BY MIKEY MIGO
I was very annoyed by the commercials of "College" when I first saw them. The name got a lot of shit, but I was willing to deal with it. It was that the trailer tried to make it come off as something part of a great lineage of college movies from "Animal House" to "Revenge of the Nerds" to "American Pie". They REALLY tried to use these great movies as the muse and you can see that off the bat. What threw me for a loop is that the first twenty minutes almost makes it seem like it's a "Superbad" sequel or a knock off. The "nerdy kid" is friends with "the obnoxious fat kid", but the nerdy kid is going to college with the "goofy nerdy kid". They then go to a college called "FU" to "tour the school". They end up becoming pledges to a frat lead by the most interesting characters in the movie. I think they should of switched the roles of the "What I Like About You" guy and the "Whitest Kids You Know" guy around. Other than that, while they were supposed to be the heels of the movie I sorta ended up wanting to see more of their shit. The "obnoxious fat kid" was too obnoxious at times. It was like he was trying to be Jonah Hill, Chris Farley, Stiffler, and while trying to be "cool". He had natural personality and charisma, but he should chillax and turned it down a level. The "nerdy kid" was played by Drake Bell who really didn't get off the "nerd" vibe at all. He carried the movie very nicely. At first I didn't want to watch it, but I slowly gained interest as things developed. It's not going to change the world and it's NOT on level with the movies they try to compare themselves to. It's more on a "Van Wilder", "Dorm Daze", "Porkys", or "PCU" type of movie. That's not really a bad thing in my book. I think the marketing destroyed this movie. If it were named something/anything else (even "Welcome to College") as opposed to just "College" it would have had a better chance. Same with the forced feel of promoting it as a something like "Animal House", "Nerds", or "Pie". It's not as revolutionary as those movies, but it's an enjoyable enough movie to be open minded about. It's worth checking out on DVD or on Comedy Central where a lot of badly promoted and underrated movies end up.
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