You won't be disappointed!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply A Masterpiece

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I can't believe the number of bad reviews this movie has got. What did people expect? This is not an Oscar winning movie, but it never wanted to be. It just wanted to exploit the first one's success, and follow in its steps. It did, even too much maybe.I have to say that Taj is not Van Wilder, and while you can't help smiling when you realize how much he has progressed from the timid wreck he was in the first movie, and how well he learned Van's lesson, you can see that he's not on Van's level yet. The fact that Van never made even the smallest appearance takes a star away from my vote, and another star is taken away by the too similar plot to the first one. A stuck up asshole who thinks he's God's gift to humanity, his girlfriend who can't get away from such a boring guy and enjoy having fun, and the lead character ready to give her that fun, and more. Where did we already see this? On VW1 of course.But it still works, and quite well too.Lauren Cohan was very good as leading female character, I didn't know her but she impressed me for the natural way in which she put herself in the role of the girl who has been brought up as strict follower of the rules, but desires nothing more than to break them and have fun. I can see her being like that more than Tara Reid in the first movie (although she did well too there).So all in all, in its genre it is a good movie. Not the best, but good nonetheless.

First off I must say I loved VW one, it is still one of my favorite movies. It was very funny, entertaining and Ryan Reynolds was just perfect. The acting was great and the Van Wilder character was unique but familiar. Now that starts me off on the first problem with "VW2:Rise of Taj" and that problem is that Taj just does not bode well as a primary character. And as much as I like Kal Penn he looked uncomfortable trying to maintain "Taj" and not become "Kumar" and not become "Van Wilder" himself. He seemed conflicted with this issue the entire film. Even his accent would stray in and out, at times sounding totally SoCal American. The plot itself was predictable from the second it started unfolding. You pretty much knew the gist of what was going to happen for the next 90 minutes based on the initial meeting of Taj and Pip (the antagonist) but really we don't watch these types of movies for their plot-twisting and high caliber story. We watch them because they are fun. Or in this case because we hope it is funny.That brings up the next problem with VW2. It was not all that much fun, especially not compared to VW1. And it was not all that funny. The first hour was pretty boring and choppy, and seemed comfused about where it wanted to go, even though we knew where it was going. It never really seems to be leading anywhere but in circles. But the problem is that while it is leading in circles, the jokes trying to hold it together are not very funny. They had so many chances to go in interesting directions but never did. They seemed to force it all together too quickly, as the movie oddly moves too slowly.I actually really liked some of the supporting case.... I really liked Lauren Cohen a lot. She was understated and strong at the same time, while doing her best to work within the limits of the script. The goofy cast of misfits turned cool are good, but are really underused by the writers and directors. One of the things that made VW1 so great was the use of secondary players and there was much more unexplored potential there.But then something happened towards the end of the film. You unexpectedly start to pull for the underdogs to win and you don't have to wait too long for that to happen. Everything buttons up at the end in a more entertaining way then you expect after the first half. A few decent gags work their way into the fold and you have no choice but to smile a little.You walk away feeling satisfied that the bad guy got what he deserved and all the good guys win. Which if the movie is that bad you generally don't care about at all. And that got me thinking that the movie overall was not as bad as it seemed.Yes VW2 is a pretty bad movie, but so are a lot of movies. It is not that bad if you don't compare it to VW1. If you go in expecting to see the original feeling that VW1 had you will be disappointed a lot..... if you take VW2 by itself, it is a silly movie that is not all that funny, but still has some redeeming qualities, and a few funny moments. I gave it a 5-of-10 as I would compare it to most middle of the road college comedy movies. Just don't go in expecting to see Van Wilder. This movie would have done better to drop the "Van Wilder 2" title altogether. It really is not VW2, it is a small secondary character in another movie with very few ties to the original. It would have been better to just toss in the VW association like they did and leave it off the title. I'm pretty sure Lampoon fans would have made the connection without VW being in the title. compare it to VW1 or it will pale in comparison....

And it was only 3 squid me ol' muckers…Pretty bad flick on all counts, Kal Penn holds it together as best the man can, he forges out a couple of funnies but the supporting cast who try hard must have been kinda cheap to hire...the dude with the Big Wang doesn't make much sense, the Irish guy does look a lot like his older bro from titanic, I wouldn't put the nerd in a starburst advert but I thought the English tart had balls spouting such filth...what would her mother say? Kind of looks like they made it in a couple of weeks so I appreciate the effort and I think it was worth 97 minutes of my life on planet earth...I didn't watch the extra features I'm sorry to say and I was kinda bummed the way the every 'hastings' scene had the cheapest possible activity, sword fight, paintball, dog show, bus ride, drinking competition....yet there was no stunts and only 4 breasts involved plus Taj's golf cart was super slow..........hey ho!On the plus side they don't need Van or even Taj to bust out a whole host of Van Wilder Chronicles. Funny and cheap that why national lampoons are a rock and i predict will survive the credit crunch.

I don't think anyone will argue that this is the basic formula movie. New guy takes girl away from snotty rich kid. That works okay. In fact, the character of the lead is well done. He is rather likable and believable (for this sort of circus atmosphere), and has the impish likability of Cary Grant mixed with the very caring and concerned character of a James Stewart. The gags are juvenile, but okay. Nothing really bad. Certainly better than most of National Lampoon's bombs. Now the bad news. The idea behind the movie is lame and trite. We have a character who teaches students to throw History books away because they were written long ago. That may work for Science, Math, or certain subjects, but History is something that really becomes bad when rewritten, by definition. We already have people wanting to rewrite History, and in a hundred years, don't be surprised to see History books portray Manson as an idol, Jesus as a guy who had babies with Mary Magdeline, and Moses as a myth. Yes, some people already believe in these crocks because of people who would ban History books. That said, it goes for okay cheap entertainment that when your friends make you sit through it, you won't feel very bad.