Bluray Review: Spring Breakdown

Warner Premiere Falls Short with Unfunny Fish Out of Water Comedy

Jun 18, 2009

Though the cast sounds promising seeing how many of them are current or former Saturday Night Live cast, Spring Breakdown lives up to its title, the wrong way. 3/10

Directed by little known SNL writer Ryan Shiraki, and written by second string SNLer Rachel Dratch, Spring Breakdown is a direct to DVD (or in this case, Bluray) project, which likely had been brilliantly planned, but which went down the tube. The end result is nothing more than a series of unfunny one-liners, played by talented people who probably just though they'd help out a fellow cast mate in their latest film idea.

A trio of older, lifelong girlfriends, Gayle (Amy Poehler, Baby Mama), Becky (Parker Posey, Superman Returns) and Judi (Rachel Dratch, writer of this film), have never grown out of their geeky existence, sending their many social occasions together, often crying over how they never realized any of their goals and aspirations.

Never the popular girls at school, these girls have always been used to standing out in a crowd (not in a good way), but missed the boat altogether. When an ambitious senator (Jane Lynch, The Rocker, The 40-Year Old Virgin) asks the trio to act as pseudo chaperones to her daughter Ashley (Amber Tamblyn, The Grudge 2), so to prevent any embarrassment to the senator, who is a potential frontrunner in replacing the disgraced sitting Vice-President of the United States.

And so, these thirtysomethings head of to the beach with Ashley and attempt to socially meld with the hip younger crowd, the generation gap becomes more and more apparent, and our trio of heroines is forced to come to terms with what made them special in the first place, while surviving this party environment.

The idea behind this film is noble --- a fish out of water story --- and the concept was sound: gather as many willing established name actors (and fellow friends with some moderate box office pull), and fill up the cast roster, for a zany comedy laced with stabs at today's pop culture (a scene with Amy Poehler sitting with about a half dozen Paris Hilton clones comes to mind), and some instances remindful of Animal House type keggers.

The result should be a memorable comedy, filled with witty-one liners fans would recite for years to come.

How lofty a goal this has been. Spring Breakdown either missed every checkpoint for this plan, or misplaced their guide map altogether. So much more could have been expected from Poehler and Posey, who have managed well on their own in various comedies; sadly, not even their best efforts can steer this sinking ship back on track, and the weak, scotch-taped script by Dratch and Shiraki is no help.

Even the supporting cast seems ill at ease, though all are either related to the team behind this project, or good friends willing to lend a hand. Will Arnett (fellow SNL alum and Poehler's husband), Jack McBrayer (the silly happy NBC Studio page from 30 Rock), and Seth Meyers (SNL) all join in, in vain.

Jane Lynch, playing Senator Hartmann, could have lifted this sad excuse for a film to a higher level. Alas, one gets the feeling she owed a few people some returned favors, in accepting to participate in this project. Mind you, her earlier supporting role in The Rocker didn't help there either.

As for writer-actress Rachel Dratch, one almost feels sorry for her. Despite her original story idea and willingness to try, her on-screen presence is grating at best, and makes viewers wish she'd go back to her cameos-of-the-week on 30 Rock.

None to speak of, however take note that it comes with a Digital Copy (though why anyone would want to watch this twice is beyond comprehension), and though the film isn't very good, it does look good in the Bluray format, however the sound quality isn't top shelf.

It must be understood that the Warner Premiere label was designed as a means for the movie house to release some direct-to-video projects, such as this one. The WB has had some limited success with this, with Lost Boys The Tribe and the animated DC Comics flicks as possible exceptions.

This film should only be considered by hardcore fans of Poehler and/or Dratch, but just because you liked them in SNL skits, doesn't mean their comedic talents will carry over well to this poor attempt at zany comedy.

3 out of 10 for a messy, unfunny, direct-to-video mish mash of comic actors barely trying to do a script justice.

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