DVD
Review | PCU
Written by: Kage
Alan
One of the most memorable college films will
always remain “National Lampoon’s Animal House”. Fortunately, that
hasn’t stopped other filmmakers from trying to come up with something
amusing that fits the times in which they are made. Hence, we have
PCU, or Politically Correct University, to demonstrate that time in
the US when being politically correct about EVERYTHING was “in”. That
in itself is amusing because of the almost obsessive natures involved,
but this film tried to take things one step further.
Tom Lawrence (Chris Young, “Book of Love”) is a
pre-freshman who’s visiting Port Charles University for a couple of days
to get an idea of whether or not he wants to attend in the Fall. He’s
about to get an eyeful when he ends up staying at The Pit, a place where
the worst oddball fraternity lives. Lead by Droz Andrews (Jeremy Piven,
“Ellen”), whose been there for 7 years so far, he and his diverse group
live to explore the most outrageous lifestyles possible and be who they
are destined to be. Even then they aren’t in any great hurry to find
out who they actually are.
When the scheming of a rival fraternity member,
Rand McPherson (David Spade, “Tommy Boy”), and university president
(Jessica Walter, “Ghost in the Machine”), puts The Pit in danger of
being closed and its members expelled, things look quite bleak. Well,
that can’t happen. In the grand tradition of those college comedies of
the past, Droz decides that a party is in order to help raise some
much-needed money to pay off some imposed fines. With a number of
stoners, heavy metal enthusiasts, other oddballs and pre-freshman Tom,
it’s going to be one heck of a weekend!
“PCU” benefits from a very enjoyable cast that
includes (aside from the leads) Megan Ward, Jon Favreau and Alex
Desert. Unfortunately, there were times when some of the cast members
looked like they wanted to explode with some energy and yet they
reserved it. This is actually addressed in one of the audio
commentaries on the disc. The script is funny, but a bit stiff at times
and could have used some additional polishing. Overall, though, this is
still a neat little flick that was overlooked at the box office, yet
found its audience when it was released on home video.
Fox has released “PCU” in a Full Screen and
Widescreen transfer. You know the drill. Stick with the Widescreen and
ignore the Full Screen. There are some minor flecks and specs present,
but nothing awful enough to take away from our enjoyment. Audio is
quite nice, especially with the soundtrack. As for extras, the studio
has seen fit to deliver 2 (yes, count em’ folks, 2) audio commentaries.
The first is with Director Hart Bochner and the second with Jeremy Piven.
Oddly enough, Bochner says he tried his best to make sure that his
actors felt their input was heard and valued, that he made time for them
to try things many different ways, yet Piven states that nobody in the
cast was allowed to improvise, something this film really could have
used. The commentaries are rather contradictory in that respect.
Beyond those, we’re also given a short 6-minute fluff featurette, a
music video by Mudhoney titled “Pump It Up” and a trailer. It’s not
exactly special edition material, but it’s more than I thought would be
on the disc.
It would have been easy for the studio to release
“PCU” without any fanfare and with barebones extras, but they put some
time and effort into the release. For that, I applaud them. It’s
really too bad that Bochner and Piven didn’t do a commentary together
because I would have enjoyed hearing them disagree with each other over
what really happened on the set versus how each saw it. For now,
though, it’s time to rediscover a fun little part of our celluloid past.
Film Rating:
B
DVD Special Features: C+
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