Sorority Boys (2002)
Directed by Wallace Wolodarsky
After being falsely accused of stealing the budget for their annual cocktail cruise, three very different fraternity brothers are kicked out of their dorm. In order to clear their name and to secure their future careers, the three dress up in drag and pledge the sorority next door where they learn a few valuable - and hilarious - lessons about themselves and the female species.
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5 films that influenced Sorority Boys
What critics say influenced Sorority Boys
Animal House provides the setting — a college campus dominated by a fraternity of morons — and Tootsie the emotional payoff — self-centered males see themselves through women’s eyes and don’t like it.
"Sorority Boys" shamelessly rips off "Tootsie," "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and every other movie where the men dress in drag.
That was done for just the shock or comedy value (such as Flip Wilson and Milton Berle in their TV shows) or because a certain situation in the script required that of them (as occurred in TV's "Bosom Buddies" and in movies such as "Some Like It Hot," "Tootsie," "Mrs.
Animal House provides the setting — a college campus dominated by a fraternity of morons — and Tootsie the emotional payoff — self-centered males see themselves through women’s eyes and don’t like it.
The film confirms your worst fears: that those morons in the back of your high school home-room class grew up, obtained access to AV equipment and made their own humourless version of Animal House.
(You are supposed to be remembering John Belushi in "Animal House" when you think of Doofer, by the way.)
It's a lame-brained attempt to update Animal House, in which Williams, who looks like he's pushing 40, plays one of a trio of frat boys who get tossed out of their fraternity.
Somebody in Hollywood thought taking "Some Like It Hot" and "Animal House," sticking them in a blender and serving in Dixie cups was a good idea.
There will never be another "Animal House," so why do filmmakers keep spinning flimsy riffs on it?
The plot — three frat boys are accused of theft, thrown out of their house and forced to pose as women while trying to clear their names — is as old as the great Some Like It Hot and as dull as the lame TV series Bosom Buddies.
Inept rookie director Wally Wolodarsky and bottom-feeder first-time writers Joe Jarvis and Greg Coolidge only condemn the objectification of women as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card after spending most of the picture recycling the tiredest jokes in the campus comedy canon and coupling them with a gag that hasn't been funny since "Some Like It Hot" -- unwilling, ugly, unconvincing drag queens.
Somebody in Hollywood thought taking "Some Like It Hot" and "Animal House," sticking them in a blender and serving in Dixie cups was a good idea.
That was done for just the shock or comedy value (such as Flip Wilson and Milton Berle in their TV shows) or because a certain situation in the script required that of them (as occurred in TV's "Bosom Buddies" and in movies such as "Some Like It Hot," "Tootsie," "Mrs.
In other words, Sorority Boys makes To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar look like Some Like It Hot.
Melissa Sagemiller ("Soul Survivor") and Heather Matarazzo (still best known for "Welcome to the Dollhouse") play sorority girls.
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The comedy — dirty words, sex toys, self-gratification and massive substance abuse — was worn out the day after American Pie opened.
Unfortunately, such material is so copious here that it's hard to avoid noticing it, although the entire film is instantly forgettable in its quest to become the next "American Pie" sort of film for teen and twenty-something audiences.