Mardi Gras: Spring Break

I usually don't like this movie genre. 3 guys going to party for a long weekend... It is a script that I have seen too many times. And boobs obsessed teenagers usually get on my nerves pretty fast. I am now 48 and I've lived a bit :)

But strangely, in this case, it works tremendously. I was attracted by the nice 8.1 rating on IMDb so I decided to give the movie a shot. I loved it! I couldn't stop laughing. The jokes were big, but efficient. Plus for the first time, I had this Animal House feeling. We are in front of a great film, not just a party film. It was intended to make you laugh and it will. I can't wait to see Josh Gad in a new movie. He might just be the next John Belushi we all are waiting for. Laughing is a very good exercise and I had the feeling I came from the gym after watching this film...

Mike Morgan (Nicholas D'Agosto) is a college guy from the northeast. His girlfriend Erica (Danneel Ackles) doesn't like his idiot friends Bump (Josh Gad) and Scottie Smith (Bret Harrison) whom he's known since high school. She's distraught after her grandfather's death. His friends convince him on a road trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They are shocked to see Erica partying and flashing her boobs. The boys run into Carmen Electra. Mike meets Lucy Mills (Arielle Kebbel) and Bump meets local Ann Marie (Regina Hall).

This type of broad college sex comedies are getting old. Josh Gad is throwing everything at this and it feels very common. Almost everything seems flat in this one. The poop joke is so common that I actually got bored. It's not shocking anymore. The only truly fun scene for me is the boys competing against the teams of girls in the wet T-shirts. It allows the three guys to play off each other better in something a little different. Too bad, it's only one scene in a whole movie of been-there and done-that sex-romp.

I've rated it a 5 out of 10 because it's average. On the whole it wasn't very entertaining but it did have it's comedic moment's. It was a bit confusing, in the sense that it didn't 'flow' well, a bit choppy. Some of the actors/actresses were good but the majority of them were very much below average, maybe with the right actors and a few alterations within the script it might have the potential to rate a 7-8/10 - we'll have to just wait and see whether a sequel is made and whether or not it is interesting enough to watch.

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Chrisie Wood-Hopps

"Mardi Gras: Spring Break" seemed to be yet another of those mass-produced teen comedies with movie covers that all look scarily similar to one another. Despite that, I decided to sit down and watch the movie.

Having seen it now, it was not as I had initially thought it to be. The movie was actually enjoyable and had a good enough storyline, though there wasn't anything new to be seen here.

There were moments in the movie where I was laughing, especially the scene in the hotel with the over-sized turd. That had me laughing so hard.

The people they had cast for the movie were actually doing quite well. Nicholas D'Agosto (playing Mike), Josh Gad (playing Bump) and Bret Harrison (playing Scottie) were having great comedy on the screen and they worked well together. It was nice to see Regina Hall (playing Ann Marie) in the movie, despite it was only for a small supporting role. Of course the name to look at in this movie was Carmen Electra (playing herself). Now, I can't say that I am a fan of her in any way, so I didn't think it was a big deal to see her in the movie. One guy that cracked me up in the movie was Charles Shaughnessy (playing Barry, the Château Clerk), he was hilarious in that role.

"Mardi Gras: Spring Break" provided good enough entertainment for an evening's worth, but I doubt that it is a movie that I will ever make a second return to watch. It was funny at moments, but the movie was not making an overly lasting impression.

If you got no other plans and want to see a comedy, "Mardi Gras: Spring Break" is well worth a watch, if you have no other movie choices at hand.

"Mardi Gras" makes the audacious choice of putting its worst scene at the beginning: you know how sex comedies have to start with a big set piece, one huge laugh that pulls you in and never lets you go? Well, "Mardi Gras" starts with an elderly couple we'll never see again remembering their first Mardi Gras, which very predictably turns into an overly explicit conversation about sex. I've seen and heard some horrid things in this subgenre, but an elderly woman literally just describing how her husband ejaculated on her breasts, without an actual joke in sight? Not how you lure me in. It's only like a thirty- second vignette, but it easily feels like thirty minutes. Who writes this and honestly thinks he's struck gold? Oh, we'll get two elderly actors and write some sex-related words on a napkin, maybe it'll be funny by accident. It won't.

I'm glad to say that's the only cringe-inducing scene in the movie, it doesn't have laugh-out-loud moments but I got through it fairly well. "Mardi Gras" is hurt though by the fact that its plot just hobbles along. It starts of with two losers who can't get a girlfriend (not saying "boobs" in every sentence could help), then they turn on the TV and it's a report on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. So uh...let's go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans! If that's all the effort you're going to do to set this up, why not just start the movie at Mardi Gras? The lack of stakes also makes it difficult to connect: Bret Harrison was a believable nerd in "Grounded For Life", but even there he got the girl fairly quickly. We're honestly supposed to buy him as a desperate, 25-year-old virgin? Would have made a lot more sense to reserve that subplot for the obese friend who's desperately trying to be Jonah Hill. The movie quickly deteriorates into a collection of barely related sketches, which are occasionally good for a chuckle but never add anything to the meager story.

There is a saving grace though: Nicholas D'Agosto and Arielle Kebbel have a very natural style in their acting, and though their story is highly predictable it didn't really bother me. They both have likable characters, which is kind of a rarity in "American Pie" rip- offs. Hell, most of them don't even have characters. They really have great chemistry, I wish the movie didn't waste that much time in Carmen Electra's (does she ever refuse a role?) hotel room or showing not Jonah Hill naked. Come on not Jonah Hill, I'm trying to have popcorn here. "Mardi Gras" isn't a great movie, but it's not a completely brainless sex comedy either.