Sorority Boys Scrapes the Bottom of the Barrel

Sorority Boys - R

Best for: Sorority Boys is a waste of time for grown-ups and too adult for anyone under 17 who might want to see the movie.

What it's about: Dave (Barry Watson), Adam (Michael Rosenbaum) and Doofer (Harland Williams) are framed for stealing money from their KOK fraternity, but they devise a plan to retrieve a videotape proving their innocence. Part of that plan requires them to dress in drag and live in the Delta Omicron Gamma (or D.O.G.) sorority as "Daisy," "Adina" and "Roberta." The plan is complicated when Dave falls for D.O.G.'s leader, Leah (Melissa Sagemiller), and by their increasing guilt over how college girls are treated by the men on campus. When the night of the important alumni cruise arrives, the boys try to clear their names and champion the cause of their fellow sorority sisters. Kathryn Stockwood, Heather Matarazzo and Yvonne Scio also star.

The good: I can't think of anything that makes this movie worth the price of a ticket.

The not-so-good: Almost every scene in this movie contains something offensive, rude, crude or socially unacceptable. The dialogue isn't witty or funny, and the message about accepting people for who they are and not for what they look like is lost in the stupidity of the premise. The male stereotypes that the movie supposedly pokes fun at end up being the strongest element of the movie.

I won't take up the space to mention all of the degrading and offensive material in this movie, but I do want to address a couple of issues. Men dressing in drag and posing as women isn't new to Hollywood, but usually it's done with comedic style and that knowing "wink" to the audience, letting them in on the gag and making fun of the "drag" situation. In this movie, the guys get into their female counterparts a little too much (they talk about their clothes, hair, makeup, obsess over their body parts and how their features look in women's clothing), overdose on female behavior (they sit around with their sorority sisters and talk about their physical defects and inferior feelings, criticizing their frat brothers for how they treat women) and act as though they are seriously trying to be women.

As if it couldn't get any worse, Leah becomes so close to Daisy (they shower together because Leah doesn't have her contacts and can't see Dave's anatomy, have long "girlfriend" talks and even sleep in the same bed kissing each other goodnight) that she "decides" she must be a lesbian and tells Daisy she's willing to have a relationship with her. Dave realizes Leah is really in love with him, but he doesn't know how to reveal his lie.

Offensive language and behavior: This movie is full of profanity (lots of "F" words), numerous slang terms for male and female anatomy, and numerous religious exclamations. Several scenes include discussions about female hygiene and show plastic objects shaped like a certain part of the male anatomy. Several characters drink, smoke, and do drugs. Several male characters treat women like sex objects. The frat guys have a "dog catcher" routine where they throw a net across a girl at their party who's unattractive. An older man on the cruise propositions a female student to have sex with him, and he puts his hand on her rear.

Sexual situations: Various sexual situations are implied (we see a guy waking up in bed with two women) and discussed. A couple is briefly shown on videotape having sex. Masturbation is implied, Leah is shown kissing Daisy and discussing a lesbian relationship with her, we see a naked Adam in the shower with Leah. Topless women appear on posters, and a few are shown in the shower. A date-rape drug is used. Several guys are tied up nude (we see them from the rear) as part of fraternity discipline. Sexual dialogue all the way through the movie.

Violence: Lots of slapstick violence between girls and guys. One of the sorority sisters classifies herself as a giant and, due to her size and strength, breaks objects and pushes people around. A powder-puff football game shows girls fighting with each other, playing extremely rough and one girl kneeing Doofer in the crotch. Dave and Adam get into a fight (in drag clothing), biting, kicking and punching each other. Dave ends up falling over a railing.

Parental advisory: Keep impressionable teenagers who may be attracted to the American Pie type of movie away from this mindless waste of time. This movie is too adult for the under-17 crowd and too juvenile for those over 17.

Bottom Line:< Not only did I not laugh at anything in this movie, I was offended by the twisted men-getting-in-touch-with-their-feminine-side angle and the ridiculing of unattractive women. Add to that the whole lesbian-wannabe side plot and this ends up being one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. Sorority Boys is so ridiculous and offensive it boggles my mind how it even got made.

I hope the high-school target audience for whom the studio really intended this movie will realize that movies with these themes are stupid and inane. I'd like to see the high-schoolers and 20-somethings of America send their own message back to Hollywood, letting the filmmakers know that these degrading and immoral movies not only don't accurately reflect the youth of today, they insult their integrity and moral values as well.