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Sorority Boys
2002 - R - 94 Mins.
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| Director: Wally Wolodarsky | | Producer: Larry Brezner, Walter Hamada | | Written By: Joe Jarvis, Greg Coolidge | | Starring: Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum, Harlan Williams, Melissa Sagemiller, Tony Denman |
| Review by: Joe Rickey |
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Dressed to Kill.
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Exiled from the Kappa Omicron Kappa fraternity after being accused of stealing money, three friends by the names of Dave, Adam, and Doofer decide to dress in drag to join the Delta Omicron Gamma (DOG, get it?) sorority. They hope to regain what they lost by becoming female but instead dig themselves into a deeper hole of trouble.
When one hears the title ‘Sorority Boys’ in today’s culture they know that it’s a film aimed at the same crowd that made the ‘American Pie’ films blockbusters. And not only that, they grow very weary of the film because of all the other imitators that have been released since the aforementioned ‘Pie’ films were such a huge success. From ‘Tomcats’ to ‘Slackers’ the imitators have almost always been terrible examples of cinema. They have also suffered pathetic showings at the box office with abysmal grosses. In fact, upon release ‘Sorority Boys’ was met with a resounding thud at the box office; failing to even engage teens, supposedly its core audience and the same people who were to make it at least a moderate success. You can never trust such an audience though. The teen audience has been known to be the most fickle one out there; seemingly embracing films out of the blue and letting genuinely good films fly below the radar. ‘Sorority Boys’ is the next in line in this ever growing and fading genre. Is it as bad as ‘Slackers’ or as good as ‘American Pie’?
The truth is that ‘Sorority Boys’ falls somewhere in between. It’s neither as brilliant as American Pie nor as stupid as ‘Slackers’. The acting by the likes of Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum and Harland Williams is about what you would expect from television turned movie stars. They perform their lines with gusto and dive into the silly material with heart but often find themselves floundering in the proverbial sea of badly written dialog and situations. Their floundering in the script courtesy of Joe Jarvis and Greg Coolidge. The script too often resorts to the shockingly gross just to get a reaction from the viewer. Luckily for them, they were at least smart enough to include some situations of heart that lessen the barrage of offensive material.
The direction by Wally Wolodarsky is competent and doesn’t interfere with your enjoyment of the film. He also coaxes some good moments of acting out of his little star power cast. Melissa Sagemiller delivers the best performance as Leah, a member of the DOG sorority. She has some very funny lines that she ably speaks with pizzazz. The music is a mostly rock and pop oriented mixture that fits the feel of the film just fine. Also to its benefit, the film clocks in at a quick 94-minute clip.
Overall, I feel that ‘Sorority Boys’ is a better than expected teen comedy that I thought would be absolutely horrible going in. Although it does have some offensive material, the film does also manage to inject some heart into its highly fictionalized tale of cross-dressing college males.
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