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Old School Blu-ray Review

The Movie

"We're going streaking!" Will Ferrell's frantic yelling, Luke Wilson's quiet acceptance of his life, and Vince Vaughn's adamant holding-on to being a partying bachelor made Old School a comedy classic when it came out just a few short years a go. In the vein of Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds, the story focused on an unlikely group of guys on a college campus: grown up men who aren't even going to the school.

The story begins when Mitch (Wilson) loses his cheating girlfriend. His friends, Frank (Ferrell) and Beanie (Vaughn) hatch a plan to get career-oriented Mitch back into the social world; they rent him a house on-campus, and turn it into the most high-profile fraternity (complete with Snoop Dogg concert) around.

Compared to every other college-oriented comedy since the 80s, Old School was a breath of fresh air. The film finally seemed to realize that there's more to humor than gross-out jokes and physical humor, combining drama, likable characters, and memorable scenes all with the type of humor people have come to expect from a movie starring Will Ferrell. Putting the emphasis on a man in his 30s who's not even in college also is a fresh move, as it allows for exploring more than just getting good grades, or fitting in with peers. Thanks to Mitch's age and current status, Old School is not only a movie about the college frat life, but also about mid-life in general. What would a real 30-year-old man do if he found himself in Mitch's shoes, homeless with a new frat house, girl-less with dozens of sorority sisters throwing themselves at him, and friends trying their hardest to live like they were still young and not married? Most likely, they'd do exactly what Mitch does.

Old School may not be as funny as other films by its stars, but it's still a fantastic movie full of humor, memorable moments, quotable lines, and lovable characters. The trio of Vaughn, Ferrell, and Wilson offer some of their best performances here, and it's a treat to watch again and again.

The Disc

Old School is one of those movies filmed for high-def transfer before it became a standard, so while the transfer is high-def, it's not quite at a level as other films since then. The 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode looks, to my eye, almost identical to the HD DVD release Old School originally saw. Compared to the DVD, there's a better clarity to textures and more noticeable details, but nothing that will blow you away going, "Wow, this is the power of Blu-ray!"

For a comedy movie like Old School that has no huge catalog of action scenes or graphically impressive feats, the transfer is a solid one. It's much better looking than the DVD, but once again, nothing you'd want to show off your home theater set-up with.

Unlike the video, the audio in the Blu-ray release is an improvement over the HD DVD version as it offers TrueHD 5.1 surround. Unfortunately, the surround is very rarely noticed given it's a dialog-heavy movie that is, once again, light on the effects. Only during a few scenes (the first party; the competition at the end; the classic fight between Mitch, Frank and the Dean) is the surround actually noticeable without looking for it.

One area where the disc suffers is in the features department. With all of the DVD releases of Old School over the years, it looks like DreamWorks just didn't have anything new to bring to the plate. (And, to make matters worse, all features are in standard definition.) If you've already cleared the features on your DVD release(s) of the film, you'll find nothing new to take your time here. What is here is still entertaining, but it looks like they're officially dried up.

For those who don't own one of the DVD releases, Old School on Blu-ray contains an audio commentary featuring Vaughn, Ferrell, and Wilson (along with director Todd Phillips). The commentary isn't something for film students, as most of the stars' time is spent riffing on one another than discussing the film, but if you're a fan of MST3K or any of the three actors involved, chances are you'll like it.

The other features are a little more entertaining for all audiences. First, there's the obvious deleted and extended scenes collection. With 8 scenes and 13 minutes of runtime, there are a few gems hidden on here. To go along with those, there's a 5 minute outtakes and blooper real. Oddly enough, compared to many it's rather lackluster. Perhaps the best (actually, it IS the best) feature on the disc is the Inside the Actor's Studio spoof with Will Ferrell reprising his SNL role of James Lipton. In it, "Lipton" interviews Vaughn, Ferrell, and Wilson about Old School. If you've ever seen Will's SNL skits with the overanalytic windbag that is Lipton, you'll love this.

Verdict

In the end, whether or not you buy Old School on Blu-ray depends on several questions. Do you already own the movie on DVD? If you do, is it worth the price to upgrade to Blu-ray for HD picture? And if you don't, is HD picture and audio important enough to you that you'll spend $20 instead of picking up a used/new copy of the DVD for under $10? If you don't mind spending the extra cash, Old School is a great movie and the Blu-ray transfer is a very serviceable one. For most people, though, a film of this type with no new Blu-ray extras to speak of will likely be good enough on DVD with upscaled presentation. 

Movie: 4/5

Disc: 2.5/5

Overall: 3/5

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