DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS
A movie review by Joe Barlow
(c) Copyright 1998
STARRING: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery DIRECTOR: Alan Cohn WRITERS: Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder RATED/YEAR: R/1998
RATING: ** 1/2 (out of a possible *****)
"Dead Man on Campus" is a dark comedy about the ancillary benefits of college life: non-stop parties, free booze, and more sex than anyone could possibly want. Sound like your college days? No? Okay, okay. "Dead Man on Campus" is a dark comedy about the stereotypes inherent in college life, such as the belief that all higher-learning activities revolve around the above items. But considering the film is brought to us by MTV, a network built around stereotypes and the lowest-common denominator, that shouldn't be a surprise. Thanks to their programming, I've learned that all musicians, particularly women, are rail-thin and gorgeous, something I honestly didn't know.
Oh, wait. I'm supposed to be reviewing a movie, right?
Tom Everett Scott is Josh Miller, a smart, amiable guy from Iowa. Bookworm Josh's GPA has earned him an academic scholarship to Daleman University, a school whose medical studies department is unparalleled. Josh, who honestly intends to make something of himself, knows that with a great deal of hard work and studying, he can earn his medical degree and make his family proud.
His roommate Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), however, makes this very difficult. A rich kid who's at college only to procure the items mentioned in this review's opening paragraph, Cooper turns goofing off and procrastination into an art form. He doesn't go to a single class, but does learn a great deal about herbal recreation, much to Josh's chagrin.
It doesn't take long for the film to turn into a combination of "The Odd Couple" and a buddy picture; although straight-arrow Josh is initially turned off by his roomate's hell-raising antics, Cooper's personality is infectuous. Too infectous, perhaps; soon, Josh is spending all of his time partying, getting high with his new friend, and having staggering amounts of sex with the lovely Rachel (Poppy Montgomery).
By the time midterms roll around, both boys know they're in serious trouble: Josh is in danger of losing his scholarship, and Cooper's dad may force him to leave school and come work in the family business, a fate which Copper considers worse than death. Sensible Josh suggests that the two of them become study buddies and work extra-hard on their schoolwork to make up for lost time. Cooper, however, has a different plan.
It seems that Daleman University's charter contains a provision which could save both of them, without forcing them to resort to anything as vulgar as studying. The rule: if any Daleman student commits suicide, his or her roomates will be awarded straight A's, regardless of prior academic standing. Kinda like a consolation prize, to help the mourners deal with their grief. Cooper's plan: steal the University's psycho- logical records, find a suicide-prone student, convince said student to move in with the two of them, and gradually pressure him into killing himself.
COOPER: Hey, if he's gonna kill himself anyway, he might as
well do somebody some good!
The rest of the film deals with Josh and Cooper's attempts to accomplish this lofty goal, as a succession of roommates, all of whom are memorable and entertaining in their own way, file into their spare room. Fratboy Cliff (Lochlyn Munro) is such a wild-child that he nearly kills himself accidentally several times over the course of the story; Cooper suggests that if they can tolerate his presence just a while longer, they might get lucky. Computer geek Buckly (Randy Pearlstein) is a conspiracy-theorist who believes that Microsoft's Bill Gates is out to steal his brain. But their best bet may be Matt (Corey Page), a chronically-depressed punk musician who writes downbeat songs (with titles like "Sperm"), and talks constantly about his vivid, recurring dreams of putting a pistol in his mouth.
The premise is morbid yet very funny; handled a different way, the material could've transcended from merely "entertaining" to "hysterical." Although the film is being billed as black humor, I dispute that label, since too much of the movie's emphasis is on physical comedy. While that's not neccessarily a problem, the story's premise is amusing enough that it doesn't really need these forced additions. The movie works best when the humor comes from Josh and Cooper's attempts to instigate suicidal thoughts into their roommates' minds. (Cooper, for example, volunteers for the school's suicide hotline. As he's being trained on how to discourage callers from ending their lives, he jots down the opposite of what his instructor is saying, to give him new things to try out on his roomates.) It would have been interesting to see what someone like David Lynch, a director well-versed in "dark," could've done with this material.
The cast is quite good. Tom Everett Scott, fresh from his starring roles in "That Thing You Do" and "An American Werewolf in Paris," is very likeable as Josh, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell)'s portrayal of Cooper is equally warm; while you wouldn't neccessary want to live with him, he'd be good company on a Friday night. But both of their performances are eclipsed by their various roommates'. The depressed (but incredibly rude) Matt was my favorite, as he moped sadly in his room, singing self-pitying songs on his guitar, while Josh and Cooper passionnately urge him to end it all.
But the ladies of the film, through no fault or their own, don't fare nearly as well. Josh's girlfriend Rachel feels so out of place here that I strongly suspect her inclusion in the script was an afterthought. It feels as though her presence is the result of a demographic study, which revealed to the studio bosses that a love interest of some sort was needed to hold the attention of female movie-goers; therefore, Rachel was invented, her lines hurridly scribbed down on a napkin, then shoe-horned into the already completed script. Poppy Montgomery does an adequate job of portraying the character, but she's given so little to do or say that the performance never really catches fire. Rachel's two friends Lucy and Kristin (Alyson Hannigan and Mari Morrow, respectively) fare even worse; they're reduced to walk-on parts, with an occasional bit of slapstick thrown in for good measure.
There are some great moments in the film, and I laughed out loud perhaps half-a-dozen times. The opening credits sequence is one of the most innovative that I've ever seen, the music is very catchy, and the story's resolution is actually far more clever than I expected the movie capable of being. Nonetheless, the film is perhaps half an hour too long, primarily in the opening scenes; hence, the story doesn't really get rolling until we're nearly 45 minutes into it. Still, this is a pleasant enough diversion, with a fresh premise and some occasionally funny moments. Seen with a large group of friends, this movie could be great fun.
E-Mail: jbarlow@earthling.net Joe Barlow on Film: http://www.ipass.net/~jbarlow/film.htm
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----- "Average Joe" Barlow * MiSTie #73097 * Writer/musician/aspiring filmmaker http://www.ipass.net/~jbarlow jbarlow@earthling.net
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