Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland

Blue Mountain State was a series that was absolutely hilarious, celebrating the college campus drinking culture of many US establishments of higher education, bro culture, near complete disregard of women beyond their physical attributes and despite purportedly being about a football team a single game was seen across 3 complete series. Backed up by a cast of 1 dimensional characters the TV show BMS was a hedonistic feast for male 13-20 something viewers everywhere.

The Rise of Thadland however did not capture this same magic in any respect. Although featuring that same cast of characters they seem slightly out of place in this new feature, hollow renditions of previously well loved caricatures. The plot of the film is simple enough and totally predictable in as many aspects of a traditional BMS episode. However where the TV show's plot lines were funny the film's felt as though a single BMS episode had been stretched to the 90 minute mark. Unfortunately such stretching left the film mostly mirthless and in many respects just plain sad as there weren't enough jokes to go around despite some brief moments of hilarity.

Overall I give credit to the showrunners in trying to milk what was a very entertaining golden calf. However they ended up merely flogging a dead horse.

First of all, I've seen the series about 10 times, I'm a huge fan of BMS. Therefore I was very excited about the movie.

First of all, I'm not saying that the movie is not funny. It IS funny but there are some scenes that makes me want to thank Spike TV that they didn't let all the weird ideas of Romanski & Eric Falconer appear on the TV screen (Sammy & the Goat).

My problem is, that we didn't get what we were promised in the kickstarter video. We didn't see Thad graduate and go into the NFL. We didn't see Alex graduate and "fulfill his destiny on and off the field" Radon's and Shilo's "comeback" was like the most disappointing thing in the movie Plus, they've said that they would shoot the film on the same locations, where they had the series. I understand why they had to make a new goat house, but it just doesn't feel the same.

As they've said, if the movie will be a success, the series might come back. I hope if they do a season 4, they will do a different story, or just make some twist to make this movie forgotten (maybe that it all was just Thad's dream)

.... in that it gives closure on an awesome TV show in a more entertaining than expected fashion. Fans will love it!

Granted it's not all exactly the same. Different Goathouse, not all the cast is there (but more than I expected really) and it's just not the same without Rev Theory, but other than that....

DUDE! This is what fans have been waiting for!!! Thad was only a supporting character on the show at first and like Urkel on steroids (or rabies) he immediately became the star of the show and thus the center of the movie. But really Thad is BMS! And his story is our story. Only with more sloots.

The trailer only covers like the first half hour of the movie so there is much more to see I promise. We do see what has become of the other characters... Larry for instance. Radon and even Craig Shilo make an appearance. Coach has an interesting little plot line that is pulled from the headlines. Donnie has an arc of sorts... Sammy and Mary Jo are there and I dare say even Alex gets a sort of closure. But remember... This all takes place before the start of the season so there is plenty of room to add future BMS adventures!

It's not perfect but it's better than we could've hoped for, waaaaay more graphic than Spike would allow (language, full frontal sloots) and drug use galore!!! If you get past the party scenes the story picks up a bit more and there are even a couple of their trademark film spoofs. Alan Ritchson has made a name for himself doing a variety of film roles but will always be known as Thad Castle. He's a producer on this piece and hat's off to him and the whole team who kept the dream alive and made this awesome film. Watching the behind the scenes stuff on YouTube really makes one realize how limited they were filming; I'm glad they pulled it off. Kudos.

THADLAND is a must see for any true BMS fan and gives the characters and this world the over-the-top; egotistical; insane yet cathartic send off that the show never could. God Bless America and God Bless Blue Mountain State!

The Rise of Thadland is a fantastic example of trying to make something a more extreme version of an already extreme concept. Another example of this is NPH as Barney in later seasons of HIMYA. When HIMYA found out people loved Barney, well they tried to make him more Barney-ish. It became very hard for the audience to view Barney as redeemable after this. When you make yourself a parody of yourself you risk becoming unrelatable and annoying.

BMS took characters balancing on the edge and gave them a shove with a Mack truck. It was like adding speed to an energy drink and wondering what went wrong. All of your characters became like the extreme guys from Harold and Kumar, and nobody likes those guys.

This never seemed possible, but The Rise of Thadland is an even worse comedy than The Hangover Part II. It is raunchy only for the sake of trying to be funny, it is disgusting only for the sake of attempting to create shock humor, and there just simply isn't the energy in this movie which the television show had to offer.

The premise is so straightforward and simple that it gets to be a bore right after Thadland actually becomes a thing. Moran needs to win over Thad for him to buy the goathouse so it doesn't get taken away for them. Thad's request is simple: throw an awesome party for him and he'll put up enough money to win the goathouse over in the auction. The bulk of the movie is this party Moran agrees to throw, making most of the humor in the movie drug-related. We watch people trip out on drugs for the comedy, which ends up being a bore and not funny at all. Also, it is clear which part of the movie has an extended nc-17 clip in the bonus features, and it is too disgusting to imagine how the nc-17 version would have looked and not funny at all.

Of course Alan Ritchson as Thad shines as the star of the movie, though he is not the protagonist. He delivers the same goof ball we are all fond of in the television show, but the script just didn't allow him to shine AS MUCH as he did in the television series. The best moments focus around him, but sadly there are less than a handful of these moments.

There is no way that anything released in 2016 will be as terrible as this film.

1.0/4.0