Van Wilder: Freshman Year is simply an aggravating movie. This is the start of what will no doubt become a series of straight-to-DVD movies based on the National Lampoon characters, but ultimately dilute what quality was in the original film (a la the American Pie spinoffs). I enjoyed the original movie; it wasn't the best flick out there, but as far college-based comedies go, it had its good points. Well, pretty much all of that is gone in Freshman Year, and what we have left is a movie that, with a few character-name swaps, could have stood on its own. Instead, in using the Van Wilder name, it not only brings in quite a few inconsistencies, but also forces me to compare it to the original film, which doesn't give this movie a whole lot of hope.

Anyway, as you might surmise from the film's title, this movie takes place seven years before the events of the original Van Wilder movie (even though technologies like iPhones and certain vehicles clearly place the film in the current year). Van (now played by Jonathan Bennett) has just graduated high school, and after a summer in Amsterdam, is off to be the fifth Wilder (actually the fifth Van Wilder I believe) to go to Coolidge College. Going in, he expects the university to be the party school he knows it has been for many years, but instead, he finds the current administration (led by Dean Charles Reardon, played by Kurt Fuller) has all but turned Coolidge into a military school. The campus' ROTC is the best in the country, the girls are chaste and everything from kissing to drinking and drugs is outlawed. Needless to say, young Van isn't going to take this sitting down.

Van, his high roommate Farley (Nestor Aaron Absera), and a Chinese student called Yu Dum Fok (Jerry Shea) start to change the college by planning parties, subverting Dean Reardon, and taking down the crack ROTC that has the college under their thumb. But things go a little wrong when Van and his buddies are forced to join the ROTC and have to deal with their strict training schedules as well. But, much to Van's surprise, their drill instructor turns out to be campus hottie Kaitlin Hays (Kristin Cavallari of The Hills). So now, Van not only plots to restore Coolidge to its rightful state, but also works on turning Kaitlin to his side (much to her boyfriend Dirk's chagrin).

I don't know what it was about Van Wilder: The Freshman Year that rubbed me the wrong way, but something did. The acting wasn't great, in fact it was pretty painful at times. Bennett's attempts to use Ryan Reynold's mannerisms for the character came out forced and there was no chemistry between Van and Kaitlin so it felt like the girl was simply another conquest of Van's, even though he constantly protested otherwise. I expected juvenile humor (which typically isn't an issue for me), but it just wasn't good ... even for this style. All-in-all, the movie simply felt like a pale imitation of the original and more like a money-making attempt than any kind of quality college-humor movie. Simply put, when lined up with anything else that has the National Lampoon name on it, this film falls very short.

While the DVD has a few special features, none of them seem to really add anything to the overall experience. These extras include a basic "Making-of..." featuring mostly cast interviews, a bit where people talk about working with the dog that plays Colossus, some bloopers and a behind-the-scenes featurette about Van's sex-ed class he teaches. The only special features of any real quality cover some of the more unusual props used in the movie and the one that plays off of Cavallari's past gig. This last one is called "Decatur" and adds the correct amount of badly set up drama that is prevalent throughout The Hills.

Ultimately, even Van Wilder fans will find Freshman Year hard to swallow. It took me three sittings to actually make it through this movie. This says something, because even at only a little over an hour and a half, it was hard to stomach too much of this film in one sitting. Put simply, things would have been better off if this film hadn't been made, but I'm sure we are going to see a few more Direct-to-DVD releases with the Van Wilder name on them before this license runs its course. And if the American Pie franchise is any indication, that won't be any time soon (I think the fourth Direct-to-DVD release is hitting the shelves in a couple of months).