Old School
Need a Will Ferrell fix? I do. The wicked clown who skewered Dubya, among other targets, left SNL last year after seven seasons and two Emmy nominations to go Hollywood. Ferrell’s movies are mostly throwaways — though I’ll defend Zoolander and A Night at the Roxbury — but he is hilarious in all of them, even — gulp! — The Ladies Man. You take Ferrell where you can get him.
Which brings us to Old School, a crassly eager-to-please mix of Animal House and Jackass in which Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson play old guys (they’re thirtysomething) who open a frat house — Snoop Dogg is their house band.
The film, directed by Todd Phillips (Road Trip), is only fitfully funny, except when Ferrell is onscreen — then you won’t stop laughing. As the just-married Frank, he reverts to a streaking party animal who recalls John Belushi’s Bluto, only grosser. Ferrell is an asset to any film — even if he does have a thing for baring his flabby ass — so somebody, please, write him a good one.