Everybody's a critic - 'Old School'

One and a half stars

Though I would not sit through a repeat performance of "Old School," I would seriously consider buying the soundtrack. There were a couple of scenes that the whole audience thought were funny, but for the most part the humor was overdone. The idea of creating a frat house that accepts anyone regardless of age and education was appealing, but surely there is a better way to relive carefree times than with extreme vulgar language, casual sex with high school students and massive amounts of alcohol.

I understand that sex and alcohol are used as selling points for a movie, but with one of the characters being a lawyer you would have thought they would attempt to keep those scenes within legal boundaries. Yes, there was your typical boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl romance, but it seemed sloppily thrown in to sell this movie to the female population.

- Barb Gleason, nurse

One star

I was not impressed with the movie "Old School." The only thing this movie has to offer are a few cheap laughs. Most of the laughs came from the guys in the audience laughing at the inuendos and nudity. I felt women were being degraded. This is a chick flick in reverse, oriented toward young men.

Three friends embark on starting a fraternity while trying to deal with their love interests or lack of them. The group forms the most unlikely pledges, from an 89-year-old man to ordinary family men who are not students, along with a handful of college freshmen. The guys have to prove they are worthy of remaining a fraternity.

I perceived an adolescent maturity from the viewers of the movie. The slim redeeming quality I heard was from classic songs of the 1970s and 1980s. The rest of the movie was really lame.

- Stephanie Williams, baker

Two stars

Three 30-year-old men, school buddies, try to recover the wild and carefree years of fraternity life. Seeing men misbehaving like juveniles, often in poor taste, is boring and depressing. I tend to dismiss "Old School" as a total waste of time, yet there are depths of sadness and despair in their lives. I kept thinking: This is not a comedy.

Be forewarned of indecent moments. For example, fellatio instruction, genitally explicit hazing pranks, men coating themselves in K-Y jelly for wrestling. It's repugnant. But there are belly laughs.

Gradually, genuine camaraderie is built as the men and pledges struggle to overcome ridiculous challenges the university's villainous dean forces on them to acquire official recognition.

"Old School" is not as funny as it could have been and is often vulgar. Don't take your mother.

- Joan Slaughter, retiree