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There was a time when the name National Lampoon’s stood for something; a well written comedy that would stand the test of time, spawn decades of followers, and in the end a guaranteed laugh.  These days however, the only thing you can count on from a National Lampoons movie is perverted mails and scantily clad women, which isn’t always a bad thing.

There was a time when the name National Lampoon’s stood for something; a well written comedy that would stand the test of time, spawn decades of followers, and in the end a guaranteed laugh.  These days however, the only thing you can count on from a National Lampoons movie is perverted mails and scantily clad women, which isn’t always a bad thing.

In Cattle Call we see three men, Deidrich Bader, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Andrew Katos take a stab at the dating scene by starting their own film company.  In doing so, they hold a fake casting call to comb through all of the applicants head shots and biographies in hoping to pick the best for their own dating purposes. As history would dictate, their plan kicks off, one falls in love, and soon hijinks ensue.

The biggest problem we face in Cattle Call is predictability.  The formula is so prevalent for this feature that they nearly forgot to remove the label.  There’s no question as to where this movie will lead and how it will play out.  This is problem is always a detractor the enjoyment of a film, but some times this can be over looked.  This time around however, the performances given by the lead’s is so lackluster and ‘phoned in’, that there’s really nothing to get interested in.  Diedrich Bader is actually fairly funny in spurts, but the outbursts are few and far between.

As for the DVD in itself, there’s little to grow excited about here either.  Transfer and sound quality all pass muster, but in these later years of the format it would be more surprising if it was below average.  And the extras?  There are none aside form a handful of National Lampoons trailers that promise to be of similar quality.  Sure, there’s really nothing about Cattle Call that would leave me to want to sit through an extra hour’s worth of content, but for a movie this lackluster, something extra would be welcomed.

National Lampoon’s Cattle Call packs a formulaic plot that you’ve both seen before, and will see again.  Performances fail to add anything interesting to the movie.  I promise you, this one will soon be found in your local bargain bin and on late night cable.  I recommend the late night cable option as it’s barely worth of the Netflix slot.

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