Sorority Boys

The filmmakers would have us believe that their new cross-dressing comedy Sorority Boys is Some Like It Hot by way of Animal House. The truth is something more like Bosom Buddies by way of American Pie. Sorority Boys uses the flimsiest of excuses to “force” three fraternity brothers from the K.O.K. house to tuck in their namesake appendages and live undercover as women in the feminist-minded D.O.G. house sorority. The logic of it all will be Greek to anyone not predisposed to the movie's rude and crude humor. The movie is an equal-opportunity offender, however: The frat boys regard all women as skanks, babes, or dogs -- something that would be offensive were not the boys all pictured as louts, pigs, and goons. Funny, huh? Along the way, there's plenty of wiener waggling, dildo fights, shower sequences, and wet T-shirts, as well as moments of homophobic fear, roofie dates, and an interminable powderpuff football game. And the movie sports a token amount of social consciousness, as the boys discover that girls are really people, too. To their credit, the leads all carry on gamely despite the presence of an incoherent script. The men's discomfort in drag provides some familiarly lowbrow comedy and, in particular, Harland Williams' facial mugging conveys the spirit of some off-the-cuff antics. The other two male leads, Barry Watson and Michael Rosenbaum appear on TV's 7th Heaven and Smallville respectively, and the movie certainly knows its television roots as it also features Bosom Buddies co-star Peter Scolari in a cameo. Director Wolodarsky comes from television, where as a writer in the early years of both The Tracey Ullman Show and The Simpsons he won two Emmys. However, he also directed the deliciously dark indie comedy Coldblooded in 1995, so we can hope that this foray into “broad” comedy is only a slight career detour. “That bitch had the nerve to call me shallow,” pouts a Sorority Boys character at one point. All I can say is, “You talkin' to me?”