Cast: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery, Lochlyn Munro, Randy Pearlstein,
Corey Page
Director: Alan Cohn
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd
Screenplay: Michael Traeger and Mike White
Cinematography: John Thomas
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Anyone who has gone to college knows the myth: if your roommate commits suicide, you get a perfect 4.0 for the semester. Regardless of whether this is true or just an urban legend (the policy probably varies from university to university), it opens up a world of possibilities for inventive film makers. In 1998, there are two movies that use this premise as a jumping-off point. The first, Dead Man's Curve, is an independent thriller directed by Dan Rosen which has yet to receive North American theatrical distribution (although Trimark pictures owns the rights). The second, which opened in theaters during the August doldrums, is called Dead Man on Campus, and it represents yet another reason to avoid the multiplexes until the late-year Oscar contenders start arriving.
One would expect a film with this title and this underlying concept to be reasonably outrageous. Unfortunately for the poor viewer trapped into sitting through this 95 minute mess, the humor is both conventional and unfunny, the script never takes any chances, and the ending is a cop-out. By failing to adopt the take-no-prisoners, let-it-all-hang-out approach of this summer's best comedy, There's Something about Mary, Dead Man on Campus reaffirms a simple truth -- movies that pull their punches lack any sort of impact. This film wants to be an off-the-wall black comedy, but it lacks the guts to do what's necessary to achieve that goal. Instead, it relies on exaggerated college movie clichés and recycled stereotypes. There's not even a little gratuitous nudity to liven things up.
The two main characters are a big part of the problem. On the one hand, first-time director Alan Cohn wants us to like Josh (Tom Everett Scott, the American Werewolf in Paris) and Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, best known for being "Saved by the Bell"). On the other hand, we're supposed to accept that they're heartless and amoral. By casting a pair of blandly affable actors in the lead roles, Cohn almost guarantees that we embrace Josh and Cooper, and this reduces them to the level of generic protagonists. When it comes down to it, we know that they're not going to do anything unexpected, and this realization robs Dead Man on Campus of any edge it might otherwise have possessed.
It takes the movie half of its running length to set things up, and the presence of the occasional lame joke doesn't do much to alleviate the boredom of this process. As the film opens, Josh, an honors student attending Doleman College on a full scholarship, is moving into his freshman dorm, where he meets his roommate, Cooper, who's majoring in drugs and debauchery. For a while, Josh tries to keep to a strict schedule of classes and studying, but the bad apple eventually corrupts him. Soon, he's spending all of his free time partying with Josh and hanging out with his new girlfriend, Rachel (Poppy Montgomery). When midterms roll around, Josh scores straight F's. Suddenly, he and Cooper are in a position where the only way they'll be able to stay in college is if they fill the vacant room in their suite with someone who subsequently kills himself. So they begin scouring the campus for a likely candidate -- a victim with suicidal tendencies who they can push over the edge.
The energy level of this film is astoundingly low, especially in comparison to a real no-holds- barred college-based comedy like Animal House. By the time Dead Man on Campus introduces Cliff (Lochlyn Munro), the only truly outrageous character in the movie, things have already sunk too low to be saved. Cliff is a self-destructive party animal who initially seems to be the perfect roommate for Josh and Cooper -- until they learn that he's willing to take his friends to the grave with him. Munro's exaggerated performance provides Dead Man on Campus with a momentary spark, but it's short-lived. When Cliff fades into the background to make way for a conspiracy theory-obsessed computer geek (Randy Pearlstein) and a morose rock-and-roller (Corey Page) as alternative roommate choices, the movie slips back into its catatonic state.
There's a simple question that needs to be asked about films like this: where's the humor? Few things are more irritating than a comedy that thinks it's funny, but isn't. It's like a person at a party who's the only one laughing at his own jokes. That's Dead Man on Campus. And, as appealing as the premise might sound, the execution, which is all that really counts, is atrocious. In the tradition of all lifeless movies, this Dead Man should be consigned to the cinematic crypt that is an obscure shelf at a Blockbuster Video Store.
© 1998 James Berardinelli