Transylmania

I don't really care for many comedies. "American Pie," "There's Something About Mary," and similar films simply don't appeal to me. I just don't find them funny.

Now, this is not to say that "Transylmania" was funny. It never made me laugh. But it WAS more entertaining and less frustrating than most comedies. The Hillenbrand brothers at least managed to keep the pace up through most of the movie. And they cheerfully steal from (er...pay homage to, I guess) numerous other films.

The sets and locations are decent, the animated title sequence is a bit more imaginative than following one of the characters around campus (as most films do), and you can actually see and hear what's going on.

The major puzzle is why it's as tame as it is. I watched the "unrated' version, which is basically a mild R-rating. The little violence and nudity is pretty comical, though the language can be a bit strong. The relative lack of nudity was also surprising. None of the extra-busty (or buff, take your pick) leads ever peeled down. And only a few of the extraneous characters ever got nekkid. Now, this isn't essential to a film like this, but it's pretty much the norm. Plus, if you're shooting in Romania, you're going to find lots of attractive actors there who are anxious to make a splash. I'm just surprised, is all.

OK for people with nothing better to do.

Transylmania can be considered the third movie in the National Lampoon's Dorm Daze series. Though it's loosely based off of them, it can be pretty much defined as a third sequel, and doesn't need much knowledge of the first two movies for this one to be seen. Seems like no one in this movie has any knowledge at all. I was lucky enough to speak to directors David and Scott Hillenbrand via the Transylmania fan-page on Facebook. As well as seeing exclusive interviews from the cast.

The movie seems like another goofy spin off of the neverending American Pie Presents franchise. Though this accomplishes more than any of those movies have. But when compared to the original three American Pies, it doesn't stand much of a chance. It attempts to be an 80s throwback, which it does feel like a little bit, but not a perfect one.

Rusty (Oren Skoog) has been dating an online overseas girl for a while and feels he needs to see her in person. When asked to fly over to Romania to get in touch. He feels that maybe he could get accepted to The Razvan University where she goes to school. They embark on a cross country journey to see her. The Razvan University has a bad history to it. A music box, when opened, posses your soul into a demon vampire. When open, the demon takes over your body. When ceased, or closed, your normal.

Little does the gang know, duplicates of themselves, usually with deeper voices, are being produced as well. So the gang must find the fake impersonators, and banish them. Sounds like an uncut episode of Scooby Doo.

Though the thing that caught me surprised me was that this is intended to be a spoof movie. And it's actually decent. This one doesn't have random pop culture references popping here and there and at random times. It doesn't have convoluted performances and bad acting. This didn't try to fit every God-forsaking blockbuster into their movie. I thought this might be the "new age" parody film that would start a revolution of the same kind of parody flicks in the style of The Naked Gun, and Airplane, or the absolute classic 70s and 80s style parodies we were waiting for for years.

We would finally cease from all the mindless crap Hollywood puts out. No more Jason Friedberg or Aaron Seltzer. No more brain dead first timers forcing us to laugh at corny one liners. The world will finally be at rest from the likes of pointless parodies. That is...until I saw the trailer for The 41-Year-Old Virgin who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.

The moron American student Rusty (Oren Skoog) arranges a student exchange program for his closest friend and him to study in Romania for six months and meet his Internet girlfriend Draguta (Irena A. Hoffman) to have sex with her. He travels with the potheads Pete (Patrick Cavanaugh) and Wang (Paul H. Kim); Pete's girlfriend Lia (Natalie Garza) and his twin sister Danni (Nicole Garza); the naive and romantic Newmar (Tony Denman) and his easy and stupid girlfriend Lynne (Jennifer Lyons); the nerd Brady (Joshua 'Worm' Miller) and the crook Cliff (James DeBello). His friends actually intend to party and score the Romanians.

While traveling by train to Razvan, they learn that five hundred years ago, the vampire Radu lost his beloved Stephania, whose spirit was trapped in a music box. Radu has kept Stephania's body and has been seeking the music box to bring Stephania back. Meanwhile, a Radu's minion retrieves the music box but is deadly wounded by the vampire slayer Teodora Van Sloan (Musetta Vander) and he drops the object in a gypsy's basket. Newmar buys the music box and gives it to Lynne.

When they arrive at the university, they are welcomed by the Dean Floca (David Steinberg) that is a dwarf. Meanwhile Rusty meets Draguta and finds that she has a horrible hunchback and the dean is her father. Further, Dean Floca is a psychopath that keeps a torture chamber in the dungeon of his house. When Lynne opens the music box, she is possessed by Stephania and Radu is identical to Rusty, and the brainless American students get into a messy situation.

I have already written that parody movies are always of the type "love or hate" it, and "Transylmania" is no exception. I am not intellectual, I love cinema as culture, but also as entertainment, so I like them. Further, when I see this type of spoof, I know exactly what I am going to see: scatological jokes, funny and surrealistic situations and definitely a movie that will never be indicated for an Oscar. This is the type of movie that you must shut down your brain and start laughing.

What I do not understand is some comments of persons that should never watch this type of movie. What do they expect to see when they go to the movie theaters or buy / rent a DVD or Blu-Ray entitled "Transylmania"? An art movie, with hidden messages, an epic, a classic or a film with politically correct jokes? Honestly, if I did not like this genre, I would never spend my time watching it and writing bad reviews. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Transylmania – Uma Universidade de Arrepiar" ("Transylmania – A Shivering University")

Even though the reviews may have been not so good. I thought this movie was really funny and I enjoyed it. There was actually a plot which a lot of comedy spoof movies don't have. Although you haven't seen the actors in much, i thought they all did a really good job. I think the story was cute and i most surely did laugh!! I recommend it to all. It is a shame to see reviewers writing bad reviews. Who believes them anyway. I know that more then half the time I read what they say I don't agree. Its not fair for them to spoil a movie for others, especially a funny one. I think that if people would just give some things a chance, or an independent production company, they would not be mad they spent their money on the movie. Just because there isn't a huge distributors name attached doesn't mean the movie isn't good for what it is. I heard that it isn't going to be in theaters much after the first week and thats really sad because if people would see it they would really enjoy it I think.

Yeah, sure...horror comedies are nothing new but usually they tend to have at least some elements from both genres. Transylmania is obviously not trying to be a horror movie, but it's not really a comedy, either. Sure, it tries, but it probably won't get more than a few chuckles out of you. That's what I don't get here. If you're making a horror themed comedy then you've got a ton of things to work with. This film just kind of falls on it's face at almost every opportunity. It feels like a bad mash up of all the worst aspects of a National Lampoon movie mixed with the eye-rolling stupidity of some of the more unsuccessful modern teen sex comedies. Simply put, it's just stupid...and not in a good way.