Movie Review : ‘PCU’ an Attempt to Skewer Campus Political Correctness

“PCU” stands for both Port Chester University and Politically Correct University. Actually, the spoofing of campus politics is haphazard and directed mainly at humorless feminists. The whole point of this anemic venture is to get down and party, but it comes across as a pale passe carbon of “Animal House” that’s not half as much fun.

Chris Young stars as a preppy who’s come to PCU for the weekend to see if he wants to enroll there in the fall. He’s assigned to a good-natured sharpie (Jeremy Piven), who’s the key guy in the Pit, a residence hall that’s supposed to be the last bastion of independent thought on campus, waging a war on PC. This translates mainly into the students asserting their right to engage in nonstop hell-raising.

Written by Adam Leff and Zak Penn and directed by Hart Bochner, “PCU” is terrifically tedious, its people and their lives remaining relentlessly uninvolving. You’re better off with the real thing, the amusing and involving “Frosh: Nine Months in a College,” which reveals what it’s actually like to be in college in the ‘90s.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for language, drug content and some sensuality. Times guidelines: It includes scenes of debauchery and foul language. ‘PCU’

Chris Young: Tom Lawrence

Jeremy Piven: Droz

David Spade: Rand McPherson

Jessica Walter: President Garcia-Thompson

A 20th Century Fox presentation. Director Hart Bochner. Producer Paul Schiff. Screenplay by Adam Leff & Zak Penn. Cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos. Editor Nicholas C. Smith. Costumes Mary Zophres. Music Steve Vai. Production designer Steven Jordan. Art director David M. Davis. Set decorator Enrico Campana. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.