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by R.J. Carter Published: March 26, 2007
Taking up where "Van Wilder" left off, the focus shifts to minor character Taj Badalandabad (Kal Penn) as he makes his move to Camford University in Great Britain. Looking forward to following in the footsteps of his father, who reputedly was a "hound doggie" of the fraternity house, Fox & Hounds, Taj is quickly disillusioned when the upper crust establishment, towing the line set out by their ringleader, Pip (Daniel Percival), inform Taj that his acceptance letter was sent with a typographical error: it should have read that he had not been accepted into the house. Rejected, Taj is sent to "The Barn", a ramshackle building where the rest of the social castoffs have been sent, which is where he makes the acquaintance of: ...Seamus (Glen Barry), a drunken Irish kid with an anger management problem and a perpetual mad-on against the English. ...Gethin (Anthony Cozens), a brainiac who chose Camford because, mathematically, it had the highest ratio of nerds to women willing to sleep with nerds. ...Simon (Steve Rathman), a video game junkie who doesn't speak (for reasons that become obvious later in the film.) ...and Sadie (Holly Davidson), a Cockney girl with a gutter mind even Professor Henry Higgins couldn't clean up. (Note: According to the special features, that is her real accent -- however, the later exposed breasts belong to a Romanian porn star who stood in as a body double.) Taj's responsibilities at Camford are as a teaching assistant, in pursuit of his doctorate. He's also the house leader for his new house, and, inspired by the great Van Wilder, he won't let these poor kids go one more day with the poor self image that's been foisted upon them. He redecorates the dilapidated common room, then announces that the house will be attending the school formal ball, where he announces to one and all that there is a new house on the campus, one that will be competing this year for the coveted Hastings Cup: the Cock and Bulls.
Fortunately, love conquers all and beer drinking is a point-awarding event. The Cock and Bulls become the British equivalent of Lamda Lamda Lamda, Pip gets his come-uppance, and many double-entendres, triple-entendres, and straight-forward no entendres intended make their way into the dialogue. This unrated version includes three scenes of toplessness (one being of Lauren Cohan, although it's fast and could easily be computer generated or implied) and a handful of references to the prodigious testicular fortitude of Taj's English bulldog, Balzac. Unfortunately, there's little here to deserve the "unrated" labelling, which may have helped an otherwise run of the mill "high class vs no class" romp. There are two behind-the-scenes documentaries on this disc. The ten minute "Union Jack-Offs: The Making of 'The Rise of Taj'" includes director Mort Nathan, writer David Drew Gallagher, and all the primary actors commenting on various scenes. Here's where Davidson tells us about the Romanian porn star double (as well as how the wet t-shirt imagery was pulled off without her having to sacrifice her bra), and also about the prosthetics that were applied to the female bulldog to make her look like quite the male. "On Set in Romania: Kal Penn Tours 'The Barn'" is a five minute segment in which Kal Penn takes the viewers through the set of the frat house, with parts done with a sort of "Borat" leaning. There are also seven minutes worth of deleted scenes (seven in all) and a three and a half minute gag reel. The bonus features are capped off by a pair of music videos: "Get Steady", performed by Jonny Lives! which incorporates clips from the film, and "Heads Will Roll", an extremely sexy video and a kicking song by the uber-hot Marion Raven. Audio for the main feature can be set to English 5.1 Dolby Surround or Spanish Surround, with optional subtitles in English and Spanish. Previews on this disc include "Turistas", "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", and the "Rocky" Anthology. |
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