| 16th | Top Warner Bros. films: 2008 |
| Spring Breakdown | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Ryan Shiraki |
| Produced by | Rick Berg Larry Kennar |
| Written by | Ryan Shiraki (screenplay) Ryan Shiraki & Rachel Dratch (story) |
| Starring | Parker Posey Amy Poehler Rachel Dratch |
| Music by | Deborah Lurie |
| Cinematography | Frank G. DeMarco |
| Editing by | Tom Lewis |
| Distributed by | Warner Premiere[1] |
| Release date(s) | January 16, 2009 (Sundance) June 2, 2009 (DVD) |
| Running time | 84 minutes[2] |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12.3 million[citation needed] |
Spring Breakdown is a comedy film starring Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch, a film that's been characterized as "Where the Boys Are meets Revenge of the Nerds."[1] Three years after principal photography, and after the film's owner, Warner Independent Pictures, was shut down by its parent company, it was released direct-to-video in 2009.
Contents |
Bruce Vilanch, Christopher Knight, and Alani 'La La' Vazquez play themselves as celebrity judges.
Cast members Amy Poehler, Jane Lynch, Mae Whitman, and Will Arnett also appeared on Arrested Development; Poehler and Arnett are married.
| “ | Ryan is [screwball comedy director] George Cukor. Coming to Sundance is a victory lap for Spring Breakdown, and he has great things ahead of him. | ” |
|
—Actress and co-star Jane Lynch[1] |
||
Spring Breakdown was filmed in 2006 and was initially created by Rogue Pictures as an "R-rated spring-break farce"; it was then sold to Warner Independent Pictures as a PG-13 film and underwent a long post-production period.[1]
The score to Spring Breakdown was composed by Deborah Lurie who recorded her score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers.[3]
In April 2008, co-star Missi Pyle believed the box-office performance of Baby Mama would determine whether Warner Bros. released this film theatrically.[4]
The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009 as part of Park City at Midnight before going direct-to-video.
Sundance called Spring Breakdown an "outlandish, quick-witted romp that jubilantly leaves none immune to ridicule" and a film that "chews up our geeky gals and spits them out triumphant powerhouses—confident that being who they truly are is way cooler than fitting in." Variety magazine called the film "energetic but uninspired" with a "party-boatload of comedic talent [that] is fairly wasted" and notes:[5]
There are funny lines scattered about, and the pacey pic has an aptly cheesy look dominated by the neon hues of tropical drinks and thong wear. But the situations offer no real satiric finesse on familiar genre tropes — wet T-shirt contest, drunken puke-outs, a climactic talent show triumph — and the rote girl-power message rings unironically hollow.
Ray Greene of Boxoffice magazine, after seeing the film at Sundance, gave the film "
" (no stars), saying "The annual Sundance “What the f---” moment has arrived in the form of Spring Breakdown, a very bad genre exercise starring some very good comedic actresses."[6]
As of February 2010, 1459 IMDb users gave the film a weighted average vote of 4.9 / 10, with female users across all age demographics rating it higher than the website's mostly male users.[7]
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Search
