When a thirty year old man finds out his girlfriend is cheating on him, he decides to move out and buy a house close to the local university. Faced with eviction, his friends convince him to start a fraternity and that’s when things start to get out of hand.

The first time I saw OLD SCHOOL, I didn’t really enjoy it. I wasn’t looking forward to watching it again, but I’m glad I did. I’m not sure what happened, but the second time around, I laughed my ass off and really enjoyed the film. Wilson, Ferrell and Vaughn hit on all cylinders, which results in a consistently funny movie that keeps things moving. In one of the few times in his career, Vince Vaughn managed to not annoy me. That’s quite an achievement.

Each of the three main leads has a niche in the comedy world that they embody in this film. None of them do anything special or unique here, but their combination works surprisingly well as each serves to balance out the other. Ferrell, of course, is the source of the most laughs as he takes Frank the Tank to hilarious levels. I also liked the inclusion of giving each character a love interest, as they added to the characters and made them even funnier.

The only thing I didn’t like was Jeremy Piven’s character. Piven did a fine job with what he had, I just felt the whole storyline was too much like ANIMAL HOUSE, or any other frat movie. It wasn’t necessary and it caused me to get bored during the last quarter of the film. They needed a new and original way to legitimize the fraternity, rather than have them battle the evil school dean. Overall though, the film is hilarious and fun to watch.

Video: Widescreen (1.85:1): The film looks great, but it wasn’t a drastic upgrade over the DVD release.

Audio: English 5.1 TrueHD with English subtitles: The audio was fine.

Commentary with Todd Phillips, Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn: Perfect group for a commentary and they don’t dissappoint. You don’t get that much in the way of insight into the filmmaking, but you’ll laugh your ass off. They keep it rolling the whole time and it’s a great time.

Deleted Scenes (13:19): These were great scenes. They could have easily been inserted into the film and it would have been better for it. When the scenes are this good, and they have an extended cut anyway, they might as well have been put back in the film.

Old School Orientation (13:02): Blah. Worthless fluff piece used to sell the film we’ve already seen. Just skip over this featurette.

Inside the Actor’s Studio Spoof (13:39): Will Ferrell is great and this is a throwback to his SNL skit. Ferrell, Wilson, Vaughn and Phillips show up to help out Ferrell’s Lipton character. It drags a little bit, but it has enough laughs to make it worthwhile.

Outtakes and Bloopers (5:04): These were closer to being alternate takes and impromptu lines rather than bloopers. And that made them hilarious. If you don’t watch anything, watch these. Well worth the five minute investment.

There are some Previews

OLD SCHOOL is a hilarious film and deserves to be in your collection. As far as a Blu-ray upgrade, I’m not so sure. It didn’t have any BD-specific special features to make me recommend running out and upgrading, but if you don’t have it, this is a no-brainer.