National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 2002, National Lampoon's Van Wilder is a comedy and romance film directed by Walt Becker, running about 92 minutes. “Don't Graduate. Celebrate.” — that tagline sets the tone.

What it’s about. Van Wilder has been attending college for far too many years and is scared to graduate, but Van’s father eventually realizes what is going on. When he stops paying his son's tuition fees, Van must come up with the money if he wants to stay in college, so he and his friends come up with a great fund-raising idea – throwing parties. However, when the college magazine finds out and reporter, Gwen is sent to do a story on Van Wilder, things get a little complicated.

Who’s in it. National Lampoon's Van Wilder stars Ryan Reynolds as Van Wilder, Kal Penn as Taj Mahal Badalandabad, Tim Matheson as Vance Wilder Sr. and Tara Reid as Gwen Pearson, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 6.0/10, National Lampoon's Van Wilder has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response. It went on to earn $39.2M at the box office.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on Philo, YouTube TV and MovieSphere+ Amazon Channel and rent or buy it from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies and YouTube. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch National Lampoon's Van Wilder page.

If you liked it. Fans of National Lampoon's Van Wilder tend to enjoy Forrest Gump, Parasite, Life Is Beautiful and Fight Club.