Blue Mountain State – Season
One (2010/Lionsgate Blu-ray) + You Might As Well Live (2008/E1 DVD)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D/C- Episodes/Feature: D/C-
How much
bad comedy can you take? Well, it is now
coming at us in both formats and two recent bad examples are as bad as it
gets. First is the condescending,
self-amused, bad, loves-being-gross college football comedy Blue Mountain State – Season One. Currently on the often silly SPIKE TV
network, the single-entendre comedy (sex and anything gross connected is
supposed to be funny) probably wishes it could pick up where the better
National Lampoon feature comedies (when Carter was president!) arrived, but the
13 remarkably lame half-hourish shows here are pointless.
Nothing
is funny, memorable or works, yet this is onto a second season and I can’t
imagine it getting better or how it could get worse. Extras include Locker Room Rewind (don’t ask), Outtakes/Deleted Scenes that
further prove just how bankrupt of humor or original ideas this show is and Making The Squad: The Cheerleaders Of BMS,
which is mostly just a bunch of “BS” despite some good looking women. It will all make you miss the USFL!
Then
there is Simon Ennis’ You Might As Well
Live (2008) about a highly dysfunctional man (Josh Peace) who has to leave
a mental ward for being too happy (!?!) and is being “visited”: by his baseball
hero idol (Michael Madsen, highly wasted here) on what to do with his life
next. WOW is this bad, an insult to
anyone with mental health issues and with zero laughs. Of course, if this were taken seriously, a
smart comedy could have been made, but the idea is to instead make an
incredibly stupid piece that says it is good to be stupid. The title is about whether one should commit
suicide. This could send many viewers
over the edge with its mixed messages.
It won a Slamdance award, which makes one question that whole
event. Extras include so-called Deleted
Scenes and a feature length audio commentary by Ennis and Peace too inane to be
believed.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on State
is a little better throughout for an HD production than expected, but still has
motion blur at times and dull color throughout.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix is surprisingly weak for a
new show, with way too much of the audio coming only from the center channel
and is bad overall. They should have
just had 2.0 Stereo. The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 on Live is also
quite weak and has much more motion blur with even less definition than
expected, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix also stretches out some lame stereo
audio that has its share of flaws.
- Nicholas Sheffo
