Old School

Americans are not like other people. They have things called frat houses, which is not to be confused with cat houses. At university, the guys are invited to join. They are like secret societies, with ancient Greek symbols and weird initiation ceremonies.

Old School is about three thirtysomething buddies who decide to start their own frat house, even though they don't go to college. Their motive is to give wild parties and get off with girls.

It all starts when Mitch (Luke Wilson) comes home early from a business trip to find his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) indulging in an orgy. When he realises that this is not a one-off, he leaves and moves into a place close to the university. His mates, Frank (Will Ferrell) and Beanie (Vince Vaughn), decide to cheer him up and so the frat house idea is born. Beanie is married and Frank is about to be. This doesn't stop them behaving like kids at a candy store.

It would be too painful to describe what happens next. Imagine an overweight Frank, jogging down the main street at midnight, drunk and naked, and then ask yourself, what would happen if his new wife and her friends drove by in a car?

Wilson has not one, but two expressions - miserable and embarrassed. Ferrell could play Fred Flintstone without makeup, or clothes. Vaughn is worth so much more than this. He was the cocky one in Swingers and Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho.

The team that made Road Trip, made Old School. They don't like girls very much and think boys never grow up. The jokes are about sex and not getting it, in other words American Pie for daddies.