This is shocking only for its tepidness; except for some raunchy language, it's ready-made for basic cable.
Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:1
Rotten:16
Average Rating:2.9/10
Consensus: A low-brow comedy, minus the comedy.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive crude sexual content, some nudity and language
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Dec 1, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $3,833,762
Synopsis: The legacy of perpetual college party-man Van Wilder lives on in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER 2: THE RISE OF TAJ, as his former apprentice Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn) takes the torch to... The legacy of perpetual college party-man Van Wilder lives on in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER 2: THE RISE OF TAJ, as his former apprentice Taj Mahal Badalandabad (Kal Penn) takes the torch to jolly old England, where he is continuing his education at stuffy Camford University. At first things look bleak for Taj, despite his gleaming newfound confidence and hip makeover from his days at Coolidge College, as he is rejected by the prestigious fraternity, Fox and Hounds, and ends up boarding with a group of misfits. Driven to live up to his former mentor's good name and also to make his father proud, Taj sets out to prove his big-man-on-campus potential by unabashedly leading his outcast housemates in an attempt to defeat the wealthy elite of Camford in a range of competitions for the coveted Hastings Cup. Like its predecessor, the film is chockful of vulgar humor and sophomoric antics. Although Taj is the only character to appear from the first VAN WILDER (with the exception of Wilder's pet bulldog), many of the plot points are predictably similar. Occasionally peeking through the excessive sexual references, outrageous gags, and cringe-worthy debauchery is a laugh-out-loud film that encourages the underdog and thumbs its nose at the establishment. Much like the grandfather of all college films, ANIMAL HOUSE (1978), VAN WILDER 2: THE RISE OF TAJ examines the lighter side of higher education, pointing out that its not only about earning a diploma but also about discovering one's potential--and not forgetting to have fun along the way. [More]
Starring: Anthony Cozens, Kal Penn, Holly Davidson, Daniel Percival
Starring: Anthony Cozens, Kal Penn, Holly Davidson, Daniel Percival, Amy Steel, Steven Rathman
Director: Mort Nathan
Director: Mort Nathan
Producer: Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, Elie Samaha
Screenwriter: Brent Goldberg
Composer: Robert Folk
Studio: MGM/UA
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Release:
Jul 14, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Unrated
- Full Frame - 1.33
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 2.0 - Spanish
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
- Subtitles - English, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers
- Deleted Scenes
- Bloopers: Gag Reel
Music Video:
- 1. "Get Steady" - Jonny Lives!
- 2. "Heads Will Roll" - Marion Raven
Featurette:
- 1. "Union Jack-Offs: The Making of the Rise of Taj"
- 2. "On Set in Romania: Kal Penn Tours The Barn"
Interactive Features:
- Menus
Reviews for Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj
Everything old is old again in this rickety extension of 2002's already rickety Van Wilder.
Taj plays like a very bad combination of Revenge of the Nerds and Harry Potter.
Britain and India face off in National Lampoon's Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj, a strained attempt to transplant the American campus comedy to more uptight shores.
Van Wilder 2's sense of numbing familiarity is not enhanced by director Mort Nathan's apparent unfamiliarity with the entire filmmaking process.
It's hard to fathom why this didn't go straight to video, or maybe even YouTube.
The four-years-in-the-making, badly recycled (not to mention awful) sequel might stain the honor of the Lampoon label if it hadn't already produced several even worse films.
The Rise of Taj is relatively pointless in the scheme of things, but refreshing in what it (mostly) doesn't resort to for laughs.
Penn, who also takes an executive producer credit here, wanders around halfheartedly attempting to make something amusing out of the limp shock-comedy antics, but it all just goes in one innuendo and out the other.
As the movie itself is only occasionally entertaining, I invented my own competition: picking scenes from other movies that the Van Wilder 2 screenwriters ripped off because they didn't have any of their own ideas.
As the nerd sidekick to campus wildman Ryan Reynolds in the original film, Penn projected a geeky charm, but he's not equipped to play the lead in a well-constructed movie, let alone salvage this stunningly mediocre chain of skits.
In this sequel to the 2002 campus comedy, Kal Penn spends much of the running time acting like Wilder I star Ryan Reynolds, which no actor with half a brain should be doing.
This is the sort of film that thinks calling a beer a 'libation' is a form of wit.
The film's incompetence is not limited to the writing, acting and directing. There are jarring jump cuts and continuity errors, and a laugh-out-loud eyeline mishap during a supposedly intimate conversation. One keeps expecting a boom mike to peek out.
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