Admirably aiming to recreate the feelings of newfound freedom and self-discovery that college inspires, Freshman Orientation never finds a way to successfully execute its good intentions.
Comment
11/08/07
Freshman Orientation (2007)
33 %
Reviews Counted: 21 Fresh: 7 Rotten:14 Average Rating: 4.8/10
Consensus:
This over-the-top comedy suffers from an exhaustive screenplay, which tries too hard to be funny…and fails.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Synopsis: A typical Midwestern 18 year-old freshman at a large state university eager to delve the college party life, instead he discovers that school is not the beer-driven, sexual fantasy of his imagination. Determined to do anything to obtain the girl of his dreams (a gorgeous but reluctant... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Sam Huntington, Marla Sokoloff, Heather Matarazzo, Kaitlin Doubleday, Bryce Johnson
Director: Ryan Shiraki
Screenwriter: Ryan Shiraki
Producer: Dan Halsted, Stavros Merjos, Adam Rosenfelt
Composer: Tomandandy
Screenwriter: Ryan Shiraki
Producer: Dan Halsted, Stavros Merjos, Adam Rosenfelt
Composer: Tomandandy
Reviews
You enter expecting something really stupid, and you wind up with something really clever . . . hysterical . . . wise.
10/20/07
A campus comedy with a dirty mouth, an innocent heart and a surprisingly wise mind, Freshman Orientation uses identity politics as a road to romance and emotional maturity. The naked breasts are a bonus.
09/28/07
Top Critic
The charms of this college gross-out comedy with a "message" are elusive.
09/27/07
Consider my two-star rating an indication that the film's Gut-Buster-to-Forehead-Slapper ratio is relatively even.
09/23/07
Top Critic
Freshman Orientation is not incompetently made. Nor is it badly acted. But there’s not a fresh idea in it, and everyone on screen seems to be in a different comedy.
09/20/07
Theatres showing it will likely have as many conspicuously empty seats as the classrooms and barrooms in this picture, which was apparently shot on such a shoestring that they couldn’t even get enough extras to fill a set.
09/15/07
...too often feels more like a tapped-out keg than a provocative romp.
08/31/07
Top Critic
A genderbending teensploit turning on a clever twist of the genre's trademark theme. For while most makeover movies feature a female making herself more attractive, this flick has a male deliberately doing the opposite.
08/31/07
Writer/director Ryan Shiraki certainly adds some youthful exuberance to his debut feature film, but it's all wasted on a tremendously misguided and exhaustively dim screenplay
08/31/07
There are other things to like about writer-director Ryan Shiraki’s college comedy, mainly that it feels more real than most... Just one problem: It isn’t particularly funny.
08/30/07
Freshman Orientation feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It's too bad the motion picture as a whole isn't as quirky and clever as its double-edged title.
08/29/07
Blessedly shrewd where it counts and deserves notice. The lessons develop naturally and aren't jammed down the viewer's throat like the hypocritical sermonizing in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
08/23/07
I was honored and privileged to say that I saw a film at Sundance that actually captured the fun of pretending to be gay to win a sorority sister.
02/18/04
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