Why Did I Enjoy Van Wilder So Much?

I remember when I was younger, and I loved any film I saw.  When I saw “Daredevil” in theaters, I loved it.  “The Nutty Professor 2”?  Big fan.  “Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd”?  Genius.  Sometime early in high school, I gained the ability to notice if a film was complete shit.  But that didn’t stop me from still enjoying “Van Wilder”, even after I was busy telling my classmates that their tastes in films were awful and that “Scary Movie 4” was an abomination that they should be ashamed of enjoying.

But why did I enjoy “Van Wilder” so much?  Until I previously rewatched it on tv, I hadn’t seen the film for a few years, but still had fond memories of watching it a few times in high school.  But why?  I couldn’t understand how I could have liked a film that was so awful.

Maybe it was because I had yet to grow a strong hatred of Ryan Reynolds.  This was fairly early on in his film career, before he seemed to pop up in a new piece of shit film every two months.  He had yet to appear in all those annoying trailers for “The Proposal”, where he is forced to marry his Canadian boss played by Sandra Bullock (which is a creepy film plot for so many reasons).  He hadn’t yet helped ruin the Blade franchise with his portrayal of a vampire hunter almost as douchy and unlikeable as the vampires in the Twilight series.  And he hadn’t been cast as Hal Jordan in “Green Lantern”, which might go down as the second most forgettable comic book film adaptation from recent years (#1 on that list goes to Jonah Hex, which would never be remembered if not for Megan Fox).  It is impossible to tell if he would piss me off as much were I to see the film for the first time, or if I’m clouded by how much of a Hollywood douche he has become.

Maybe it was Tara Reid, who I thought was fairly attractive at the time.  I was a high school boy, so maybe some decent sex appeal could cloud my judgment of a film.  Plus, I hadn’t learned about her disturbing plastic surgery exploits (something called a “doughnut mastopexy” is involved), had not seen the horrifying pictures of her without makeup, and had not gained a general disdain of her (kinda like with Ryan Reynolds).  But honestly, there were plenty of films I thought were horrible and yet had attractive actresses, so that couldn’t be it.

It could have been that I didn’t care how they named the Indian character Taj Mahal Badalandabad (played by Kal Penn).  Seriously, did I not care about how he was a ridiculous Indian stereotype with an offensive name whose only goal was getting laid, helping out his white friend (Van also had a black friend to help him out, bit of racism?), and betraying his cultural values in order to assimilate into American culture (because fuck other countries with their unique cultures)?  This was, of course, before Kal Penn  played Kumar in Harold in Kumar (which appropriately dealt with the issues of preconceived notions based on things such as being Indian), or before he worked for the White House Office of Public Engagement.  Seriously though, was I not pissed about them naming an Indian character Taj Mahal?

Or maybe I was intrigued by the party life of college being portrayed.  As a less-than-super-popular kid, I wasn’t invited to many cool kid parties, and did not spend much time with girls who looked like Tara Reid or acted like Tara Reid.  Van Wilder promised college would be full of enormous fully furnished dorm rooms with hot tubs and pet dogs, beautiful sunny campuses where I could drive to class in my pimped out golf cart and could just park in the parking spot assigned for that teacher I had been feuding with since I messed around with his daughter freshman year, and parties where every single person was super attractive and wearing an expensive costume to go along with the theme.  Watching the film now, I can call bullshit on their depiction of college.  I had a great time in college, my frat house did get a pet dog, and after enough alcohol everyone at the parties looked good enough even if they didn’t dress up for our dinosaurs and sluts themed party.  But it isn’t anything like Hollywood depicts, unless you are filthy rich and incredibly attractive in which case go fuck yourself.

Very likely it was the character of Van Wilder that made me like the film.  Yes, partly it was because I liked Ryan Reynolds, but I also wanted to be the super-cool guy who solved all the problems and who everyone got excited to see at parties.  I wanted to host naked runs, and throw roller disco parties.  I wanted to win the girl away from the douche guy, and make him eat pastries with dog semen (seriously, was I that immature in high school?).

But looking now, Van just seems like a huge jerk.  Part of that is definitely due to my newfound hatred of Ryan Reynolds, no question.  But let’s examine the character, and see if he is a decent human being.  First, he comes from an insanely rich family and can afford things such as a hot tub and golf cart in college.  Then, while at his seventh year of college, all of which had been paid for by his father, he is forced to pay for one semester at college.  Oh my god, what a tragedy, how could his father do such an awful thing like that?  Seriously, anyone who has their parents pay for their education is incredibly blessed, and even spoiled a bit.  Poor Van, he has to pay for ONE SEMESTER OF COLLEGE.  He has to suffer hardships such as not being able to pay his assistant Taj (by the way, shouldn’t it just be called slavery since he isn’t being paid?), and has to get a job (which is just him throwing parties for other rich people, and at these parties he has to talk to all the hot college girls who think he is dreamy).  But it’s ok, because even though he suffers all those hardships, he ends up getting the girl of his dreams.

By the way, did we mention that the girl of his dreams that he won over was already in a relationship, and this relationship was so serious that the boyfriend even proposed to her?  Douchebag Van chose a girl with a boyfriend over the seemingly endless wave of single girls who were all over him.  Yes, the girl’s boyfriend was a jerk, but it’s still a dick move to go after a girl with a serious boyfriend.  And besides, the boyfriend was mostly just a jerk to Van, and only because Van was trying to steal his girlfriend.  What else makes him a bad guy?  The fact that he is in a fraternity and gets upset when his girlfriend interrupts pledging (which she totally did, and was very rude of her)?  The fact that he is rich and dresses nice (the exact opposite of Van, of course)?  Or is it the fact that he cheats on his girlfriend after she already is ignoring him and basically throwing herself at Van?  Honestly, are we supposed to hate the guy who loses his girlfriend and then has that girlfriend sabotage his chance to get into medical school where he can become a doctor and help sick people not die?

So getting back to my main question, why did I like this movie?  Maybe it’s because I didn’t overanalyze the character of Van Wilder.  Maybe I was less mature and a film with a farting stripper didn’t disgust me as much.  Maybe the soundtrack had just enough sounds I liked to put me in a good mood (Jimmy Eat World, oh nostalgia).  But let’s be honest, it was because I wanted to be cool like Van, there was attractive women, and I didn’t notice Ryan Reynolds is one of those people you just want to punch in the face.  Whatever, I’ve wasted enough time wondering this stupid question.