Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews 
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8300249
- Running time: 88 minutes
- Year: 2003
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: 6 languages available
- Subtitles: 4 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: From the Cutting Room Floor, Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Photo Gallery, Trailers, Audio commentaries
Director:
- Todd Phillips
(Bittersweet Motel, Frat House, Hated, Old School, Road Trip, Starsky & Hutch (2004))
Producers:
- Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck and Todd Phillips
Screenplay:
- Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong
Original Music :
- Theodore Shapiro
Cast :
- Mitch Martin: Luke Wilson
Frank Ricard: Will Ferrell
Bernard ‘Beanie’ Campbell: Vince Vaughn
Dean Gordon Pritchard: Jeremy Piven
Nicole: Ellen Pompeo
Heidi: Juliette Lewis
Lara Campbell: Leah Remini
Marissa Jones: Perrey Reeves
Mark: Craig Kilborn
Darcie Springbrook: Elisha Cuthbert
Peppers: Seann William Scott
Turning 30 may have its advantages. You start to realise what you want in life, even if it’s something you can’t get, particularly trying to re-live your 20s – to see if you can get it right second time around. And that’s what the guys in Old School are doing as relationships break up and you find yourself single again in your early 30s and you start up a fraternity to bring the excitement back into your life.
Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) finds his latest girlfriend, Heidi (Juliette Lewis), is into gang banging when he’s not around (even the film’s director Todd Phillips turns up to join in), and after throwing the wildest party in his new house he wakes up to find he’s just slept with his boss’ daughter (24‘s Kim Bauer – Elisha Cuthbert). His best friend Frank (Will Ferrell) has got married and it’s clearly not working out, and party animal, but devoted father, Bernard ‘Beanie’ Campbell (Vince Vaughn) is the driving force out of the three in the early days, before they’re all in the swing of things.
But with one wild party, a single streaker, a KY jelly paddling-pool party that Michael Barrymore could only dream about, two girls briefly getting topless, a teach-yourself-blow-job class, a spoof on (The Graduate‘s ‘swimming pool’ scene, a missed-opportunity-girl-from-Uni-you-missed-out-on-that-comes-around-again and a bastard Dean of Students (Jeremy Piven) to deal with and this is a film that attempts to recreate the kind of thing the ’80s Brat Pack films were famous for but never hits the heights it should. It’s worth a look as it’s not a complete waste of time, just a lacklustre recreation that only glimpses at such past glories.
And just to tie this in with the director’s much better Road Trip and also to feature the 21st century’s equivalent to a Brat Pack actor, there’s a cameo for American Road Final Pie Trip Destination star Seann William Scott.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic. You don’t expect straight-forward comedy movies like this to be in anything but a 1.85:1 ratio. That said, it was filmed in Super 35 format so it may be possible to open up the matte to 16:9 for when it’s shown on TV.
Then again, and I hate to actually praise a channel that’s permanently in the doghouse for employing knuckleheads like Dawn Airey and Sara Ramsden to defecate all over the screen with huge channel logos, red dots and spinning doughnuts, but they are actually many showing such films on Sky One in their original 2.35:1 ratio, so perhaps there’s hope for all the main terrestrial channels. After all, if Film Four can show films properly, why can’t Channel 4?
The dialogue is available in English, Czech, Hungarian and Polish, all in DD5.1. What a waste, since they could’ve dumped three of those and included a DTS 5.1 in English, surely? Then again, this kind of film wouldn’t have sounded any different in Dolby surround-only.
The extras are as follows:
- From The Cutting Room Floor (13 mins): Nine deleted/extended of them, all in anamorphic 2.35:1 and DD5.1. Worth a brief look but not worthy of being put back into the film.
- Old School Orientation (13 mins): Presented in anamorphic 16:9, this is a series of chat with main cast and crew members mixed in with film clips. You know exactly what to expect.
- Inside the Actors Studio spoof (13½ mins): This programme won’t be widely known to UK residents, but Sky One showed one about the Simpsons some months back when they broadcast the (not really) 300th episode of the animated show. This spoof is in 4:3 and Will Ferrell doubles up as himself and ‘host’ James Lipton.
- Outtakes and bloopers (5 mins): Presented in letterbox 2.35:1 with plain surround sound, this isn’t a great deal to write home about.
- TV spots (1½ mins): Not so much the usual TV ads, but with interview ‘commentary’.
- Photo Gallery: 89 pics to cycle through.
- Audiot commentary: Director Todd Phillips and cast members Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn.
The main menu is animated to introduce the ‘Mitch-a-palooz’ party and a short piece of music. The animation includes clips from the film including the two KY Jelly girls getting topless. Subtitles are in English, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Greek, Turkish and also in English for the commentary. There are 20 chapters to the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.