{2jtab: Movie Review}

Spring Breakers - Blu-ray Review

4 stars

Spring Breakers is a film about the current “Me” Generation that most members of that said grouping will fail to understand.  Why?  Because consequence and condemnation is not what their unearned sense of entitlement is all about.  Tough words, right?  Well, surrounded by an abundance of bare breasts, heathenistic behavior, some brave performances and an MTV-taught attitude, Spring Breakers echoes that harsh sentiment.

At its core, the film is a frightening display of just how immature and desensitized to any sort of moral code that many of today’s young adults are.  To them, life is a video game and they are here on Earth solely to be entertained and rewarded.  The performances echo this “in the now” me, me, me momentum and its chic vibe makes watching a montage of Disney girls doing criminal activity set to a Britney Spears song ingenious. {googleads}

Let the non-stop partying begin!  Determined not to be the only ones left at college over Spring Break, four girls - Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Faith (Selena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), and Cotty (Rachel Korine) – decide to make the journey to St. Petersburg, Florida and join the madness that television tells them is normal and acceptable behavior.  They tell each other to pretend it’s just a video game as they rob a fast food joint with hammers and a water pistol in order to fund their trip.

After catching the eye of a thug/rapper named Alien (James Franco with corn-rows), the girls enter into the “time of their lives”, complete with fleshy seduction, drugs, and more and more criminal behavior, including robbing other Spring Breakers.  All for the love of the Spring Break, you know.  Soon enough, they are caught in the middle of a turf war that will swallow them whole.

Spring Breakers - Blu-ray Review

Written and directed by Harmony Korine, Spring Breakers captures an attitude and style that, while confident, can be monotonous.  Some of the party scenes go on far too long but – to play the devil’s advocate here – to cut them would be to possibly miss the point that he’s trying to bring to the film.  While stylish, Spring Breakers isn’t a perfect film but with a strong incision of subversive commentary, the film is actually far more than the train wreck its music video styling suggests.

Get the penicillin shot ready.  This is dirty, dirty stuff.   Ironically, though, it’s Korine’s most accessible film.  Completely believable and absolutely unforgettable, Spring Breakers is an almost euphoric-like fleshy time at the movies.  It’s bound to offend…everyone.

With Spring Breakers, exploitation cinema gets serious.

{2jtab: Film Details}

Spring Breakers - Blu-ray ReviewMPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout.
Runtime: 94 mins.
Director
: Harmony Korine
Writer: Harmony Korine
Cast:
Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson
Genre
: Drama
Tagline:
Bad girls do it well
Memorable Movie Quote: "Bikinis and big booties - that's what it's all about."
Distributor:
Annapurna Pictures
Official Site: www.springbreakersmovie.com
Release Date: March 15, 2013
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
July 9, 2013

Synopsis: Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez) have been best friends since grade school. They live together in a boring college dorm and are hungry for adventure. All they have to do is save enough money for spring break to get their shot at having some real fun.

A serendipitous encounter with rapper “Alien” (James Franco) promises to provide the girls with all the thrill and excitement they could hope for. With the encouragement of their new friend, it soon becomes unclear how far the girls are willing to go to experience a spring break they will never forget.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Spring Breakers - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - January 11, 2011
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles
: English, English SDH, Spanish
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD); BD-Live; Blu-ray 3D
Region Encoding: Region A

The 1080p transfer with MPEG-4 AVC Encoding is outstanding.  Images simply do not get any crisper than this.  The picture quality is above average, with the lush color palette this film used, exploding off the screen in a vivid assault on the senses. Many scenes have a grain to them, but this was a conscious choice by the director, and not a flaw in the transfer. The disc also handles the deep blacks and night-time scenes with equal grace and clarity. There were no noticeable flaws, aliasing, or digital noise readily apparent.  The brazen pulse-pounding soundtrack is presented in a righteous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that definitely gives your system a good workout.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • The audio commentary with writer and director Harmony Korine is pretty engaging and definitely goes to the real meat of the film.  Want to learn critical commentary?  Listen to this.  A soft-spoken Korine offers a fairly subdued commentary that sheds light on the film's shooting locations, visual style, editing techniques, and how certain shots were accomplished.

Special Features:

The best part of the supplemental material is the three-part documentary.  Director Harmony Korine along with James Franco and the four female breakers offer thoughts on the film as they reflect, but not surprisingly, it’s Franco who has the most interesting things to say through it all.  Next up are the Outtakes and Deleted Scenes.  Left out for a reason, the Outtakes save the day with Franco in character goofing around.  The music of the film is dissected in Harmony’s Ear Candy and 11 featurettes that focus on the same cultural ideas the movie examines - done with Vice Magazine as part of promotion for the film – round out the collection.

  • Breaking It Down: Behind the Scenes Documentary (22 min)
  • Deleted Scene/Outtakes (9 min)
  • Harmony’s Ear Candy (7 min)
  • Vice Featurettes (42 min)
  • Theatrical Trailers (4 min)
  • TV Spots (2 min)

{2jtab: Trailer}

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