DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS
Release Date: August 21, 1998 Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery, Lochlyn Munro, Randy Pearlstein, Alyson Hannigan, Mari Morrow Directed by: Alan Cohn Distributed by: Paramount Pictures MPAA Rating: R (drug use, language, crude sexual humor) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/deadcampus.htm
MTV, for quite some time, has been a component of entertainment media that has almost subconsciously defined an entire generation of children. Anyone too young to be considered a Gen-Xer and/or born post-1979 has most likely, in some way, been influenced by those three letters. As of late, though, MTV has come to symbolize the lack of direction its namesake generation is famous for. Originally formed simply for the purpose of playing music videos, standard programming now is a curious mixture of pop-culture-isms and lackluster talk shows. Similar to the pseudo-network, MTV movies are almost never complete or viable examples of cinema. Their latest is no exception.
On the positive side, DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS is the best feature to come out of that certain studio yet, and with a bit of work, MTV might get its act together. Note carefully that "best yet" isn't high praise when considering the past features that MTV has sponsored: JOE'S APARTMENT and BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA. Similar to DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS, these films are a strictly limited-audience fare. Unlike this summer's other offbeat comedy, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, however, DEAD MAN does not have a strong fan base to work with. Its audience will be made up of those who do not have the intelligence to appreciate smarter comedy, and even those will surely see limited appeal.
The star of the show here is Tom Everett Scott, who plays Josh. Josh is a likeable guy, attending Daleman College on a scholarship to their six-year medical program. His intentions are honest until he meets up with his roommate, Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). Cooper is a rich-kid slacker who'll have nothing to do with going to class and everything to do with getting high and getting laid. Through Cooper's antics, Josh becomes distracted from his studies and eventually falls off his "track." Then Cooper's dad shows up, and informs him that if Coop doesn't get some higher grades, he'll have to come work for his old man in the toilet-cleaning business. So Cooper and Josh happen upon an old statute in the Daleman College handbook which says that if your roommate commits suicide, you get straight-A's for your grief. Thus they set out to find an appropriately depressed student to move into their room and off himself before the end of the term.
Tom Everett Scott, of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, does the best job here, but that could be because he's got the most big screen experience of the three principals. He's done fine work in most pictures he's been in - even if the movies themselves weren't that great - and will most likely mature to something even better. Poppy Montgomery also is appropriately sexy here, but she plays Josh's terminally normal girlfriend Rachel; one often wonders how someone so normal got into a movie with weirdos Scott and Gosselaar. The humor that resounds from their university escapades, as well, is decidedly sexual in nature and not very smart. There's not much outright laughter and so what was an interesting preview turned out to be a botched feature. Think twice before seeing this one.
FINAL AWARD FOR "DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS": 2.0 stars - a fair movie.
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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