Dead Man on Campus (1998) Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Lochlyn Munro, Poppy Montgomery, Randy Pearlstein, Corey Page, Allyson Hannigan, Mari Morrow, Dave Ruby, Mark Carapezza, Jeff T., Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, Aeryk Egan. Screenplay by Michael Traeger and Mike White. Directed by Alan Cohn. 92 minutes Rated R, 2.5 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com/film/ Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com
Every since "Animal House," almost every comedy set in a college features some John Belushi wannabe doing his best Bluto impression and failing miserably. They fail because it's impossible to capture the magic of the late comedian simply by mimicking his character's behavior. There was a special glint in Belushi's eyes, a distinctive quality in the timbre of his voice and a sense of danger in his every movement that enabled him to take the stock character of a frat-house wild man and elevate it into something classic.
While Bluto's spot in the College Comedy Hall of Fame remains secure, it's time to make room for the new maniac in town. As Cliff, a hyper- enthusiastic, frenzied psychopath just waiting to be diagnosed, Lochlyn Munro is scary, mesmerizing and flat-out hilarious. His performance alone is worth the price of admission to "Dead Man on Campus."
Please don't mistake the raves for Munro's tour de force as an unqualified endorsement of the movie. While "Dead Man on Campus" has a number of funny scenes, it really only hits the bull's eye when Cliff is on screen. In between his relatively brief appearances, you'll spend a fair amount of time waiting for the film to stop spinning its wheels and to get moving.
The premise for "Dead Man on Campus" springs from the urban legend that if a student kills himself during a semester, his surviving roommates will automatically receive straight-A's as compensation for their grief and trauma. When a pair of mismatched roomies realize their grades are beyond redemption, they hatch a desperate scheme to cash in on the "dead man's clause" by finding a suicidal roommate and doing what they can to push him over the edge.
Thomas Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do") plays Josh, a wholesome Indiana boy attending prestigious Daleman College on an academic scholarship. His devotion to scholastic excellence falters under the influence of new roommate Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar from "Saved By the Bell"), a wealthy kid majoring in sex, drugs and rock and roll.
The two work well together. Scott is an engaging actor and his introduction to the party life provides some smiles, particularly when he blissfully recounts his first sexual experience ("We just...did it! It was like 'Time for sex!'"). Playing a self-absorbed ladies-man, Gosselaar is appropriately smarmy, and there's a certain perverse pleasure watching "Saved By the Bell's" Zack holding a stethoscope inside his pants and happily announcing "I can hear my heartbeat through my penis!"
Still, the first half of the comedy is relatively slow going, until the boys finally reach a crisis point and begin their search for a suicidal roomie. They come up with three candidates. Buckley (Randy Pearlstein) is a frail, skittish paranoid who often threatens suicide while ranting about an elaborate conspiracy involving Kurt Cobain and Vince Foster (they're still alive, sequestered near Mount St. Helens) and Bill Gates, who is after Buckley's brain.
Basket-case number two is Matt (Corey Page), a glowering goth-rocker with a thick British accent who handily incorporates his suicide threats into his song lyrics.
And then there's Cliff, a psycho for all seasons. Leaping about the room, periodically humping the couch like some crazed dog in heat, Lochlyn Munro totally throws himself into character. He was so convincing in his audition that director Alan Cohn initially resisted hiring him, fearful that maybe it wasn't just an act.
Munro manages to make the insanely over-the-top character endearing rather than grating. When he accidentally sets a coed's hair on fire during a party, he has to be stopped from unzipping to put out the flames using his personal fire hose. Watching the young woman panic, he innocently states "I don't get it. Whenever I'm on fire, I remember to drop and roll." Cliff's coarse antics are completely tasteless and howlingly funny. Incidentally, stay through the closing credits or you'll miss a bonus Cliff moment.
If only the rest of the film could maintain the energy and crudeness of the Cliff scenes. The biggest problem with the bulk of "Dead Man on Campus" is that it's too damn tasteful. First-time feature director Cohn pulls his punches, tempering potentially riotous scenes with a peculiar restraint. Just weeks after the remarkably successful release of the gross-a-thon "There's Something About Mary," this is certainly the wrong time for timidity. And after all, this is a comedy about students trying to drive a person to his death, for Pete's Sake. Cohn flirts with genuine black comedy and occasionally scores, but too frequently constructs scenes that play like a UPN sitcom with extra swearing.
Thank goodness Lochlyn Munro's Cliff was there to drag this movie back to the gutter where it belongs. It's easy to imagine John Belushi looking down from the heavens, nodding his approval. A successor to the throne has at long last arrived and the spirit of Bluto lives on.
© 1998 Ed Johnson-Ott
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