User Reviews

I want to begin by saying that I actually feel embarrassed to say that I went to this movie on its opening night in CT, needless to say it did not make a favorable impression on me. I realize that I was asking for it just by watching a movie with a title like "The Rise of Taj" that wasn't the name of a documentary about a palace in India, but now that I'm through the hellish experience I feel obligated to warn as many as possible about the mental anguish you will go through if you see this craptastic movie. Oh, and my condolences if you have already been tricked into seeing it.

I checked 'contains spoiler' in this comment but I have faith that I will NOT be spoiling anything for anyone. The plot is about as formulaic as it gets for a movie about young people going to college and the warm feelings you may get from the relative safety of a painfully predictable storyline are about the only comforting thoughts you are going to experience... IF you can sit through it (I dare you). This movie made me cringe from the moment in the opening scene when "Taj" starts waxing philosophical to the dog with scrotal elephantitis, to the obligatory sword-fighting climax, when the hate-me-I'm-a-prick antagonist gets his ancestors' cremains in the face. Now those two sight gags may have been funny at some time on their own, but like a s... sandwich everything in between still reeks.

Imagine, for a moment a giant staircase where you must look at travel brochures of London or slides of a dog show for five minutes after which time you are forced to jump onto the next step and land squarely on your head. Repeat this process 19 times and you've got the essence of the movie down; lull, followed by a sharp decline in your personal well-being anytime any colorful characters opens their mouth to recite from the most boring, headache-inducing script ever made. VW2's script has enough clichè and stereotype reinforcing to eclipse an entire season's worth of MTV's reality show 'Next' and the one where Xzibit whores himself out... combined!

Flaming aside, the fact that movies like 'The Rise of Taj' are made and seen by idiots (myself included) is very depressing. I encourage everyone to make their own judgments about this and every film, but I feel very strongly that seeing it and actually enjoying it would require you to be either under 18, or someone with the intelligence of perhaps a blade of grass.

Before I checked out this movie I read the reviews first and they weren't good. So I thought that this movie is going to suck but out of boredom I popped the movie in and watched it.

I find that this film is actually good, pretty good actually. Don't think of it as a sequel to Van Wilder but think of it as a spin-off. You won't get funny but awfully true life lessons here, just plain old humor.

The only things I didn't quite like about the film is that Taj came out as invincible/lucky because of the dog food and test results and also because it lead to a swordfight. I know it got ridiculous didn't it? But overall it's a good film. Just relax, take it slow, and let the film roll.

I had experienced many emotions whilst watching this film. Here are a few of my thoughts in no particular order: Once in every generation comes a genre defining cinematic epic. I have been privileged to watch 'Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj' while it is still a relatively unknown despite the enormous success of its predecessor.

Firstly, coming from an Asian background myself, I found the difficulties and challenges faced by Taj in a elite British university corresponded almost exactly to my experiences as a undergraduate at an Oxbridge University. Rarely does a film script capture the essence of academia in such prestigious institution. I often look back at my life and remember the numerous fencing competitions I entered and dog shows I attended to gain a respectable reputation from my peers only be thwarted in my attempts by an aristocrat with canine Viagra. Almost biographical, I often wiped the tears away from my face so I could continue watching the movie.

From a purely cinematic perspective, I found few flaws in the film, and at points it reminded me of the majestic direction found only in Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' and Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'. If only the respected film institutions representing and honouring Western cinema appreciated such inspiring and ground-breaking work. I often thought of making my own movie, but after watching 'Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj' I can confidently say I have seen this art at perfection and cannot hope to improve upon it. Hopefully future generations will look upon this classic work of art and recognise it for the masterpiece it really is.

The scarily accurate portrayal of students, the best in their generation, at such an elite institution could only be achieved by actors of the highest calibre working at their hardest thoroughly researching the polymaths they bring to screen. Much of their work previously ignored, hopefully this film will elevate them to greater things and Oscars are surely looming. This film is truly a showcase of talent the industry has to offer.

I look forward to seeing more movies like this one, but deep down I know that this is a once in a lifetime cinematic opportunity standing aside films such as Gone with the Wind and Casablanca.

For some reason I was looking forward to watching Van Wilder 2 : The Rise of Taj, despite the negative feedback and media coverage it received. Perhaps it was a fault of mine, feeling nostalgic about my college days, hoping that this film would re-kindle my undergraduate experiences of watching college classics such as 'American Pie' and 'Road Trip'.

Sadly this film lived up to its reputation. If film making was a crime, then Mort Nathan is a murderer and MGM the people who handed him the pistol. Watching this film was like witnessing the execution of Kal Penn's career, despite his best efforts to exonerate the poor performance of the actors around him. Why "that Asian guy from Van Wilder" decided to undertake a film with a script recycled from its predesessor is beyond reason. This corpse of a movie is best remained buried in an unmarked grave so that no-one will have to endure the feeling that they have not only wasted 97 minutes of their life, but leave the theatre knowing something has died deep within them. It you manage to keep your eyes open to witness the horror of celluloid, then be prepared for the post-traumatic stress disorder you will develop following this film, with flashbacks of badly acted college students with no emotional depth haunting your dreams. If the 97 minutes wasted watching this movie were not enough, the subsequent 97 minutes writing this review as a warning to others may provide me with some sort of satisfaction that some good has come out of me seeing this atrocity.

Like my review, the film is full of contradiction, least of all Van Wilder not actually being in it. My friend and I started punching each other to keep us awake during this film.

I had some expectations that this film would be at least tolerable. However, shortly into the film, which I only paid $4 to see, the disappointments began to appear on the screen. I enjoy Kal Penn, and was hoping that he'd be able to continue his humorous Taj character from the first film. In this movie, there may have been a couple humorous parts that I chuckled at, but the minimal laughter that I expressed was usually directed at the complete absurdity of the plot. The plot was very, very similar to the first film. The few differences that I noticed were that it was in a different location, and the prime players of the film were altered. I would further explain the similarities, but do not wish to ruin it for anyone who still has the desire to view this film for some reason. The jokes seemed forced, the plot was unoriginal, as stated prior, and the movie overall had no purpose in being released to the theaters. The film, also, has little reason to ever be released to DVD; however, inevitably when it is, a price of more than $1.05 is too expensive. The one somewhat positive aspect of the film was that there were attractive females throughout, but I still was very upset that I paid to see this film.