The worst kind of movie sequel promotes a supporting character to take over the lead role and takes longer than a couple of years to arrive in theatres. Like "The Return of Josey Wales," "Iron Eagle 2," "Smoky and the Bandit 3," and "Jaws 3 & 4," the latest superficial sequel to show up, "Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj," substitutes a supporting character for the title protagonist and appears four years later. As far as gross-out comedies go, "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" (2002) was no masterpiece, but the Ryan Reynolds' original qualified as far funnier that its tardy and tedious sequel could ever imagine. Everything that made Kal Penn of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" so memorable in the first "Van Wilder" has been sacrificed and Penn cannot rival Reynolds' comic timing. Not only does it lack Reynolds' charismatic poise, but also the uninspired plot rehashes hackneyed higher education humor that "Animal House," "Revenge of the Nerds," "Old School," and "Porky's" have already worn out. Like its predecessor, "Van Wilder 2" does feature a collegiate setting, several bare-breasted babes, binge drinking aplenty, risqué sexual epithets, with a scatological skit or two, but nothing like the crude shenanigans in the first movie. The two biggest jokes in "Van Wilder" consisted of the seamstress sight gag at the beginning and then the very vulgar prank where a rival fraternity gobble pastries spiked with the seminal fluids of a well-endowed bulldog. The lack of anything remotely funny is compounded by the lack of originality in "Van Wilder 2." Look for this lackluster movie to crowd the video shelves in no time.<br /><br />Baby-faced comic Ryan Reynolds channeled Chevy Chase in "Van Wilder," but the eponymous hero graduated from Coolidge College after seven year of lolly gagging. As Van Wilder's Indian protégé Taj Mahal Badalandabad, Kal Penn has not only stepped into his mentor's shoes but also he has stepped into something infinitely worse--a movie of unmitigated mediocrity. Nobody quite knows how to pronounce Taj's family name in "Van Wilder 2" and the joke generates fewer laughs with each instance. Freshman scenarist David Drew Gallagher, who has acted in a number of television shows and should forsake the pen, has forged far fewer offensive gags than his rowdy predecessors in his cookie-cutter screenplay. When "Van Wilder 2" opens, Taj has graduated from Coolidge College and has transferred to merry ole England. Our hero sets out to get his Master's Degree at a stodgy Cambridge-like university called Camford and follow in his father's footsteps as a lothario. Taj learns quickly that the natives are none too receptive to his desire to join their ranks in the elite Fox and Hounds' fraternity. Pipp Everett, the Earl of Grey (David Percival of the TV series "Sinchronicity"), the stuck-up man-in-charge of the Fox and Hounds, informs poor Taj that he has been rejected on a technicality. Searching for somewhere else to fit in, Taj takes the job of advising a minor fraternity made up entirely of misfits: Seamus (Glen Barry), a fiery Irish rugby player; Sadie (Holly Davidson) a tough female boozer; Simon (Anthony Cozen) a bean-pole genius, and Gethin (Steve Rathman) a well-endowed but shy guy. Taj names the new fraternity the Cock and Bulls. Actually, this is about as daring as "Van Wilder 2" gets.<br /><br />In a dastardly attempt to put upstart Taj and his new friends in their ignoble places, Pipp challenges our heroes to a high stakes university competition for the prestigious Camford Cup, an annual academic, social, and athletic contest between fraternities. Nothing inventive in the way of amusing sight gags or grandiose gross-out jokes emerges from this stale, substandard sequel. Director Mort Nathan, who helmed the laborious Cuba Gooding, Jr. comedy "Boat Trip," makes the least of every comic opportunity in this prudish 95 minute potboiler. Indeed, Nathan and Gallagher revert to the general plot of the original without breaking new ground. When the snooty villains realize that they're going to lose the cup that the Fox and Hound fraternity has never forfeited, they plant incriminating evidence in the Cock and Bull's frat house. Consequently, dotty Camford Dean (veteran British TV actor Roger Hammond) has no choice but to expel Taj and his pals. Taj admits that he stole the test materials so that his pals can continue to compete in the tournament. Predictably, "Van Wilder 2" allows our oddball heroes to triumph over the Fox and Hounds without developing any suspense. Aside from Taj, the only character left over from the original "Van Wilder" was Van Wilder's pet bulldog.<br /><br />Mind you, National Lampoon usually scrapes the bottom of a barrel of monkeys for its college comedies, and "Van Wilder 2" proves no exception. Unlike the witty original, "Van Wilder 2" boasts no cameos from previous National Lampoon movie cast members. Kal Penn should have been working on a Harold and Kumar sequel rather than this infantile idiocy. "Van Wilder 2" ranks as a forgettable follow-up to the original with a modicum of witty lines.