Review: DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS

‘DEAD MAN’ STINKS

(reviewed on ppv Wednesday night, April 28th, 1999)

    It seems only MTV could be behind a film like “Dead Man on Campus”, which infuses college and suicide in a hi-jinks filled comedy.
    The kid who played Zak in the sitcom "Saved By the Bell" and one of the kids from Tom Hank’s beat-generation film “That Thing You Do” star as college roommates freshman year at a fictional university. Both are opposites. The one has a full scholarship which he earned through studying hard in High School. The other roommate’s thoughts are summed up in a line he says about twenty minutes into the film, “Man, you actually studied in High School? I had a few friends who did that.”
    Eventually the studying nerd gives in to his once-in-a-lifetime college needs after he has sex with a beautiful blonde without even trying. Then it’s onto a life of booze, women, partying, and weed.
    If you’ve seen any previews for this film or even know the premise than I won’t be ruining it by saying the two roommates are going to fail the semester and get kicked out of school.
    They learn about an urban legend involving a roommate’s suicide. If your roommate commits suicide you automatically receive straight A’s. Of course they aren’t going to kill themselves, so they go around campus looking for someone suicidal who they can quickly move in before final exams.
    The plot is probably the best thing going for this film. The script however, doesn’t know what to do with the material. In the opening credits two guys were credited with the story and two were credited with the script. Somehow, both sets of ideas didn’t mesh. The film starts out stupid but entertaining and pretty funny for a bad film, but about halfway into it the director seemed to have given up on the film. Maybe he realized once the two guy’s figure out the suicidal roommate scheme, there really isn’t much left. Granted, the jokes about the three suicidal roommates’ they choose mostly all fall flat.
    The first guy they pick is a crazy frat boy who nobody likes. He’s into high speed chases with cops and throwing water balloons off of the frat house balcony. The next guy is a computer nerd who believes a conspiracy is hatching all around him that involves Bill Gates trying to kill him. The last roommate is a depressed rock singer.
    The basic thing about this film is that it probably shouldn’t have been made. The plot is pretty clever, but I doubt it could have ever worked as a feature film. It’s more a short story or short film product.
    The beginning is promising and there are some hearty laughs, but the stupidity factor overwhelms everything and the film goes nowhere fast. *1/2