Sorority Boys (R) ★½

When three college guys get booted from their frat house, they decide to dress up in drag and pledge a sorority known for taking in societal misfits.

Story

Dave (Barry Watson), Adam (Michael Rosenbaum) and Doofer (Harland Williams) make up the social committee at Kappa Omega Kappa (KOK, get it?), a chauvinistic fraternity that chastises women based on their looks. But when the evil KOK president frames them for the theft of fraternity funds, the trio suddenly find themselves out on the street. They must now find a place to stay on campus until they can clear their name and get back into the fraternity's good graces. Until this point, the film almost makes Freddy Got Fingered look relevant. Then the three protagonists throw on women's garb and join the sorority Delta Omicron Gamma (DOG, get it?), which just happens to be in the middle of a membership drive. At least now it gets funny. For the rest of the film, Dave, Adam and Doofer become Daisy, Adina and Roberta and find out what it's like to wear eyeliner, heels and be less than desirable. Admittedly, there are some laugh-out-loud moments interspersed in this inane comedy; when a fellow sister enters the guys' room and asks if any of them has a maxi pad because she has soaked through all of hers, Adina laments to his friends: ''We're not supposed to see what's behind the curtain.'' Although most of the jokes in this pic are blatantly stereotypical, I have to admit that when Adina is elated to find the dress he wants in his size on the sale rack, I knew where he was coming from.

Acting

Barry Watson has gone to extremes to shed the good boy image of Matt Camden which he has portrayed on the WB's 7th Heaven since 1996. In Sorority Boys, Watson plays ''the pretty one''--Daisy. His performance, however, is bland, and despite starring in this raunchy comedy, Watson still comes off as the angelic one who falls in love with the brainy girl in glasses. On the other hand, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luther on the WB's Smallville) is hilarious as Adam/Adina. You feel bad when he gets laughed at on campus and almost vindicated when he hurls a rock through the windshield of a car filled with idiots. Harland Williams completes the trio as Doofer/Roberta, the sensitive one that bonds with his sorority sisters. His character is probably the least original one, but Williams still has some of the funniest scenes in the film. Unfortunately Doofer is not much different from the characters Williams portrayed in Freddy Got Fingered and Half Baked. The head of the DOG sorority is played ably by Melissa Sagemiller(Soul Survivors). Sagemiller's character has a sweet earthiness to her and is not your typical bombshell made ugly by frumpy clothes and glasses.

Direction

With Sorority Boys, Wally Wolodarsky delivers a totally unspectacular movie rife with crude humor and tasteless jokes. However, I didn't find myself particularly bothered or offended by the film because it satirizes college fraternities, which, in my opinion, are chauvenistic and elitist to begin with. In the film's opening sequence, for example, the KOK president is getting ready to punish pledges with something that involves Crisco and hamsters. Crass, yes, but isn't humiliation what hazing is all about? Perhaps it is in bad taste, but I laughed when Roberta admits he is addicted to porn during an all-girl support session and I laughed even harder when it's his turn to clean the bathroom and he yanks a massive wad of hair out of the drain. ''It's like a Wookie, man!'' he exclaims, followed by a hilarious impression of Chewbacca. Sure, there are some not so funny moments (the duel with dildos is just plain dumb) and their plan to clear their names is completely implausible. But why shouldn't we appreciate a good laugh at the Greek system's expense once in a while? The film would have been frighteningly realistic had the three boys not learned a valuable lesson at the end.

Bottom Line

Sorority Boys is a dirty teen comedy that pokes fun at serious issues like roofies and date rape, but it's doubtful anyone will go see this film with a preconceived notion that it is an intelligent, thoughtful comedy. If vulgar humor is your cup of tea, you'll get some good kicks out of this movie.