Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland

A Little Out There, A Lot of Chaos, But Still Got That BMS Heart

Let's not pretend it lived up to the show - because it didn't. Rise of Thadland is what happens when you let the party run a little too long and the keg's been tapped one too many times. It's over-the-top, self-aware, and completely unhinged - which is BMS, to be fair. But the difference here? It starts to feel like a parody of itself instead of the cult classic that earned its name.

What Worked Thad Castle (Alan Ritchson) is still an unstoppable force of absurdity. He is the movie, and without him, this whole thing would collapse like a beer pong table under a linebacker.

Moments of nostalgia hit right - especially if you were ride-or-die for the show. The characters still have chemistry, and when the jokes land, they really land.

The party scenes were turned up to 1000 - wild, ridiculous, and basically a fever dream with glitter and steroids.

What Fell Flat The plot? Barely there. It's a vibe more than a story.

Too many gags pushed the envelope without a real payoff. It was chaos without the clever.

Missed that balance the show had - where the insanity still had some kind of anchor. This one drifted a bit too far off the rails.

Bottom Line

It's not terrible. It's just not Blue Mountain State at its best. Think of it like that one last round at the bar you probably didn't need - fun in the moment, but not something you'd call a classic the next day.

Still good. Still got laughs.

But the original series? That was legendary.

I never even knew this existed - though to be fair now with the Reacher tv show it does make sense to bring this back to those who missed out on this. So as you can tell I have never seen the tv show, but since this was part of a deal with the streaming service I opted to watch it. And I'm fairly certain this works well even without having seen the show. Although I guess I would have been more in the know if I had.

Whatever you think of the man or the G. O. A. T (pun intended, you know if you've seen it) - the humor is quite gross at places to say the least. Now you either stoop down to that level and get jiggy with it or you will hate this and be annoyed by it. But the actors are really good in it. They really just let themselves lose and roll with the flow. I mean acting the way they do ... just plain crazy. There are more than a few cringe worthy moments and even "hotter" moments are intercut with something completely ridiculous. So while any of the females (and a few of the males) would be able to attend a model/walkway event, this is not meant to titilate you as much. And don't expect too much in the nudity department. There is a bit - no pun intended, especially to the one male nude scene. I might even watch the tv show one day ... why not? Even if I was never in a fraternity and I don't believe this would be something I could do. It's just a movie, right? Never forget that.

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)

The premise fits a show a lot better than a movie but despite it all this still remain a fun experience which is well worth it if you're a fan of the show.

Really weird ten last minutes tho.