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Almost 10 years before playing a by-the-books college dean in Old School, Jeremy Piven was King Slob of an underground fraternity in this frequently amusing cult comedy. Piven is Droz, who introduces nervous freshman Chris Young to his eclectic frat-mates (which include Jon Favreau) while steering clear of vicious prepster David Spade and malevolent school head Jessica Walter. Piven's off-the-cuff humor and the capable cast help anchor the film's gleefully anarchic tone, which is refreshingly free of the cheap scatological gags that usually sink collegiate comedies. The result is a breezy, likable comedy that should please fans of cinematic campus capers. 20th Century Fox's surprisingly extra-laden DVD includes fullscreen and widescreen versions of the film, as well as commentaries by a typically wry Piven and director Hart Bochner; a short behind-the-scenes featurette; a video for Mudhoney's cover of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up," which is featured on the soundtrack, and the original theatrical trailer. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

Reviews (84)

Animal House For the 90's
PCU is a 90's version of Animal House. Set at the fictional Port Chester University in Connecticut, the film centers around a fun loving fraternity who faces eviction from their frat house unless they come up with $7,500. for damages. Much like Animal House, a smarmy, white-bred priss teams with the dean to help aid in their ousting. The campus is overrun with political correctness from Womanysts, Afrocentrics, gay groups, stoners and others. The plotlines are predictable, but the cast lead by the extremely underrated Jeremy Piven, rise above the clichés to create an extremely enjoyable film. Mr. Piven stars as Droz, the leader of the group and he plans a blow out party at the house's main room, The Pit. His cohorts include Alex Desert as Muls, his smooth talking best friend, a young Jon Favreau (with a bizarre dreadlock hairdo) as the stoner Gutter, Megan Ward as the freshman Katy and Chris Young as a pre-freshman up for weekend to see if he wants to attend the school and who ends up ticking off almost the entire campus. They are pitted against the Dean Garcia-Thompson played with icy bluster by Jessica Walter and Rand McPherson played with unctuous smarm by David Spade. Through a series of mishaps, it looks like the party is going to be a bust. Then through a minor set of miracles, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic show up and play the party and they gather enough cash to pay the damages. It is still not enough to save them. In another Animal House parallel, the frat disrupts the school's Bicentennial celebration and ends up saving the house by getting the dean fired. PCU has TV movie like running time of barely one hour and twenty minutes, but its brevity helps keep the frantic pace up and it doesn't get bogged down in extraneous plotlines.

Not perfect, but Piven is great
I saw this in theaters, and although I felt at the time that it didn't measure up to similar films (Animal House), it grew on me. It does an excellent job of poking fun at the whole PC craze that was sweeping college campuses in the early to mid 90's...it was so bad, anything you said could be misconstrued, and any attempt to have fun was frowned upon. This movie made me a huge fan of Jeremy Piven (although, after this movie, I can't believe he's the DEAN in _Old School_!) My favorite moment was when the group wonders what happened to Gutter (Jon Favreau)...one character says he's probably in a parking lot picking his nose somewhere. Cut to Gutter in a long shot, under a parking lot street lamp. He looks down at his finger, then makes a flicking motion... his nose-picking is only implied, never seen.

Incidentally, the director is an actor, Hart Bochner. You may know him better as Ellis, the slimy, coke-using co-worker of John McClane's wife who tells the terrorists/robbers John's real name.

This, My Friends, Is A Very Good Movie
Goodness me, just got the movie today, enjoyed it thouroughly. It's sort of unknown though, to a lot of people. I found out aboutit because it was on daytime HBO. Anywho, this is a great college film that seperates itself from the rest in its genre (except a few such as Animal House or Road Trip). It has a descent cast, including Jeremy Piven and David Spade. It is quite funny and has many memorable parts, while keeping in mind the important topic of political correctness. I'm not saying the movie is politically correct, it's far from it, but it makes you think twice about it. Funny parts involve meat, stoners playing frisbee, certain Freshman year memories and many more. I personally enjoyed this movie, as should most people.

Heretics on Fire!
I love this movie. It's not wonderful acting and it does not possess a great plot. It was a movie that reflected its time and for that, I for one, am quite thankful. "Stop Protesting" should be the mantra for this new century. PC, unfortunately, will never die but this movie went a long way to delegitimizing it. I had a laugh when I saw that this was rated #12 for Michigan universities--it would have to be based on my memories of visiting my friend's at Michigan. The universities are infested with wacko Foucaultian post-modernists and, even if we can't get rid of them, we should make fun of them relentlessly--which is exactly what this film does.

Classic---Animal House
Funny 80's college movie a classic must have hard to find anywhere...ebay doesn't have... ... Read more