The Focused Confusion of Dorm Daze (2003) and Dorm Daze 2 (2006)

There are a lot of films that have been released through the production of National Lampoon.  Animal House is a classic about a fraternity and their hijinks at college.  Vacation is a classic family road trip movie that people have tried to emulate throughout the years to varying degrees of success.  That movie also spawned three sequels where the family goes to different places and does different things.  There’s also Van Wilder, a movie about a manchild learning to better himself through bettering others.  These ones are movies that you likely know.  But do you know the movie Dorm Daze, or its sequel?  If the answer to that question is no, this post might help you learn about it.  If the answer is yes, then you’re going to maybe feel the way that I do about the movies.

Dorm Daze came out in 2003.  It’s about a bunch of college students in their dorm building and some crazy antics that happen during one fateful day.  There are some recognizable faces in there, but they’re recognizable in the “Oh it’s that guy” kind of way.  You have Ashley from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the kid from Fargo, James DeBello, Cameron Richardson, Topanga from Boy Meets World, and Wade from Cougar Town.  They’re all faces that, if you saw them, you’d know them.  They aren’t the only ones, either.  But that’s not the point of this post.  I’m not writing just to say “Look who is in this movie!”  I am writing to give you an idea of what Dorm Daze is.

There is one thing that stands out in Dorm Daze for me as a great attribute.  This one thing is the writing.  Dorm Daze is a well written movie.  That is not to say that the humour entirely works.  I wouldn’t go that far.  In terms of plot, however, Dorm Daze is well written.  This is one of those movies where there are a lot of people with their own intertwining stories that may or may not lead to things happening in another person’s story.  The stories all go their separate ways, then cross each other, leaving an impression on the other stories, only to separate again.  Everything that happens affects other things that happen.  There’s a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of perfect timing moments, but that just makes the movie feel more whole.  I’m not sure how to clearly describe what I mean by anything I just wrote, but it is what it is.  The writing is solid, and is the main strength of Dorm Daze.

Then there is Dorm Daze 2.  This movie suffers from the dreaded sequelitis.  What is sequelitis?  There are two kinds of sequelitis.  One, which I have yet to really describe in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, is when the sequel is almost the exact same thing as the predecessor.  The filmmakers take the same exact formula as the first movie, and replicate it in the sequel.  The beats are all the same, and the jokes are all told the same way.  The sequel is essentially the same as the original.  The other type of sequelitis, which is the one I would fit Dorm Daze 2 into, was described to some extent in the Deuce Bigalow post.  This kind of sequelitis involves replicating part of the first film, but removing what made the film special. 

In the case of Dorm Daze 2, the filmmakers removed the overlapping intertwining stories, for the most part.  There is still some of that happening, but for the most part, everyone has an individual story that does not have any repercussions upon other stories.  The separate stories do not overlap as they did in the first film, and it removes the magic.  The movie just feels like a bunch of uninteresting stories that take place in the same location.  It removes the excitement.

There is one moment in Dorm Daze 2 where this element returns, which is in the sequence in which the characters are performing in a play.  If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about.  If not, you’re probably completely lost at this point.  It’s my fault.  Anyway, during this play sequence, the characters acting in the play are also involved in different plot threads that occur around the ship that they are on.  For the time in which the play is happening, the stories all cross paths whether on stage, off stage, or… Well, that’s really the only two places there can be.  The characters are interacting and leaving impressions on other characters’ stories.  It’s the focused confusion that made the first film work and it works this time, as well.  The problem is that it only happens for a small time in the movie.  If it happened throughout the film, I would have enjoyed Dorm Daze 2 more.

So, what was all of this writing about?  It’s about how I like the writing in Dorm Daze and how Dorm Daze 2 does not live up to the quality set by its predecessor.  That’s about all it is, and that’s about all I’ve got.

Before I go, I should give you a few little notes here:

• If you would like to suggest a movie for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can always leave a comment below, or you can message me on Twitter.  All suggestions are welcome.
• Here’s a link to that post for Deuce Bigalow that I mentioned earlier.
• Funny enough, Richard Riehle was in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, as well as Dorm Daze 2.
• David and Scott Hillenbrand directed both of the Dorm Daze films.  They join Roel Reine as directors who have made more than one Sunday “Bad” Movie.  Reine directed Death Race 2, Death Race 3, and The Marine 2.