Well, according to “Van Wilder II: The Rise of Taj,” you don’t need to have the film’s namesake in it.

I assume in Hollywood that when a company makes a film and the title of the film comes from the main character, said character is expected to make an appearance somewhere in the film.

Like how “Rocky II” actually features Rocky in it and in “Predator 2” there is a predator hunting humans in it. Well, according to “Van Wilder II: The Rise of Taj,” you don’t need to have the film’s namesake in it. The film will not suffer at all from the lack of Ryan Reynolds’ presence.

All you need for evidence of Van Wilder’s existence is a golf cart with a note from Wilder, basically stating, “you’re the man now, dawg.”

Although this “Van Wilder II” sucks more than a vacuum used in the Oreck infomercial, I will say that the film does have one or two redeeming qualities.

First, Reynolds had the foresight to see that this film is bad and stayed away from it. And two, Tek from "The Real World" didn’t make a repeat appearance in it. Also, it looks like you can only catch him in some “Real World and Road Rules stars who can’t find jobs" battle show.

The “Van Wilder II” plot is as follows: Taj, the horny assistant to Wilder in the first film, is at a new college and leads a group of misfits in their efforts to become the kings and queens of the campus — quite original, right?

No, this film is different from all those other movies with the same plot line. “Van Wilder II” takes place at made-up Coolidge University in Britain. It’s new and funny ’cause everyone has some kind of funny, not-American sounding dialect.

How’s the acting, you ask? Well, let’s just say that there are no stand-out performances, everyone is about at the same level.

Kal Penn’s acting as Taj Mahal Badalandabad makes a viewer think that he didn’t even want to be in this film, but was forced to due to a stipulation in his original contract.

But wait — this is a National Lampoon movie. They have made the college classic “Animal House.” And the Original Van Wilder wasn’t that bad. How can it not be funny at all?

Well, this is the 70 trillionth film this year to have a scene in which there is a paint ball fight with men getting shot in the groin. Let’s hope that this paint-ball-in-the-groin trend ends with the new year.

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