This limp 1998 comedy tries hard to be both irreverent and ethical by suggesting that deceit motivated by self-interest is OK as long as no one gets hurt.
Comment
06/16/08
Dead Man on Campus (1998)
15
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:5
Rotten:29
Average Rating:3.6/10
Consensus: Not much of a story.
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Dark comedy based on the apocryphal university policy of awarding straight A's to students whose roomates kill themselves. Two freshman dunces seek to boost their academic performance by inviting a... [More]
Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery, Lochlyn Munro
Director: Alan Cohn
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Reviews for Dead Man on Campus
Top CriticIt represents yet another reason to avoid the multiplexes until the late-year Oscar contenders start arriving.
01/01/00
Top CriticSurpise, surprise! This college comedy is better than you'd expect.
06/16/08
Doesn't grow tiresome; it already is once the clever opening titles are through.
01/01/00
Dead Man on Campus is a dead movie at the multiplex.
01/01/00
All three would-be suicides are over the top and fun to watch. Too bad the film they're in seems to have been at least partly written and directed by Beavis and Butt-head.
01/01/00
Top CriticAs a satire of new-style collegiate types, this MTV production actually evinces a few germs of rancid wit. If only the laborious high-concept plot had been deep-sixed -- and, along with it, the cynically blah heroes.
06/16/08
Top CriticWhat else would you expect from a demented comedy about suicide?
01/01/00
Dead Man on Campus is 'good for a laugh.' As in ONE laugh.
01/01/00
Despite this film's interesting premise and dark subject matter, this movie sucks because it is unfunny, boring, and presents us with one of Tom Everett Scott's worst acting performances.
01/01/00
This film is unendurable, but aside from that, it's also troubling.
01/01/00
If only the rest of the film could maintain the energy and crudeness of the Cliff scenes.
01/01/00
Just as dead as its title.
01/01/00
If you have a roommate you really want to see suffer, here's a suggestion: Buy him or her a ticket to Dead Man on Campus.
04/12/02
Top CriticThe overall premise, involving mental illness and suicide, isn't all that funny, at least not in practice, and the picture begins to seem labored and long.
01/01/00
Top CriticDead Man will remind any college grad of the fun and freedom of freshman year, and the wide variety of personalities met there.
02/08/03
Some of the endless drug-sex-rock-’n’-roll gags are cute, but most are so paper-thin they disintegrate on contact with fresh air.
10/15/02
Have you seen the one about the college kids who try to get their roommate to kill himself so they can get straight As? Oh, you have?
01/01/00
It is a movie whose appeal will diminish in direct proportion to the number of years it has been since you were a sexually-frustrated, pimply-faced undergrad.
06/16/08
Top CriticWhat could have been fresh and fun turns out to be a festival of cheap sight gags and lost plots, but if only for the halfway-decent first half hour and Zack not completely shaming himself, this film gets three stars.
01/01/00
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