Muse Productions, O’ Salvation, Division Films,
James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane, Heather Morris, Ash Lendzion, Emma Holzer, Jeff Jarrett
Four college girls at a religious college want to experience more from life than school and church. As spring break approaches, they have no cash, but a desire to experience a wild time at the beach. They fund this adventure by robbing a fast food joint, lying to their parents, and going off on an adventure which quickly turns pretty bad, and very dangerous. Arrested and in serious trouble they meet a local guy (James Franco) who offers them assistance in return for a few requests of his own. Things spiral into a very dark place very quickly.
This movie is schizophrenic! It really never decides what it wants to be. That doesn’t mean it’s horrible, but it does confuse the people who think they’re going to like for one of several reasons, and then they don’t like it because it’s not what they expected. What I’m trying to say is that an one level, it’s a very artsy film, pretentious editing, slo-mo effects, and trying to please the Sundance crowd. Then there’s tons of pictures of teen girls in bikinis partying all night long. One might expect it to be a teen exploitation flick, which is kind of resembles, but really isn’t at all. It appeals to the kids with Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, etc., but it really bashes them to point out how stupid and shallow they are, so it doesn’t make the younger crowd happy. The young men and women in the film are totally one dimensional and have not depth to their characters at all. Then the whole latter part of the film is so weird and very dark that there’s no way to explain it. I have no idea who Alien (James Franco) really is, and what motivates him. He’s just as stupid and one dimensional as the rest of the cast. So all in all, it’s a story with a message that tries to reach out to many different groups, and really doesn’t make any of them happy. Still, it did have a decent message, and when all is said and done, I didn’t hate it for any of the reasons other reviewers did. But at the same time, I didn’t find it particularly worthy of praise either, so I end up kind of ambivalent about the whole thing, and pass it off with a shrug. Ok, so I saw it. So what? Watch it if you want, or if you’re interested, but if you’re disappointed because its not what you want it to be, don’t be surprised. You’ve been warned.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
