The best college comedy ever isn't streaming

The author Robert Scucci
| Published 36 seconds ago

The early days brought us a huge number of college party movies like National Lamps Van Wilder and Old schoolbut I'm here to tell you that you're doing yourself an incredible disservice if you've never seen 1994. PCUwhich is by a considerable margin the best film in the genre. Offering nothing more than a simple “we have to throw an epic party to save our house” storyline PCU sets up its space without patronizing its audience, and with its shortened 79-minute running time, there's no room for throwaway jokes.

A movie like PCU that boasts such a simple premise, yet should not forget about mindless entertainment, because sometimes we all just need a quick jab through the quads while a group of vegan protestors try to run us out of town after being attacked by over 100 people. pounds of raw meat.

Politically correct university

PCU stands for University of Port Chester, but is quickly becoming short for Politically Correct University, in the words of Jeremy Piven James “Droz” Andrews. Droz is one of those guys you'd love to have a beer or 12 with, but not someone you'd want to have any kind of meaningful relationship with, because he's an agent of chaos and a loose cannon who just wants to party in his face. In his seventh year of college, Droz has to trade his ax against all the “causes” who latch onto whatever social issue is the flavor of the week, resulting in many complaints against his peer group. known as “The Pit”.

When Tom Lawrence (Chris Young) attends PCU as a freshman, he finds himself caught up in a year-long feud between The Pit and their elegantly named rival group, Balls and Shaft, led by an insufferable prepsy named Rand McPherson (David Speed). Although Tom only attends PCU, he quickly makes enemies because he always shows up at the wrong place at the wrong time and is incredibly accident prone. Despite his characteristic ability to tick everyone off, especially after a random accident in the computer lab while everyone is agonizing over their theses, Droz takes Tom under his wing and shows him what college life is really like.

On the university president's bad side

The main conflict within PCU involves Rand's desire to sabotage The Pit while bringing Greek life back to campus. In a previous timeline, the frat house surrounded by The Pit was the residence of Balls and Shaft, but The Pit refuses to leave because it is their party headquarters. Working with university president Garcia-Thompson (Jessica Walters), Rand collects all the complaints against The Pit, as well as the damage bill from the previous semester, which totals more than $7,000.

If The Pit can't pay the damage bill and answer for their petty crimes, they will be kicked out of the house and kicked out of school.

Party your way out of this one

As you might imagine, the rest PCU revolves around Droz, Gutter (Jon Favreau), and Mullaney (Alex Dessert) vows to go on a rampage to end all the rage in order to raise funds and pay the damage bill while offending as many people as possible. Meanwhile, Tom inadvertently (and continuously) makes more and more enemies across campus as the film progresses.

After initial setup PCU there's a crash course in stealing beer from rival dorms, disrupting campus protests for fun whenever you get the chance, and using the Starland Vocal Band as a form of psychological torture if you know how to use the steering wheel lock. to trap subjects in a stuffy banquet room.

But perhaps the most important piece of advice you can get PCU is to never, under any circumstances, wear the jersey of the team you will see.

An unlikely double feature

by itself, PCU is a solid, carefree party movie about a group of misfits who playfully antagonize everyone on campus as their primary form of entertainment. But if you really want to see our hero Droz, taste his own medicine, I highly recommend watching PCU ahead of 2003 Old school and treating the latter as a sequel set in an alternate universe where Jeremy Piven plays Dean Gordon “Cheese” Pritchard, who finds himself on the receiving end of exactly the same kind of mess.

Unfortunately, this masterpiece of crazy comedy is not streaming anywhere, so you'll have to find the DVD if you want to see what PCU is all about.