Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland

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.

The Rise of Thadland is a fantastic example of trying to make something a more extreme version of an already extreme concept. Another example of this is NPH as Barney in later seasons of HIMYA. When HIMYA found out people loved Barney, well they tried to make him more Barney-ish. It became very hard for the audience to view Barney as redeemable after this. When you make yourself a parody of yourself you risk becoming unrelatable and annoying.

BMS took characters balancing on the edge and gave them a shove with a Mack truck. It was like adding speed to an energy drink and wondering what went wrong. All of your characters became like the extreme guys from Harold and Kumar, and nobody likes those guys.

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.

If you're a fan of the BMS series, then you will without a doubt have a blast watching Rise to Thadland. I felt a bit skeptical at first that the film will fall short from it's original feel, but boy was I wrong! I felt ecstatic to see the producers still keeping the original uncensored comedic feel that we all know and love from the series! In addition I was glad to see most of the side characters (Donny, Harmon, Larry, etc) getting a respectable amount of well deserved screen time. We were also introduced to several new characters which made for a refreshing experience.

I am truly grateful that the cast came back to create this film. This movie is perfect to watch if you're in college! Overall, Rise to Thadland far exceeded my expectations for a comedy, and as much as I would love for them to continue the series...there is no better ending to the BMS franchise than this film. Thank you.