Dead Man on Campus (1998)

Dead Man on Campus (1998): Dir: Alan Cohn / Cast: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery, Lochlyn Monro, Alyson Hannigan: Rotten comedy about two college students who are potentially dead men. Tom Everett Scott stars as a would-be scholar and his roommate Mark-Paul Gosselaar is a slacker who never studies and skips classes. His father threatens to have him cleaning toilets if he fails. After a fatal night out Scott's grades drop so far that he needs an A+ in every subject. They discover that if a roommate commits suicide that they are given high grades. They target several victims for this nonsense including a psychotic, a paranoia, and a musician who wrote a song called "Sperm." Twist ending has these two morons getting away with crime. Director Alan Cahn fares well and can certainly handle better material than this, but Scott and Gosselaar are unlikable leaving little to root for. Poppy Montgomery plays the standard girlfriend who is there for potential sexual purposes and little else. Lochlyn Monro appears as a guy named Cliff and that pretty much sums up his contribution. Alyson Hannigan appears in an early role before she reaches her destination at band camp. This film earns a big black mark for its methods of using suicide in a loose manner that propels no humour whatsoever. Laugh-less vulgar insult that should flunk the screenwriter out of work. Score: 4 / 10

Movies involving campus and university are usually made for teenagers or young adults, since the thematic is basically parties, drugs and sex. However, "Dead Man on Campus", although using some of those elements, it has a different main plot. The idiosyncrasy of each character is showed all the time, delivering nice situations that happen due to the diversity of opinions that they have. Josh is a real student, whilst Cooper is a party guy who doesn't care about studying and getting prepared to the future. The acting as a whole is great, with highlights to Lochlyn Munro, who portrayed a extremely funny character. I couldn't stop laughing when he came in the scene, specially with all those unexpected screaming. The exception of great acting happens with Mark- Paul Gosselaar, whose job seemed to do a little... overacting. In the conversations scenes in the room, he seemed too conversationalist and gesticulatory for a normal dude. Also, it's interesting to notice that, albeit American society wasn't that liberal in the nineties, they've displayed Josh and Cooper as almost a couple, and they weren't antagonized for it. "Dead Man on Campus" is one of the most adult films involving college that I've ever seen, and I believe that young audience won't find it that good as I did.

"Dead Man On Campus" is a film about two guys who enroll at Daleman College, and become roommates. Josh enrolls via a scholarship, and is studying to become a doctor, and Cooper, well, he's just there to avoid having to clean toilets for a living at his father's business, and of course, to goof off and party. Josh eventually decides to party with Cooper, and as a result, starts to fail every class he's in. He winds up failing his mid-terms, and he finds out that he needs to maintain a B+ average if he wants to keep his scholarship.One night, while the boys are at a local bar, they find out that if your roommate commits suicide, you get straight As for your grief, so they decide to move a suicidal roommate into their dorm! In my opinion, the best roommate they find is a no holds barred psychotic named Cliff O'Malley (played by the underrated Lochlyn Munro). Cliff is my favorite character in this film! He's so wacky, and he completely lacks sanity or a conscience! Most of his dialogue and facial expressions in this film are priceless!As for their other roommates: Buckley: He's a computer nerd who's paranoid, suicidal, and thinks Bill Gates is after his brain! Matt Noonan: He's the "depressed" goth rock star who acts happy and likes to sing show tunes when no one's around! In the end: For off the wall teen comedies, this is as good as it gets. This movie originally bombed at the box office when released in August of 1998, and seems to be forgotten nowadays, but trust me, it's funny, and the character Cliff totally makes it worth the admission! It's bound to become a cult classic sooner or later.

I own this movie and watch it several times a year. Why? Because when you are studying for exams you wish your school had a policy like this (and you could fake a death because who really wants a roommate to die?)I find people are over-analyzing, and you have to take any movie with a grain of salt. All movies require a suspension of disbelief, as much of this is unbelievable, but it's a freakin' comedy! Not a statement on life. It pokes fun at a situation where many of us have been: most of us go through a slacker phase where the world is just too tough and you have to forget, just relax a little... still don't get how if we all need this there are still so many consequences but I digress.Most of the intelligent stuff has been said already so I won't bore you by repeating the same sentiments. However, I do recommend this movie for when you can't get papers/exams out of your mind but you still need a break (or if you just feel like reliving that part of your life). It's better than "The Perfect Score" but that movie is also good for study breaks.