The laughter came in the end

Now on its second week and enjoying moderate success is the comedy film Van Wilder. It is about an undergrad student (Van Wilder – played by Ryan Reynolds) who has no direction in life and has been staying in college for the last seven years. (I met a lot of that when I was in the university.)

Van Wilder, however, is popular on campus – having transformed a lot of school nerds into heartthrobs. Unfortunately, his having overstayed in college doesn’t sit well with his rich father (Tim Matheson), who abruptly stops sending money for Van Wilder’s schooling. It is at this point that he makes good use of his being a party animal. He raises money for his schooling by being a party liaison.

The rest of the story is about how he falls in love with a campus journalist (Tara Reid) – to the chagrin of her boyfriend who devises an evil scheme to get Van Wilder expelled from school, which of course, doesn’t happen because this is a comedy and not a drama.

It’s obvious that this film underwent vigorous trimming when it was submitted to the MTRCB for classification. A lot of scenes were deleted and even most of the dialogues "jump" – to the consternation of the viewer who, at certain points of the film, will have to engage himself in a guessing game to determine what really happened in some parts of the story. (My bet is that the local distributor batted for a PG-13 rating to get in more people to the theater – never mind if this meant the excision of a lot of scenes not suitable for audiences below 18.)

But even if this film were shown without cuts, there would probably just be a slight difference in terms of quality. To begin with, the flow of the story is hopelessly predictable. The humor is flat and the viewer doesn’t laugh until the end – and this is about some toilet joke, which, in fairness, although sick, comes out really funny.

And in keeping with the obligatory "semen joke" that seems to be in every other foreign comedy today, Van Wilder has its own share of that, too. Except that here, it’s dog semen that they use. Good heavens, what will they think of next?

Paging Luke Mejares

Luke Mejares’ sad story about how he was turned away by the man he believes to be his father has surely tugged a lot of heartstrings. The other day, I got this e-mail sent all the way from Philadelphia – from reader Vic Julius Veluz who says that he is a casual friend of Ricky Lo, but is quite close to Alfie Lorenzo, Bong de Leon and GMA-7 set designer Bing Santos. Below is Veluz’s message to Luke:

I live in Philadelphia, a short drive away from Maryland and Washington D.C. I was touched by Luke’s situation and if I could help him, please let him know. I work in a non-profit organization providing health, social and human services to all minorities in the city of Philadelphia. You may want to give Luke and his girlfriend my phone numbers: 610-7894833 (home) or 215-3861298 (work).

I would like to assist him because I know that he needs a lot of support from his friends and kababayans. I am not sure if he has relatives in Maryland. In my case, I have no relatives here either and I’ve been living here for the past 19 years, which is why I know how Luke must be feeling.

You may not trust me. But my objective is honest and sincere. I have no personal motives. I just want to help someone like Luke, a kababayan rejected by his Dad. Maybe I can invite him and his girlfriend to my home, prepare Filipino dinner for them and share some laughter with them to ease their loneliness and pain.

As of press time, I haven’t checked if Luke Mejares is still in the East Coast. I know for a fact that from Maryland, he is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles to visit Universal Studios and Disneyland. I just don’t know when he plans to leave for the West Coast.

I am confident, however, that this message will reach Luke because he is always in touch with now Connecticut resident Bessie Badilla, who reads The Philippine Star every day through the magic of the Internet. (As an aside, Bessie sent me this text message this morning: I watched the preview of The Flower Drum Song with Lea Salonga as Mei-Li. Standing ovation. Nakaka-proud.)

To Mr. Veluz, thank you for being so kind and so willing to be of help and service to a fellow Filipino like Luke Mejares. Being in the US and not knowing anybody there can be quite difficult. I know the feeling because I’ve been through that situation myself many times over. But through the kindness and generosity of the Filipinos there (with Vic Julius Veluz as a fine example), I managed to survive the toughest of times in my life. I can only hope Luke also benefits from this brand of hospitality which us Pinoys seem to carry with us anywhere we go.