Here's the breakdown Josh Miller (Tom Everett Scott) is attending school under an academic scholarship and is not used to the "fast lane" of college life. His roommate, Scott Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), is used to the fast lane of college. The drugs, sex, language, partying, and occasional studying take place at a frantic pace from day one. Of course Josh didn't realize that he needed to carry a "B" average to maintain his scholarship. Now both Josh and Scott, whose father is none too happy about his constant failures, have to find a way to pass the semester and stay in school. They of course turn their search to find a roommate that is suicidal, because if they get a roommate who commits suicide, they get an automatic "A" for the semester.
Dead Man On Campusis all over the map. Unfortunately they try to take a humorous look at something that is not too humorous, suicide. For brief periods this film is funny, but more often than not it just seems to try to hard to get laughs. The one thing that all previews focused on is the Cliff character (Lochlyn Munro). In fact his scenes in the film are really funny and probably made me laugh more than anything else in the film. Unfortunately though, his scenes are limited to about 10 minutes in the film. This film just seems to struggle for an identity and never seems to see the forest through the trees.
Yes, I liked the Cliff character in this film, but that was about it. It might make for an amusing night of video watching for some folks, but that would be about the extent of it.
Grade: C-
Parents
Guide:
"R" rated for a number of very gratuitous scenes. First their is
some very visual drug use that takes place within 5 minutes of the movies
opening. Then there is sex and language galore that is smattered
throughout the movie. It seems like the movie's view of people is
that all college students are into some serious drugs, language, and sex
and there are no regular students that attend a University. Well
I would say there are a lot of unfavorable aspects to this film so it should
be watched only under careful scrutiny for younger teens.