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Review by Susan Granger
1 star out of 4
This tongue-in-cheek glimpse of college life is timed for the
opening of classes and specifically aimed at its target audience -
which is over 18 (because of its R-rating) and under 30 (after which,
presumably, maturity beckons). Given that window of view-ability,
this quirky story is built around a popular urban legend. Namely, the
obscure "dead man's clause" that goes: If your college roommate
commits suicide, you get straight A's for the semester. Meet Tom
Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do!"), a former honor student on
scholarship, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (TV's "Saved by the Bell), a
hard-core party animal. After a couple of months of drugs, drink, and
casual sex, they're flunking freshmen who realize that this obscure
loophole, buried in the college charter, may be their only hope of
staying in school. Forced to take desperate measures, they embark on a
bleak mission to recruit the most emotionally unstable people on
campus to agree to move in to their three-man dormitory suite and then
fervently hope that one of them will commit suicide so they can get
their automatic 4.0 grade average "as a consolation prize." The
candidates include a paranoid computer whiz (Randy Perlstein) who is
convinced Bill Gates wants to steal his brain, a dour British punk
rocker (Corey Page) with a death wish, and a manic, self-destructive
frat man (Lochlyn Munro) whose idea of chivalry is to unzip his fly
and offer his services after he accidentally sets a co-ed's hair on
fire. Directed by Alan Cohn from a satirical script concocted by a
quartet of screenwriters, the murderous mischief consists entirely of
one-liner drivel, bathroom humor, and boisterous, childish pranks. On
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Dead Man on Campus" flunks with a
funereal 3. What else would you expect from a demented comedy about
suicide?
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
