College movies are all the same: A group of cool con artists discover the error of their ways all the while pulling of the biggest ruse of their “career.”
Also expect one of the cohorts to fall in love with the girl somehow entwined in their web of deception, thus causing mayhem and eventually leading to the maturing of said cohort.
Finally, there is one golden standard in all these movies that cannot go without mention: the biggest dorm rooms ever imagined! The latest in this series, Slackers, is no exception.
The story centers on the exploits of Dave (Devon Sawa), Jeff (Michael C. Maronna) and Sam (Jason Segel). During a clever attempt to cheat on a physics test, Dave leaves his name and number for Angela (James King), which is later found by Ethan (Jason Schwartzman).
As it happens, Ethan is obsessed with Angela, so he uses this information to incriminate Dave and his crew in the cheating scheme. Instead of going directly to the school with this information, Ethan blackmails the guys to somehow get Angela to fall in love with him.
From there, the plot sickens. Dave falls for Angela, and she finds out about his cheating ways, which leads to the most complicated and brilliant cheat of their lives in order to get her back while at the same time disposing of Ethan. Sound familiar? It should.
Besides the photocopied plot, this film actually was quite funny. The humor was less like the witty banter one might find in Howard’s End than the blue-collar slapstick one might find in Porky’s, Porky’s Two or even Porky’s Revenge.
There are hobos; there are dock whores; there is even a gimp involved in this tour de force of rated-R tomfoolery.
Every moral bone in my body said not to laugh at some of the awful jokes, and yet I laughed harder than I ever had.
Still, some attempts at humor were just plain gut-wrenching; this is mostly the case for the many masturbation jokes (and there are many).
The true standout performance is by Schwartzman. Playing crazy people is usually a difficult job, but he pulls it off uncanny ability. He picks up on the delicate mannerisms of the stalker, such as the eye-twitch, the hair smelling and, of course, the soft, soft petting of the victim; not that I have any experience on the matter. If there was anything that saved the movie, it was the stellar acting of Jason Schwartzman.
This is not a movie that is made for the theaters. Rather it is made for the likes of Cinemax,
Showtime or any other premium channel willing to stoop to such lows. In other words, wait until it comes on the BBC, and then watch again, and again and again.
Grade: C
