Back To www.currentfilm.com

Dead Man On Campus
Paramount
1.85:1(non-anamorphic)/Dolby Digital 5.1/2.0
94 Minutes
Rated:R
Region:1
Dual Layer:No
Reviewed on a Panasonic A110

The Film:
Not too much to say about....not too much of a movie. Like a bad skit from Saturday Night Live, "Dead Man On Campus" is just one long, sick joke stretched out to an hour an a half. Did I laugh? A couple of times, I found "Dead Man On Campus" to be funny.
But should this Paramount shelf item have ever been made? Probably not. The story is simple. A new kid at school(played by Tom Everett Scott, who, at one time, seemed like a highly promising actor after Tom Hanks's "That Thing You Do!", falls into the slacker lifestyle that his roommate(played by Mark Paul Gosselar, of "Saved by the Bell!" fame).
So, Scott's character sinks deeper and deeper until he realizes that he's missed the chance to study for midterms. When he finds out that he's failed, the plot begins to stick it's head out of the sewer. The two boys are told about a legend where if your roommate commits suicide, you get straight A's for the semester.
So, the two go about finding a group of depressed students who they go through and test, one by one. It's a sick plot for a movie, and it doesn't work at all. There are maybe ten funny minutes throughout as "Dead Man On Campus" only begins to seem more and more like "Saved By The Bell: The Dark Side".
As the parade of insane kids marches across the screen, you begin to wonder, "what's the point?". "Dead Man On Campus" is the most basic studio film I've seen in quite a while. Cheap sets, no plot, no script, cheap actors.
And, in the end, no one has bettered themselves, no one has learned anything, and the film has not performed it's most basic task. To entertain.
"Dead Man On Campus" could do well on a sketch show like "Saturday Night Live", where just as you began to tire of it, the show moves on. That would likely be it's best place, because on the big screen, the film runs about 90 minutes too long.

The DVD:
Image Quality: Has its positives and negatives. Images are clear, but slightly lacking in sharpness. Colors are vibrant and there are no instances of colors bleeding. The negative aspects are the slight artifacts sprinkled throughout and the occasional instance of shimmering; these artifacts rarely are large enough to distract from the film, though. Overall, an average transfer that would have benefited from an anamorphic transfer(although the film itself doesn't deserve one). Color saturation and contrast are quite good for the most part; there isn't any instances of colors "bleeding". Black level in the image is also pretty strong as well. Attention to detail is also above average. Flesh tones are rendered accurately and look generally good. Overall, a pleasing presentation of a not-very-pleasing movie.

Sound Quality: Nothing great; the score full of rock and pop hits sounds clear, but it doesn't sound integrated well into the overall sound or terribly full sounding. Dialogue is clear, but not impressive either. It doesn't have that quality that the best discs have where dialogue sounds as if it's being spoken in the same room. There isn't much action in the sound mix, either, as the film is mainly all dialogue. There isn't much bass in the overall sound, either. It does the job alright, but it isn't very impressive.

Extras: The trailer,which is funnier than the actual movie.

Menus: Nothing terribly interesting in these non-animated and basic menus.

VALUE/RECOMMENDATION: Stay away. Decent transfer, but a truly awful film...

The Grades:
Film:60/D- = (300/500 possible points)
Video Quality: 80/B- = (320/400 possible points)
Audio Quality: 79/C+ = (316/400 possible points)
Value: 69/D+ = (207/300 possible points)
Extras: 65/D = (195/300 possible points)
Menus: 62/D = (124/200 possible points)
Presentation: 71.5/C = (71.5/100 possible points)

TOTAL POINTS:1533.5/2200
OVERALL GRADE: 70%/C-
Stars:* 1/2

FINAL: Stay away from this disc. Audio/Video are average, but the movie is horrible. Not even worth a rental.