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National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze (Unrated)
MGM // Unrated // August 10, 2004
List Price: $25.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
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I picked up Dorm Daze because it was written by Patrick Casey and Worm Miller, the creative forces behind the independent horror-slash-comedy Hey, Stop Stabbing Me! I hadn't actually seen ...Stabbing... or any of their other movies, but that not-really-logic seemed like enough to compel me to grab this disc anyway. A few reviews of Dorm Daze from its limited theatrical run have been floating around for a while, and the critical reception has been unilaterally negative. A star and a half make up about the most glowing praise I've seen up to this point. But hey, I've never been shy about boldly venturing forth against the grain, so I'll take a historic step and write what is and will probably remain the only positive review of National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze.
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Okay, Dorm Daze is not a great movie. It's not destined to be some sort of enduring classic, and the only people who are going to be talking about this movie twelve years from now are film critics decrying the state of the National Lampoon movies of 2016. But who really cares? I don't watch a movie with longevity in mind -- I pop in DVDs to be entertained here and now, and even if I'm the sole voice willing to publicly state this in such a harsh, unforgiving world, Dorm Daze is an entertaining flick. I wouldn't scribble down a review this obnoxious and incomprehensibly self-indulgent if I didn't like it. My usual criteria for a comedy is -- when I'm finished watching a movie, do I want to force it down the throat of one of my old roommates from college? If the answer is "yup", which it is in this case, then I'll recommend it. Dorm Daze is probably better suited to a rental since most of you will hate the movie and make it a point to disregard everything I ever write again. If you were already thinking about picking up Dorm Daze and were hoping to find a review to affirm your decision with a cartoonishly enthusiastic thumbs-up, you got it, chief.
Video: The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is pretty much average, but since even average DVDs look pretty damn good anymore, that's not really meant as a complaint. It's sharp, fairly detailed, and doesn't suffer from any blatant problems with the source material or compression. Colors, contrast, and whatever else the DVD Reviewer Handbook says I'm supposed to prattle on about are all fine. The movie does have a very slightly gritty, modestly-budgeted appearance, but it translates well to this shiny five-inch disc. The DVD is so strictly average that it doesn't really leave me with anything to gripe about or lavish with praise, but...yeah, it's fine.
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Supplements: Dorm Daze is a pretty decent special edition, kicking off with an audio commentary by directors David and Scott Hillenbrand and editor Dave O'Brien. It's a surprisingly dry and serious discussion, and my interest wanted pretty quickly. "He Said, She Said: Behind the Scenes of the Fantasy Sequence" spends six minutes or so with the directors, the two writers, Patrick Renna, Marie Noelle Marquis, and Playmate Katie Lohmann. They chat about the filming of Styles' unconscious delusion, including some on-set footage and ramblings about their ultimate sexual fantasies. A grainy anamorphic widescreen gag reel runs a little under four minutes without managing to squeeze anything particularly funny in there. While I'm on the "not funny" tip, three deleted scenes --"Cliff and the hooker find the purse", "Claire confides in Marla and Lynne", and "Lorenzo and Gerri arrive at McMartin Hall" -- can be viewed with optional audio commentary. They're all extremely short, in total running around two minutes. There's nothing really of interest, and the commentary boils down to "we liked it, but it didn't add anything."
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Conclusion: National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze is a triumph of the human spirit, in the sense of a triumph of the human spirit being a reasonably funny movie with a cleverly labyrinthine plot. I definitely think the mileage for this one is going to vary, and most viewers will probably be better off sticking with a rental. At least that way, if you loathe it, you can mention in your hateful e-mails that you were out three bucks instead of twenty. Personally, though, I enjoyed Dorm Daze enough to smack it with a Recommended tag.
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