Dead Man on Campus

Kamikaze frat boy Cliff (Lochlyn Munro) likes to dangle by one hand from his third-floor windowsill and lead cops on high-speed chases. His idea of etiquette is to set a coed's hair on fire.

He's not your idea of a great college roommate. But scholarship student Josh (Tom Everett Scott) and rich boy Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) hope he'll share their dorm suite. And, preferably, kill himself in one of his misadventures. For them, it would mean a reprieve from certain expulsion. That's because an odd clause at their college gives students an automatic 4.0 average if their roommate offs himself.

That's the pleasantly sick premise behind "Dead Man on Campus." It's angling to be a hybrid of "Heathers" and "National Lampoon's Animal House" for the '90s. But it lacks the genuine satiric darkness of the former and the exuberant yuks of the latter. What it does have is attractive packaging, some energetic performances and a sharp eye for contemporary college types.

Cliff is a timeless portrait of good ol' boy gone rotten, and Munro manages to steal every scene he's in with his wacked-out enthusiasm for the bad life. Among the other students whom Josh and Coop audition as potential suicides are a gloomy British death rocker (Corey Page) and a computer nerd (Randy Pearlstein).

Unfortunately, the two lead characters aren't as interesting as these guys. That's not the fault of the actors. Scott does well as a decent Joe lured away from his books into long nights of beer, bongs and chasing a blond dish (Poppy Montgomery). And Gosselaar brings zip to his role of Josh's corrupter, a post-prep student so cheerfully irresponsible that he doesn't even realize you're supposed to keep your voice down in a library.

But the guys are ciphers, there only to serve the high-concept premise. And since we suspect that the premise will wimp out on any real follow-through, there's no one to care for, nothing to worry about.

With its air of slick cynicism, "Dead Man" might remind some people of "Risky Business." But there's a difference. "Risky Business" glorified a moral bankruptcy that reflected the junk-bond '80s unfolding outside theaters. The smirking (but safe) nihilism at the heart of this new film is more about sound bites, marketing and demographics.

Did I mention that MTV Films is one of its co-producers?

"Dead Man on Campus" is rated R for drug use, language and crude sexual humor.