Casual Cogitations

I'm not sure how many knows the 1998 dud Dead Man On Campus, though yours truly does. He's not really ashamed of it, though he does wonder why. Most critics spit on it, calling it a degrading, unfunny black comedy that seemed to rely on sophomoric sperm songs and bombastic bong use to get most of its laughs. That's pretty true, though for some reason I saw more in this neglected oddity than most people. Sad, I know.

Josh is a conscientious pre-med scholarship student who has the misfortune to land in the same dorm room with Cooper , a wealthy stoner who's completely unconcerned with his education. And they're both stuck with Kyle, a Neanderthal in pants who lives in their suite's single room, until he mercifully abandons them to shack up with his girlfriend. Josh starts out the semester taking a slew of difficult science classes, but his ambitions are thwarted by Cooper's distracting, bon vivant ways. After disastrous midterm exam results and a nasty visit from Cooper's dad -- the king of toilet-cleaning -- both lads are in desperate need of a way out of their bad grade predicament. Enter that old collegiate canard about how you automatically get straight A's if your roommate kills himself: They embark upon a quest to find the most suicidal person on campus and move him in to Kyle's old room.

The story's not much, but this dark comedy contains moments of unexpected wit. Gosselaar gives a spirited and funny performance, as does Lochlyn Munro in the role of Cliff, one of the more promising wackos. Unlike most comedies, this one actually picks up steam about halfway through, managing to find a fresh take on such all-too-familiar campus fixtures as depressed Goths and paranoid computer geek

I know what you are thinking: the premise is as believable as Paris Hilton eventually winning an Oscar. The lame story is courtesy of Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder, who must have been on some serious mind-altering substances when they brewed this up. However, I have to give them credit for daring to write a black comedy on suicide, something most films would never do. Sure, it may still come off as a shallow movie, though Dead Man On Campus still has its fair share of funny elements.