CRITICAL CONSENSUS
A low-brow comedy, minus the comedy.
SYNOPSIS
The side-splitting sequel to the original National Lampoon smash hit starring Kal Penn finds the perennial college underachiever transferring to Cambridge.
--© Bauer Martinez Studios
Rated R (for pervasive crude sexual content, some nudity and language).
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PRODUCTION NOTES
Taj Badalandabad (Kal Penn), the personal assistant to the legendary Van Wilder, has just graduated Coolidge College and is now on his way to England's Camford University. Taj is on a quest to follow in the footsteps of his father's legend as a ladies' man at Camford, beginning with membership to an exclusive campus Fraternal Guild, the Fox and Hounds, where Taj hopes he will become the next generation of Badalandabads to be deservedly nicknamed the "Sultan of Sheets."
But when Taj arrives at the venerated campus, he quickly discovers that he has not, in fact, been accepted to the Fraternal Guild, and that the stuffy head of the Fox and Hounds - Pip Everett (Daniel Percival), the Earl of Grey - is, in fact, a wanker.
After his faithful bulldog Ballzac leaves a present on one of the Fox and Hounds antique chairs, Taj seeks out the only housing available on campus and finds himself suddenly "Head of House" for a group of student misfits - Sadie (Holly Davidson), a gorgeous Cockney girl with a mouth like a sailor; Seamus (Glen Barry), an ale-swillin' English-baiting Irishman; Gethin (Anthony Cozens), a dual math and quantum physics major who is not only brainy but super-nerdy; and Simon (Steven Rathman), who never speaks.
Also, as part of his duties, Taj finds out that he will be a history teacher to his new mates and that his teaching supervisor will be Charlotte Higginson (Lauren Cohan), a serious English beauty with a wild streak who just happens to be dating Pip Everett. Taj is instantly smitten with Charlotte. Charlotte instantly is not smitten in return.
Taj reaches deep to channel his inner Van Wilder and decides to take on the challenge set before him - not only will he transform the band of misfits into Big Men (and Woman) on Campus, he will give the Fox and Hounds and Pip a run for their money. At the campus Society Inaugural Ball, Taj announces to the uptight crowd that he and his new mates are starting their own exclusive society - the Cock and Bulls. And the Fox and Hounds will be meeting the Cock and at the venerable Camford Cup - an ongoing series of campus academic events and athletic competitions.
Taj's skills at teaching history - and other slightly less academic subjects - whip his band of adopted ruffians into the leanest, meanest and sexiest fraternal society ever to muss the sheets at Camford.
His ingenuity and resourcefulness is not lost on Charlotte as Taj does everything he can to draw her attention away from Pip. And as he faces the first test of his newly gained insights into the female sex, Taj realizes firsthand that sometimes you have got to let you're heart lead you, even if you know it's taking you places you're not supposed to go.
MGM Pictures presents National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, starring Kal Penn (Van Wilder, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Dan Perceval, Lauren Cohan (Casanova), Holly Davidson (Flirting With Flamenco), Anthony Cozens (Bleak House), and Glen Barry (The Draft). Directed by Mort Nathan from a screenplay by David Gallagher based on characters by Brent Goldberg and David Wagner, the film is produced by Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, Andrew Panay, Elie Samaha and Natan Zahavi, and executive produced by Kal Penn and Daniel Spilo.
The creative behind-the-scenes team is led by cinematographer Hubert Taczanowski, production designer Chris Roope, editors John Axness and Sherwood Jones, and costume designer Stephanie Collie. Music is by Robert Folk. The film is a co-production of Bauer Martinez Studios, Myriad Pictures and Tapestry Films.
National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj is distributed in North America by MGM Pictures.
THE NEXT STEP IN "VAN"-OLOGY
Kal Penn, who starred in the original Van Wilder as Taj Badalandabad - disciple and assistant to Van himself (played in the first film by Ryan Reynolds) - has since starred in films like Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Superman Returns and The Namesake. He returns in the title role of National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, which takes Van's erstwhile sidekick to the cool climbs and stuffy social mores of England's most prestigious university - (the fictional) Camford.
"We talked about making The Rise of Taj over the course of a few months," says Penn. "Then it all fell into place. I think of this more as a franchise than a straight sequel to Van Wilder. Taj isn't exactly like Van Wilder, but he's got Van Wilderesque qualities. He's basically Taj, who has become really confident through the Van Wilder Training Program. And now he's putting other people through the Taj Training Program."
In
the original film, Taj learned all the secrets of being a career student - loved by all, and especially by the ladies, and Taj took it upon himself to become the "Sultan of Sheets." "The jokes in this movie are just non-stop," says Penn. "I never thought the double entendre and trademark Van-isms of the first movie could be even remotely topped, and this script took that sensibility to a whole other level."
Starring opposite Penn is beautiful British actress Lauren Cohan, who appeared with Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller in Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova, as Charlotte Higginson, Taj's initially uptight colleague who loosens up when the two bond over swords and alternate histories. "Taj and Charlotte clash over Taj's less conventional teaching methods," says Charlotte. "Their first real bonding experience is when she tells him his students are in danger of flunking out of school because their grades are so low. But to his credit, Taj takes Charlotte's challenge and starts turning the mates around - their grades as well as their self-esteem."
Meanwhile, the group of mismatched misfits whom Taj has dubbed the Cock and Bulls are undergoing their own remarkable transformation under the tutelage of Taj. As Gethin (Anthony Cozens) starts out as Camford's most geeky student. As he tells Taj, "I, according to my latest calculations, should score by the time I complete my second PhD these paper." "Gethin loves Taj because Taj is the only person who has ever given him the time of day and treats him like a human being," says Cozens. "Even though he's got this incredible brain, it's nice to be treated like a social animal. Taj brings that sense of belonging to this group in spades."
Holly Davidson plays Sadie, who is Gethin's opposite - disrespected because of her "boomin' body" rather than because she's a brain. "My character, Sadie, is kind of an English stereotypical London Cockney," says Davidson. "She's one of the lads and gets stuck in with the boys - a hot tomboy. All of us together make a really different dynamic of people. We've managed to come together and all get on. It's really good fun."
Steven Rathman plays Simon, who doesn't speak, but harbors a rather admirable secret. "Not talking is great for learning my lines," jokes Rathman. "I got handed lines every day and just handed them straight on. Apart from that, I just had to get naked a lot, really."
Seamus, played by Glen Barry, is the rowdy Irish drinker and brawler of the bunch. "The joke about Seamus was that he drinks so much that he just sleeps wherever he wants," says Penn. "In fact, I don't think he has a room because he can just sleep at the pub."
"It's very hard to play a drunk and a party animal," jokes Barry. "But I did some research with Holly [Davidson] before I came over."
Taj's rival for Charlotte's affections is the stiff Pip Everett, played by Daniel Percival. Though Pip and his chums get a charge out of once again pulling the rug out from a new student's feet by telling them they're not accepted to the fraternal order, his initial amusement quickly gives way to pique. "Not only do the Cock and Bulls catxh up to the Fox and Hounds in the Camford Cup, which Pip's group easily wins every year, but Taj and Charlotte are spending more time together - a LOT more time," says Percival.
Pip sets out to get rid of the Cock and Bulls by attempting to humiliate and sabotage Taj's mates, but his pranks have a funny - and often disgusting - way of backfiring, especially the stunt involving supplements, a great dane and the Camford Dog Show. "Taj and Charlotte are falling in love and the Cock and Bulls are moving into a close second behind the Fox and Hounds," says Penn.
Though Taj begins his stay at the university attempting to live Van Wilder's teachings to the letter, he actually grows into something entirely different over the course of the challenges. "I think the great thing about this film is that it deconstructs the previous notion of who Taj was," says Penn. "It's four years later and he has assimilated in being comfortable in terms of who he really is. There are lots of jabs on the British culture and the whole post-colonial mentality. But he really comes into his own.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
The film came together under the careful eye of Mort Nathan, who previously co-wrote and directed Boat Trip in addition to writing the Farrelly Brothers' cult hit Kingpin. "The great thing about making this movie for me has been working with the fantastic cast and crew," he says. "It's a joke to say everyone's a comedian, but you couldn't turn around on our set and somebody wasn't pulling a gag or joke, or just having a laugh. The whole thing was a complete joy from start to finish."
The film shot in Bucharest, Romania, to stand in for England. "Movies are a strange business," comments Nathan. "We went to Romania for three months to make a movie about England. Then the cast and crew dashed off to England for a week just to make sure it didn't look like
we hadn't spent the entire shoot making a comedy about British class struggle that inexplicably took place in mid-town Bucharest. We had bad weather, a schedule that was impossible, and not nearly enough money to get everything done properly. And the strangest thing about the whole experience? Despite all the chaos, the film is a hilarious."
Penn, who had the comedy chops, relished the challenge of putting Taj through his paces - in both fencing and paintball. "I was totally looking forward to all the fencing and sword fighting but a little insecure because of the amount of time I had to learn it," says the actor. "We shot the sequences in pieces, and we rehearsed and then walked through it. But when I just let go of the fear and had fun with it, it came surprisingly easily."
Though not without a nick or two: "I got stabbed in the arm, actually," Penn says with a laugh, "and jabbed a couple times. I got shot with a paintball gun.
The sets used for Camford University often reminded Penn of "Ceaucescu's Palace," in stark contrast to the fraternity's house. "The set itself reminds me a little bit of Saw II," he jokes.
Though the weather in Bucharest was arguably better than England, the nights proved to be extremely cold for the international group of artists and artisans. "It was 18 degrees outside Fahrenheit, so what is that Celsius, like, minus 10?" says the American Penn. "It was freezing and we were shooting there for three or four, three days and two nights."
"Kal Penn is a brilliant young comic actor," says Nathan. "We were blessed with an extremely funny ensemble cast to support him, a tireless producer, a great cinematographer, an amazingly inventive production designer, a top notch editor, a terrific costumer, and the hardest working assistant directors and tech crew in show business. And we had a pretty damn funny script. Not bad ingredients for a director to have to work with."
"The camaraderie on this whole shoot has been extraordinary," enthuses Cohan. "I know that it will come across onscreen. People usually watch these things and think, 'Oh, God. It's so forced and everything.' But for real, we've become so tight."
