Blu-Ray Review: Talented Comedy Stars Rescue ‘Spring Breakdown’

CHICAGO – When Tina Fey made the jump from “Saturday Night Live” to “30 Rock,” she was planning on taking her talented co-star and friend Rachel Dratch to the award-winning show. Before the season began, Dratch was replaced by Jane Krakowski and the rest is history. But there was a promising comedy with a great cast on Dratch’s resume that all of us thought would bring her back to the spotlight called “Spring Breakdown”. Now that comedy is being quietly released straight-to-DVD/Blu-Ray. There’s no justice in the comedy world.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

It’s not that “Spring Breakdown” is a comedy masterpiece that necessarily deserved a wide audience, but while watching it I was struck by the disparity between the sexes. Male-driven junk about horny boys looking for sex like “Fired Up,” “Sex Drive,” or “Miss March” automatically gets a theatrical release, but if a female-driven film isn’t seen as a typical “chick flick,” it’s tossed into the bargain bin.

Spring Breakdown was released on Blu-Ray on June 2nd, 2009.
Photo credit: WB

The double standard seems especially unfair given the pedigree of the talent on display in “Spring Breakdown”. Dratch, Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, Jane Lynch, Amber Tamblyn, and Missi Pyle are funny, funny women. The lackluster final act and some odd pacing problems and weak production values from director Ryan Shiraki sink the film in the end, but it’s better than half the junk in theaters and deserved a better fate.

Spring Breakdown was released on Blu-Ray on June 2nd, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Dratch plays Judi, best friend to Gayle (Poehler) and Becky (Posey). All three girls are what you would politely call geeks. They sit around playing silly games and looking forward to “make your own pizza night”. They are socially awkward at best. Judi’s fiancee (Seth Meyers) is clearly gay, Gayle gets turned down by a blind guy (Will Arnett), and Becky works for a monstrous politician (Lynch).

When the politician’s daughter (Tamblyn) decides to head to South Padre Island for spring break, her mom tasks Becky with keeping an eye on her. Gayle and Judi come out of their shell - the best bit is one in which Judi thinks she drunkenly slept with a studly guy even though she just got into the wrong bed after a few too many shots - but Becky still struggles with social acceptance. The whole affair ends with an oddly conceived talent show (because spring break parties always have talent shows) where the girls get one more stab at social glory.

“Spring Breakdown” has plenty of jokes that fall flat and the whole thing looks a bit too much like a TV movie, but each of the talented lead actresses and most of the supporting ones find at least a few moments that connect with the funny bone. It’s worth a rental, especially for fans of the cast, and almost certainly would have made back its meager budget in theaters. Like the awkward girl who can’t even get laid at spring break, life isn’t always fair.

“Spring Breakdown” is a Warner Brothers Blu-Ray release, so it naturally looks and sounds good in HD. There’s nothing overly remarkable about the video and audio but they also aren’t deeply flawed enough to mention. It’s a standard Blu-Ray transfer.

The special features are pretty standard as well with a commentary by Shiraki and Dratch, additional scenes, and a gag reel.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com