Party Films

Old School (Widescreen Unrated Edition)

Three men, bored with their lives, try to regain the joy of their college days by starting their own fraternity.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: UN
Release Date: 14-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVD

When three thirtysomething friends with woman troubles (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn) decide to form a fraternity, it's supposedly to save Wilson from losing his house, which the nearby college is trying to claim for academic purposes. But really, Ferrell and Vaughn are desperate to return to the reckless, feckless days of beer bongs and hot chicks, and they drag Wilson along with them as they throw themselves into gathering frat pledges of all ages. Old School could have been just another string of bad jokes hanging on a flimsy plot, but the script and the cast have a jovial energy and just enough grounding in reality--at least, up until the obligatory beat-the-system ending, but by that point you'll forgive the excesses of this silly, cheerful, and frequently funny movie. Featuring Jeremy Piven and Juliette Lewis, with cameos by Snoop Dog, Andy Dick, and others. --Bret Fetzer

Friday (New Line Platinum Series)

A youth tries to survive life in L.A.'s hip-hoppin' South Central 'hood. Includes two music videos from the #1 hit soundtrack. Starring Chris Tucker and Ice Cube.Running Time: 91 min.System Requirements:Starring: Ice Cube Anna Marie Horsford Regina King Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr. Nia Long Bernie Mac Chris Tucker and John Witherspoon. Directed By: F. Gary Gray. Running Time: 89 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 794043468025

Friday is the rarest specimen of African American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience.

Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no-frills tale of a typical day in the life of a pair of African American youth in South Central. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament.

Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies--all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they are being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty call" environment of '90s African American comedy. --Ethan Brown

License to Drive (Special Edition)

The brief 1980s mania surrounding "the Coreys" peaked with License to Drive, a modest but surprisingly still enjoyable adventure comedy. Les (Corey Haim, Lucas) has a chance to date his dream girl, Mercedes (Heather Graham, Boogie Nights, in her first significant movie role)--but he's just failed his driving exam. Motivated by a mixture of pride and hormones, he steals his grandfather's Cadillac and heads out on the town with Mercedes for a night that swiftly becomes an escalating series of disasters, made worse by the foolhardy antics of Les' best friend Dean (Corey Feldman, Stand by Me). Despite some egregious '80s fashion disasters (Graham gets the worst of them), License to Drive holds up surprisingly well--it's no work of genius, but it is a solidly made and entertaining teen comedy that's more coherent than most. The depiction of parent-teen relations is fairly honest and particularly well-played by Richard Masur (Risky Business) and Carol Kane (In the Soup) as the parents. The DVD includes a very funny and rambunctious audio commentary track by the screenwriter and director, as well as interviews with the grown-up Coreys. A must-have for fans of '80s nostalgia. --Bret Fetzer

For teenager Les Anderson (Corey Haim),the two most important things in life are getting his driver's license and getting together with the hottest girl in high school (Heather Graham in one of her first film roles). But when Les fails the exam, he 'borrows' the family's prized '73 Cadillac for his big date. An innocent girl. A harmless dirve. What could possibly go wrong? Try a fearless best friend (Corey Feldman) with an insane plan, a high school hottie with too much to drink, angry drag racers, crazed militants, a police roadblock, a crash course in car theft, a very angry father (Richard Masur), a very, very pregnant mother and much more!

The Party

Though this film is a relatively minor one in the massive canon of Peter Sellers, it has moments of absolute hilarity. Written and directed by Blake Edwards, one of Sellers's most fertile collaborators, the film stars Sellers as a would-be actor from India (let them try to get away with that today) who is a walking disaster area. After ruining a day's shooting as an extra on a film, he finds himself unintentionally invited to a big Hollywood party. That's pretty much it as far as plot goes, but Edwards and Sellers know how to milk a simple idea for an unending string of slapstick gags. The result is a film that is episodic and sketchy, but also frequently loony in an inspired way. --Marshall Fine

Scary Movie

Dimension

If you've seen Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, then you know the entire plot of Scary Movie. That's okay, though, because this is a parody, and it helps to know the story in order to be able to get the jokes. No, the biggest surprise here is not the story as much as the amount of full-frontal male nudity. Really, in addition to all the dick jokes (and the ass jokes and fart jokes), there's a couple of shots of the male member, one of which is erect and used as a weapon. Scary Movie somehow ended up with an R rating, which in a sense is groundbreaking; perhaps our ratings board is loosening up after all.

But is it funny? That's the most important question, and the answer to that is yes. In the vein of Airplane!, with a dash of the Farrelly brothers, Scary Movie keeps throwing jokes at you one after another. The law of averages says some of them have to hit, and enough of them do to keep the movie entertaining. Unlike the makers of Airplane!, however, the Wayans brothers aren't making this movie out of a love of the genre, and unlike the Farrelly brothers, they don't make fun of retarded people with any sort of respect, so the humor throughout feels a lot uglier. Still, there are enough funny scenes in Scary Movie to make the viewing experience worthwhile. Special credit must go to Lochlyn Munro as Greg, the over-the-top jock, who steals the movie up until the time he's gotta die.--Andy Spletzer

Scary Movie 2

Spoof on demon possession movies.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 13-AUG-2002
Media Type: DVD

The Wayans Brothers return with another horror-flick parody, this one taking shots at The Exorcist, Hannibal, and House on Haunted Hill, along with non-horror fare like Charlie's Angels. In addition to gags (and I do mean gag) about innumerable bodily functions, there are slyer jabs at Thomas Jefferson and Raging Bull. As in Scary Movie, the strongest humor comes from making fun of the inane behavior of characters in horror movies. Assisting Shawn and Marlon Wayans are Anna Faris, Kathleen Robertson (in the Carmen Electra role, providing the T&A), and David Cross, as well as Tori Spelling, Chris Elliott, James Woods (as an exorcist with bowel trouble), Andy Richter, and poor Tim Curry, who probably never thought his career would come to this. --Bret Fetzer

Can't Hardly Wait

This underrated teen comedy from 1998 is guilty of being a proud underachiever, and it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but look closely and you'll find the makings of a much better movie buried under all the keg-party antics. The basic story is typical for this kind of comedy. A young, aspiring writer named Preston (Ethan Embry) has been lusting after class beauty Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt, from TV's Party of Five) for four years of high school, but he's never had the nerve to tell her. Now that they're about to graduate he's finally worked up the courage to write her a soul-baring love letter. At the raucous graduation keg party that takes up most of the movie's 98 minutes, Preston agonizes while Amanda's selfish jock ex-boyfriend tries to win her back, and delivering his love letter turns out to be more difficult than he ever imagined. What's interesting about Can't Hardly Wait has little to do with its attractive leads, however. The most engagingly real and entertaining characters are the misfits who show up in the subplots, including a geek (Charlie Korsmo) who turns into the life of the party, and a pair of old friends (Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose) who confront each other about their mutual needs and insecurities. There are some really good scenes between these two, and this modest movie has a few other pleasant surprises up its sleeve. That doesn't make it particularly good, but it does make it an agreeable waste of time. --Jeff Shannon

Risky Business

Little did Tom Cruise know that he would become a box-office superstar after he cranked up some Bob Seeger and played air guitar in his underwear. But there's more to this 1983 hit than the arrival of a hot young star. Making a stylish debut, writer-director Paul Brickman crafted a subtle satire of crass materialism wrapped in an irresistible plot about a crafty high schooler named Joel (Cruise) who goes into risky business with the beguiling prostitute Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) while his parents are out of town. Joel turns his affluent Chicago-suburb home into a lucrative bordello and forms a steamy personal and professional partnership with Lana, but only as long as the two can avoid the vengeful pimp Guido (Joe Pantoliano) and keep their customers happy. A signature film of the 1980s, Risky Business still holds up thanks to Cruise's effortless charm and the movie's timeless appeal as an adolescent male fantasy. --Jeff Shannon

High school senior is tired of being Mr. All-American and facing such traumatic decisions as which Ivy League college to attend. His life gets turned around when he meets a sexy call girl who transforms his house into a brothel while his parents are away.

DVD Features:
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Old School (Full Screen Unrated Edition)

When three thirtysomething friends with woman troubles (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn) decide to form a fraternity, it's supposedly to save Wilson from losing his house, which the nearby college is trying to claim for academic purposes. But really, Ferrell and Vaughn are desperate to return to the reckless, feckless days of beer bongs and hot chicks, and they drag Wilson along with them as they throw themselves into gathering frat pledges of all ages. Old School could have been just another string of bad jokes hanging on a flimsy plot, but the script and the cast have a jovial energy and just enough grounding in reality--at least, up until the obligatory beat-the-system ending, but by that point you'll forgive the excesses of this silly, cheerful, and frequently funny movie. Featuring Jeremy Piven and Juliette Lewis, with cameos by Snoop Dog, Andy Dick, and others. --Bret Fetzer

The Dinner Game

Laughter is on the menu when the creator of La Cage Aux Folles serves up a tasty comic feast with this hilarious farce.When Pierre decided to play a game to see who could bring the biggest idiot to a dinner party he never imagined he'd be the one playing the fool. But when Pierre's selfish ways come to light before the main course he gets his just dessert.System Requirements: Running Time 72 minFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 031398845720 Manufacturer No: VM8457D