comedy of infantile regression, “Animal House” for grownups. [17 March 2003, p. 154]

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Ferrell owns the screen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Variety Dennis Harvey

This year's kinder, gentler "Animal House."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Only fitfully funny, except when Ferrell is onscreen -- then you won't stop laughing.

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.

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A deliberately stupid movie whose crazy charm wins you over in the end.

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.

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A comedy with a terrific premise and little else.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A dumb guy comedy about dumb guys by dumb guys and for dumb guys.

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.

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.

Village Voice Ed Park

A flatland of lowest-common-denominated retro-collegiate wackiness.

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.

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.