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...

Most certainly juvenile (and sometimes gross-out) fun, but fun nonetheless for a little mindless movie time. The fact that Arielle Kebbel is in it was a definite draw for me. She's great in pretty much everything she's ever been in.

Interesting that the front DVD cover bills Carmen Electra as the film's main attraction. She is the most recognisable name in the cast, for sure, but ultimately is only a bit player in the story of four college dudes on the very stereotypical road trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans for Spring Break. Of course, they're going there largely to get with girls. As you probably gathered.

The gross-out gags are plentiful, but, also, they are balanced by the scenes that show genuine heart. Kind of the American Pie way of doing things, tried and true.

(I liked that the film spotlighted the real Mardi Gras as well)

Mardi Gras: Spring Break (2011) is a movie I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a group of friends at Penn State that decide to venture off together one last time for Spring Break in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Fortunate for them they keep running into Carmen Electra, unfortunate for them nothing they planned for New Orleans goes as planned...

This movie is directed by Phil Dornfeld (Guilty Hearts) and stars Nicholas D'Agosto (Gotham), Josh Gad (Frozen), Regina Hall (Girls Trip), Carmen Electra (Scary Movie), Danneel Ackles (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) and Arielle Kebbel (The Grudge 2).

The storyline for this picture has an American Pie/newer National Lampoons feel to it. The comedic content actually has a few good moments and Gad is pretty funny throughout. The initial nude party invite scene, the fan/poop combo sequence and the wet t-shirt contest were pretty good...but the float ending was super cheesy and painful to watch unfold.

Overall this does have a few scenes that will give you a chuckle but not enough to make it worth watching. I would score this a 3.5/10 and recommend skipping it.

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.

--------------------

Chrisie Wood-Hopps

"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.