Spring Breakdown (2009)

Includes Digital Copy Blu-ray

Gayle (Amy Poehler), Becky (Parker Posey) and Judi (Rachel Dratch) are three women who have gone through life happy, but they've never fit in. They don't have perfect faces, perfect bodies or any of the other things that the perfect people in life seem to have. So when Becky is given the job of chaperoning Ashley (Amber Tamblyn), her bosses daughter, to South Padre Island for Spring Break, she convinces Gayle and Judi to come along because she sees this as way to be cool like they always wanted to be. Along the way they realize that acceptance into clubs and cliques isn't everything that it's cracked up to be, and maybe being different and original isn't such a bad thing after all.

Commentary Track
Director Ryan Shiraki and Rachel Dratch do the commentary duties here. They discuss putting this film together, capturing comedy on the fly and what it was like working with a cast of such funny people. Predictably, the comedy on this commentary track feels a bit stilted. I say that because funny people are never more unfunny when they are put on the spot like they are here. This audio track isn't bad it just seems like Shiraki and Dratch don't know what to do with themselves, and that seems to be the biggest comedic crime of all.

Additional Scenes

Gag Reel
As you can imagine a movie like this has its fair share of gags. When you put Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, Will Arnett, Rachel Dratch and others together for a film like this, you would be hard pressed to find moments that might not be able to make the gag reel. In fact, I am willing to bet that they creators of this DVD could've probably cut together a whole other movie based on these excised scenes.

Aside from the overt, well worn idea that this movie postulates: loving yourself for who you are, Spring Breakdown was actually an entertaining movie. It is rich with solid comedy and I never felt like any of the actresses were simply going off the idea that they are funny so that automatically makes them funny. With talent like Poehler, Posey and Dratch we aren't getting the comic stylings of say Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon. These comediennes are working at a different level and thus the comedy they do is different. It's much quicker, cerebral and ultimately more entertaining than a lot of today's better known funny women.

While not the greatest film I have ever seen Spring Breakdown deserves a watch.